Paige Cognetti yesterday unveiled her anti-corruption agenda to clean up Washington as she runs to unseat stock trading Congressman Rob Bresnahan.
Standing with supporters at the United Association Local Union 524 building, Cognetti highlighted her record of taking on the political machine and called out Congressman Bresnahan for using his office to serve himself while Northeastern Pennsylvanians face rising prices because of his votes.
Read highlights from the coverage for yourself:
- Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti announced Thursday an ambitious eight-point “anti-corruption policy agenda” she’d push to enact in Congress if she unseats Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan in November.
- Cognetti, the Democratic candidate for the 8th Congressional District seat Bresnahan narrowly won in 2024, again accused her GOP opponent of corruption involving stock trading while in Congress and of using his position to line his own pockets.
- The stock-trading controversy has dogged Bresnahan, who campaigned on and supports banning congressional stock trading, since an April 2025 New York Times report identified him as “one of the most active stock traders in the freshman class.”
- Cognetti, portraying her political career here as an anti-corruption crusade, announced the eight planks of her proposed policy agenda at the United Association Local Union 524 building on East Corey Street in Scranton. Several dozen supporters and volunteers joined her there.
- The plan, which would include a stock trade ban and term limits, marks the latest effort by the Scranton mayor to turn corruption into a leading issue as she seeks to unseat first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan in the Nov. 3 election.
- Speaking at a South Scranton union hall, Cognetti said the nation is ready for their adoption.
- “I think that we can push through some of these things in a new Congress, because America is so sick and tired of this,” Cognetti said. “In this Congress that has just really abdicated their responsibilities in so many ways and made money for themselves on it, I think this is a moment where the American people are so sick of it that these types of reforms really can go through.”
- “ What we saw in Rob Bresnahan when he came to office is another example in northeastern Pennsylvania of someone getting a job as a public official and using it to line their own pockets,” Cognetti told supporters at the United Association Local 524 union hall in on Thursday.
- Cognetti cut her teeth by taking on Scranton’s political machine, earning the moniker “Paige Against the Machine.” She ran for mayor as an independent in 2019 and replaced previous mayor Bill Courtright, who resigned and was sentenced to 7 years in federal prison for bribery and extortion.
- “ This is not a new scenario. We have seen this far too many times in this region, generation after generation, different iterations, different ways that people have decided to line their pockets,” she said.
- While campaigning for the US House in 2024, Bresnahan penned an op-ed promising to ban stock trading and calling the practice “sickening,” but since taking office last year, the freshman lawmaker has become one of the most prolific stock traders in Congress making nearly 650 trades valued at over $8.43 million.
- When getting ready to vote for President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid, Bresnahan sold between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of bonds from the Allegheny County Hospital Development Authority for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
- NBC News then reported that Bresnahan sold up to $130,000 in Medicaid-related stocks from Centene, Elevance Health, United Health, and CVS Health in May.
- According to Cognetti, Bresnahan’s stock trading record is having a groundswell across the northeastern Pennsylvania district.
- “ There are folks that I hear from that I’ve never met, even in Scranton, but certainly throughout the district, that are interested in helping our campaign because they see in Bresnahan exactly what they have grown over generations to loathe,” Cognetti said.
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