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Candidates › PA-08 race › 2025–2026
Paige Cognetti
D Democratic nominee for U.S. House, PA-08
Has not served in Congress
- On the ballot
- Won the general electionNov 3, 2026 · 151,418 votes (52.7%)
- Where to vote
- Find your polling place (opens in a new tab) · More ways to vote
- Top priorities
- Anti-Corruption Agenda
- Government should work as hard as the people it serves
- Fight for families so they can get ahead
- NEPA Builds, Build it here
- Stand up to data center developers trying to take advantage of our community.
- Money
- $7.5M raised, $7.3M spent, $243.7K cash on hand (through Oct 14, 2026). Where it comes from
- Who gives
- 18% of individual money from donors at $200 or less · 23% from Pennsylvania · largest committee giver JSTREETPAC, $12.1K
- Outside groups
- $1M supporting, $3.6M opposing Cognetti
- Backed by
- Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals · Pennsylvania State Education Association · SMART Union and 17 more. As the campaign lists them
- Polling
- 50.5% in the latest poll (The New York Times/Siena University). The polls
5 priorities from paigeforpa.com, in the order they are listed there. Every heading and the text under it is copied exactly, as one passage for each page it is from, and links to that place on the page; hover a source to see which passage it opens.
Paige Cognetti is a reformer who’s proven she will challenge the system, root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and deliver results for the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania. This policy agenda is just step one.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
Corrupt politicians in both parties have been taking advantage of their constituents’ trust for too long and Congressman Rob Bresnahan is only the newest offender. Members of Congress consistently trade stocks in companies that directly intersect with their work on congressional committees. They sit in classified briefings, hear economic forecasts before the public does, and vote on legislation that can make or break entire industries. This is the definition of public corruption. I don’t own any individual stocks, and if elected, I won’t buy or trade them, period. I will fight to pass a ban on members of Congress trading stocks so that the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Americans everywhere don’t have to wonder if their representative is working to serve their community, or to enrich themselves.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
Big corporations have too much influence on our politics. They buy our elected leaders, shape our policy, and use our federal government as a tool to protect their interests and push the priorities of working families to the sidelines. Congressman Bresnahan, has taken over $267,000 from these corporate PACs. As a candidate for Congress, I don’t take a dime from corporate PACs. As a member of Congress, I will propose legislation to ban corporate PAC donations to federal campaigns. The meetings our Representatives take and the priorities they fight for should be dictated by what is best for their districts, not a corporate lobbyist coming with a check.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
Just last year, we had the longest government shutdown in history, lasting 43 days. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without paychecks and veterans’ services were delayed. Yet through it all, Congress members continued to collect their salaries without interruption. No ordinary American gets paid when they fail to do their job, and neither should Congress. I will fight to pass a No Budget, No Pay bill to withhold members’ pay until a budget is passed, ensuring that members of Congress feel the consequences of their failures like everyone else does. Northeastern Pennsylvanians work hard and punch the clock to earn their paychecks. Washington shouldn’t be any different.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
Our elected officials are supposed to work for the people they were elected to serve. But too many Washington politicians have forgotten who they work for. There are members of Congress who have gotten too comfortable and have stayed too long. I will fight to pass a constitutional amendment establishing term limits: 18 years for members of the House of Representatives, 18 years for Senators. We should also apply the 18 year standard to Supreme Court justices so that the structure no longer incentivizes Justices to serve well past their ability to do so and the Court ceases to become a place of constant gamesmanship.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
The federal government spends trillions of our tax dollars every year. The American people are owed a full accounting of every dollar spent in their name. It’s the bare minimum needed to restore trust in our federal government. In Congress, I will fight for a comprehensive, mandatory, independent audit of every federal agency. In Scranton, we made tough decisions with a red pen to turn our city’s finances around. We balanced the budget for the first time in decades and brought our city back from junk bond status to A- credit rating. We need more fiscal responsibility in Washington, and I’ll bring my red pen with me to Congress. A person that can’t account for their spending gets their credit card cut off. Congress should face the same consequences. The federal government audits agencies year after year, but there aren’t meaningful enforcement mechanisms to address findings. I will fight to make sure agencies that fail their audits are legally required to address every finding before Congress approves their next budget.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
Under current law, former members of Congress must wait just one year before lobbying their former colleagues; Senators must wait two. After that, there are virtually no restrictions. Corporations pay a premium for former members of Congress precisely because of their access to and relationships with their former colleagues. After being elected to serve their constituents, these members cash in, further stacking the deck against regular Americans in corporations’ favor. Enough is enough. I will push to permanently ban members of Congress from becoming lobbyists.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
Current rules technically bar members from being paid for this service, but sitting on a board builds the relationships, loyalties, and goodwill that translate into a lucrative payday the moment they leave office. Former members who land corporate board seats average over $350,000 a year, twice their congressional salary. In Congress, I will fight to pass legislation banning members from serving on corporate boards while in office. Congressional members are elected to serve the people. You cannot do that job while answering to a corporate boardroom.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
Prediction markets have exploded in the past year, offering the wealthy and well-connected a chance to cash in on their insider knowledge of elections, acts of war, and government decisions. As the war in Iran sent financial markets into chaos, insiders were making millions on prediction markets, placing suspiciously-timed bets on military strikes before they happened. Ordinary Americans were watching their retirement accounts take a hit while the well-connected cashed in. It needs to be banned for Members of Congress and their staff.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/anti-corruption-agenda
- A Ban on Congressional Stock Trading. No one should be able to use their public office to enrich themselves.
- No Corporate PAC Money. As a candidate and member of Congress I will reject the influence of special interests.
- Audit the Federal Government. I’ve been cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in government for nearly a decade, but we need to do it with a scalpel, not a chainsaw.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/priorities
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- Break up the huge monopolies that hurt our small businesses and raise costs. Bring more competition into our communities by ending the Big Box monopolies that drive small businesses out of our area, give consumers fewer options, and let a few large companies control everything.
- Strengthen unions; make it easier to join and start a union.
- Respect the power of the people via local control and allocate more federal money directly to municipalities and counties.
- Champion small business by understanding how federal choices impact their ability to stay alive — without access to a healthcare marketplace, many people cannot work at the small businesses they love.
- Go after fees that shrink our pocketbooks with a million little cuts, like capping credit card swipe fees.
- Prevent healthcare industry middlemen from denying care and medications prescribed by doctors.
- Reform the insurance system so that when people pay for insurance, they can expect to be protected when something happens – from healthcare to flooding.
- Fight for paid family leave and affordable childcare.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/priorities
Heading as listed on paigeforpa.com/priorities ↗ (opens paigeforpa.com/priorities at this heading)
- Reshore manufacturing jobs, including continuing to add more defense manufacturing in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
- Cut red tape, make permitting make sense, allow more businesses to start, grow and thrive. Move faster on infrastructure projects we need for our economic future, from safe streets to bridges to passenger rail.
- Stop broad tariffs that help the big guys and hurt families, create smart targeted tariffs to protect manufacturing here.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/priorities
Heading as listed on paigeforpa.com/priorities ↗ (opens paigeforpa.com/priorities at this heading)
Northeastern Pennsylvanians built this country. The coal and shale under our feet have fueled the nation and powered advancement for generations. We know well the promise of innovation and investment that comes with new technology. But we also know better what it looks like when outside corporations steamroll through our cities and towns, take over our land, extract every bit of profit from our people and our resources, and then leave us high and dry. For generations, these companies have made big promises, let us down, and left us to pick up the pieces.
Now it’s data centers.
I’ve spent a lot of time listening to data center developers trying to explain why they should build here. In the rooms I’ve been in and in the projects I’ve seen, there is no project anywhere in NEPA that should move forward.
I won’t let corporate special interests and speculative developers take advantage of our community yet again. If developers want to build in NEPA, they need to follow our rules. This is our home and we’re not for sale.
- Stay away from homes, schools and public parks. No sites in a small town, on top of a school district, or in a beloved state park. Construction must happen on brownfields and sites that can’t be developed for residential use.
- Total transparency – no hiding behind NDAs. If these companies can’t be honest about who they are and why they’re here, they shouldn’t even be here at all.
- No tax breaks for wealthy corporations. At a time when hardworking Pennsylvanians are struggling to pay their bills and fill up their gas tanks, the last people who need more money in their pockets are big companies and their billionaire executives.
- Pay their own way and supply their own energy resources. Produce your own energy, don’t poison our water, and don’t jack up utility costs for local businesses and residents.
- Built with local union labor. These jobs must go to local union workers and benefit our community.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · paigeforpa.com/priorities
Heading as listed on paigeforpa.com/priorities ↗ (opens paigeforpa.com/priorities at this heading)