Now more than ever we need people in public office that honor their position of power. Leaders must see their job as a public service and not an opportunity to diversify their stock portfolio. Paige Cognetti, Mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania (yes, that one), is running for office to prove that it can be done.
Jen and Mayor Cognetti sit down to discuss how corruption—such as congressional stock trading—has absolutely no place in governance. Mayor Cognetti’s opponent, Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), is a notorious trader who sold stocks he held with Medicaid providers before voting for cuts this past November. Tune in to hear how Mayor Cognetti plans to build back trust with her constituents.
Paige Cognetti was sworn in as Mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania on January 6, 2020. She won re-election to a full term in November 2021. Mayor Cognetti served in the Obama administration as a senior advisor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department. She was a fundraiser and project director on numerous political campaigns. She also worked as an investment advisor in New York City.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of the Contrarian. We are delighted to have with us today Mayor Paige Cognetti, who’s the mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who is running against a Republican incumbent for the congressional seat there. Welcome, Mayor.
Paige Cognetti
Thank you, Jen.
Jen Rubin
Who is your opponent?
Paige Cognetti
My opponent is Rob Bresnahan. He is a freshman Republican member of Congress who squeaked out a win in November of 2024. Here in Pennsylvania’s 8th District, Trump won by 8.5 points, Rob won by 1.5 points. So, our 12-year Democratic incumbent outperformed, by 7 points, but did come up a little bit short in what was, as we know, a very tough year. So I really think about it as Donald Trump beating Matt Cartwright and not Rob Bresnahan.
Rob Bresnahan, for his part, campaigned on banning stock trading, said all year long, last year, he would never cut healthcare, he would never cut Medicaid, and in his first year, he became one of the most prolific stock traders in Congress. He traded $7.5 million in stocks. over 650 trades, after, again, having written an op-ed calling congressional stock trading sickening and a practice that must end. His trades, when we looked into them, are just really cynical. I mean, we’re talking about selling $130,000 of Medicaid provider stock the week before voting to cut a trillion dollars of Medicaid, selling an Allegheny County bond that floats a hospital hospital there before cutting a trillion dollars in Medicaid. It’s been really, really gross stuff, him really enriching himself on his office.
Ad here in northeastern Pennsylvania, we have a history that is all too rich with politicians being in positions of power and enriching themselves. I became mayor in 2020 after a special election because our mayor here had gone to prison for corruption. I won a special election as an independent in November of 2019, and we have spent the last 6 years in Scranton cleaning up the government, making it a government that works for people. I say a government with no frills and no drama that you don’t have to think about, one that will answer the call and do the work for you because you’re a resident and you matter, not because you know somebody, not because you have engaged in some sort of pay-to-play. So, we have set aside the politics of the past here in Scranton. It’s unfortunate in our new representative that we are seeing that old playbook, and I’m running for Congress to make sure that our representative in Washington is not more of the same.
Jen Rubin
Now, he has positioned himself as some kind of independent figure or moderate figure, that he’s gonna, you know, not, do whatever the president does, but his right voting record says otherwise. Is there any daylight that you can spot between him and Donald Trump?
Paige Cognetti
That’s the story of the beautiful Bill in July, right? This guy is literally trading on the vote he’s about to make. He votes for the big, beautiful bill. In the subsequent months, he has signed on to some letters, said, oh, we should have the ACA subsidies, is trying to position himself as a moderate. Nothing that Rob Reznahan does can paper over the fact that he voted to cut a trillion dollars of Medicaid, and all of the other funding that was in that bill that we need. He’s also voted to make sure that we don’t have FEMA in the way that we need to. FEMA in northeastern Pennsylvania is so important. We have a history of flooding all throughout this district. If we don’t have FEMA to help back us up, if Pennsylvania doesn’t have emergency management money that they need, we are going to be left in a situation where localities, cities, boroughs, townships, counties have no means of preventing, mitigating, or recovering from storms.
So, we’re very focused on healthcare, especially this week. as people I’ve been talking to are worried about how they’re going to afford their increased premiums, and knowing people that, their healthcare, they can’t afford it, they don’t know what they’re going to do. Doctors who are worried about the ERs being even more full because people are going to wait for care because they don’t have health insurance, we’re already worried about that, and so many other things. We’re at the City of Scranton, always looking at the bottom line, always making sure we live within our means, making sure that we are respectful of tax dollars. But what the cuts the Trump administration and Rob Bresnahan and Congress have done is cut away the foundation of what people and families, seniors need to get by in a way that is just cruel, and Rob Bresnahan clearly has no idea what it’s like to try to make ends meet.
Jen Rubin
A lot of Republicans have been hiding from constituents. You’ve taken a different approach. Tell us a little bit about the town halls you’ve had, the public meetings you’ve had. You seem to have gone in the other direction.
Paige Cognetti
Yeah, well, running in that special election in 2019, on the heels of a mayor who was indicted for extortion, bribery, all sorts of things, what we had to do was come in and build trust. That was the most important thing to do, was to build trust. Previously, I had served on the Scranton School Board. That was a trust-building exercise. There had been some criminal activity that had happened in the school district. So, it was a trust-building exercise, as we also remade the government in a way that was more transparent. So, town hall meetings, making sure that we have a system where people can have their comments come into my office, and we can get those things done.
Previously, there was no mechanism besides knowing someone to really get something done in the city. So those constituent services and making sure that we are always there for people, whoever you are, not whoever you know, and it’s pervasive here in northeastern Pennsylvania that we’ve had those issues in the past. Not unique to northeastern Pennsylvania, surely, but unfortunately, we’ve had quite a bit of public corruption through the years. And to see a new representative in Congress who is making all of these congressional—all these stock trades, making money off of the pain of other people, it’s something that people here really bristle at. Rob Bresnahan is already known as the stock trader throughout the district. I’ve had conversations with folks that, I’m talking about running for Congress. They’re like, oh, is that against the stock trader? So they know him already as somebody who is using his Office for his own personal gain.
Jen Rubin
There have been a number of, words spoken, shall we say, about affordability. Healthcare is part of it. Has Rob Bresnahan done anything? Has he come out against the tariffs? Has he recommended any proposal that would reduce costs for working families in Scranton? And if he hasn’t, what would you be doing differently?
Paige Cognetti
Not that I am aware of. Certainly in Scranton, we fight the utility companies every time they propose a rate hike. We make sure that we are as efficient as we possibly can be with our dollars. We make sure that our police, our fire, our public works, that people have the equipment, the training they need to keep us all safe. We make sure that we are really, you know, not doing things that we shouldn’t be doing. Rescue Plan was a great opportunity for us to show our own discipline, where we didn’t start any program that we couldn’t fund as a going concern. I know most mayors that I know, I’m really close with mayors across the country, most of us were very strict in making sure that we didn’t start something we couldn’t continue. We did that in Scranton. We made sure that instead of, you know, vanity projects, we invested in stormwater. We’ve invested in street safety, we’ve invested in our parks, we’ve invested in small businesses and in community entities that we trust and we know are going to use the money right.
We made sure that that money is going to last us a very, very long time. When you see some of the posturing from Bresnahan, from other members of Congress. They don’t know how local government works. I think it’s very important that we have more people in Congress who have been a local leader, who have been a mayor, been a county commissioner, understand that you have to balance a budget when you’re a local leader, understand that you have to be able to make programs work, and that you have a very thin team to be able to work on those grants, apply for those grants. There’s a lot of streamlining that needs to happen at the federal level.
The previous administration had a very direct line to local leaders, mayors especially, to talk through how we could better work between the federal and the local governments. That’s really important. I’ve seen no indication from Rob Resnihan that he has any idea what a local government needs to be successful, because at the end of the day, we certainly need everything that the federal government can provide, and we’ve got to advocate for that. We have to work with them, though, to make sure that those programs work, to make sure the processes work, because at the end of the day, it’s our… it’s our streets, it’s our bridges, it’s the people that are going to the schools in our cities, it’s our police departments that are keeping people safe. You have to understand local government. I think we need a lot more of that in Congress.
Jen Rubin
Speaking of corruption, Donald Trump has increased his own wealth by billions of dollars. He’s engaged in crypto deals that have been widely criticized. He’s pardoned people who have donated to his campaign. He’s stopped enforcing white-collar crime. He now says he’s going to run Venezuela and administer the oil there. He has torn down the Capitol, excuse me, torn down the East Wing and solicited, unknown amounts of money from tech and other companies, to donate money, to get their name on this thing. Republicans have done nothing about this. What would be your approach to oversight and to trying to rein in this, conduct, which has gone beyond, really, any president in American history?
Paige Cognetti
It reminds me so much of my own journey here in Scranton, where coming in as mayor on the heels of somebody who went to prison for abusing his office. we made sure from day one that we were doing everything we could to build back that trust, which means me not taking the city car, me not using a gas card. I buy my own stamps, even, because I think taxpayers probably don’t want to pay for the stamps where I send sympathy cards and congratulations cards when people have babies. doing everything, even to an extreme, to show that we are here, using your tax dollars to help you and to run services. That is in such stark contrast to the Trump administration, and what’s so sad is you see such a lack of care on part of the congressional Republicans. This is not normal. This is not okay. The grift is not okay.
It worries me so greatly that that is what’s happening at the top, and that some folks might think that that is alright. But here in northeastern Pennsylvania, people know that that is not okay. We have seen not just mayors, judges, county commissioners, state senators, attorneys general from northeastern Pennsylvania go to prison for abusing their office and enriching themselves on the public backs. So, we don’t stand for that here in northeastern Pennsylvania. Reb Resnahan has become the poster child for that type of corruption at the congressional level. having campaigned against congressional stock trading, and then turning around and making money off of his own votes. So, that won’t stand in northeastern Pennsylvania. I think there’s something about, you know, Donald Trump that some folks give him a pass, but the vast majority of people here in northeastern Pennsylvania know the perils of public corruption. They know what happens to our area when public officials do bad things. I don’t think they’re gonna stand for it.
Jen Rubin
Congress, beginning well before Donald Trump, has given more and more power to the executive, and particularly in the foreign policy realm. Donald Trump has now taken that and run with it, without permission from Congress. He essentially went to war with Venezuela, kidnapped their president, he’s now going to run the country. Is that an appropriate thing for Congress to do, to kind of let him do whatever he wants? What would be your approach to things like the War Powers Act, or to using the power of the purse to make sure He abides by the U.S. Constitution?
Paige Cognetti
We need a check and balance, and I think that folks, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, most people are feeling that right now. Donald Trump will always have, you know, a core of people that will not analyze what he’s doing and just follow him and take what he does for what it is. I think the vast majority of people already, even before Saturday and the news about Venezuela, were thinking that we needed a check and balance, that some of these things are going too far, that the cuts are going too far, that the healthcare cuts, the education cuts, the FEMA cuts are going too far. I think the beginning of this year, seeing us go into Venezuela without any sort of congressional authority.
You know, there’s an argument that maybe a one-time action needed to happen without that notification, but going forward, starting immediately, Congress needs to assert itself. Congress needs to not abdicate responsibility. They need to be asking questions. They need to be asking questions for us. how does this action, how does sustained action in Venezuela, or anyone else. help the American people. It is interesting to me that this happened the same moment that people’s premiums for healthcare were skyrocketing. Is it a distraction? I’m not sure. But we need to stay focused on what is happening here in the United States. We need to be protecting the folks that we hold dear. We need to make sure that our kids can go to safe schools, that our police have what they need to keep us safe and keep themselves safe. We need to make sure that people can go to the doctor before before they need to go to the ER. That is what is the most important thing, that is the most pressing, and Venezuela seems like it potentially is a distraction because things are not going well domestically. Congress needs to not abdicate its responsibility.
Jen Rubin
In the immigration realm, I don’t know any Democrat who has said that they’re for, quote, open borders, who has said violent criminals don’t need to be returned, but Donald Trump has gone way beyond that, and we see use of National Guard. Today there was an incident you probably heard about in Minneapolis, where an ICE officer, allegedly shot, killed a woman in a vehicle. We’ve had many incidents of use of excessive force. Many judges have attempted to restrain ICE and the border control. What’s your view of what an appropriate immigration policy is, and what would you do in Congress to make sure that ICE, Border Patrol are operating legally, and not brutalizing both American citizens and immigrants, frankly?
Paige Cognetti
I understand why people want to make sure that our border is secure. I… the Biden administration did not do enough in the early years of that administration on the border. That was a huge missed opportunity to really prevent what’s happening now, which is a real overreach, and something that Congress is just letting happen. In the similar way with our foreign interventions, Congress doesn’t seem to be doing anything. We’ve got people we know that are asking questions, but those aren’t the people that have the gavels, those aren’t the people that are calling witnesses to hearings. We need a Congress that asks questions for us. We need a Congress who in the wake of a horrible tragedy in Minnesota today, we’ll ask questions about how this happened. why this happened. Because, of course, we don’t want criminals on our streets.
Of course, we don’t want folks that are illegal, that are committing crimes, to be here. That is absolutely the case. I’m the mayor of Scranton, we have a police department, and we go after violent criminals every single day. The issue that I’ve seen locally, and what we’ve seen across the country, is that the immigration policy of the current administration doesn’t seem to be going after criminals. They seem to be going after people that they seem, like. seem to be convenient targets. So, we need to make sure that our immigration policy and goals. Especially that being going after violent criminals who we should deport, and that is, I think, very much what most people want. I think almost everybody wants that. Our police officers want that. If there are violent criminals that we could get rid of, we would love to have those people leave. But we are not seeing that as the policy. We are not seeing a Congress that’s asking questions. Rob Bresnahan is not asking questions about that. We see today a horrible tragedy that. If any good can come of it, hopefully it will compel some members of Congress that do have the power of the gavel in their committees to start calling some hearings and asking some serious questions about how this helps us.
Jen Rubin
So, last question for you. Congress is not the most functional place these days, and so many people might ask, you know, you get to be mayor of a city, you make great progress, although you have constraints, you can make decisions and see them through. Why do you want to go to Congress?
Paige Cognetti
This was not my plan. Coming into 2025, I was running for mayor, I ran for mayor last year, I just took the oath of office on Monday for a new term. I love my job, I love being in the executive position, I have an incredible team around me, our police chief, fire chief, our law department, our business administrator, just an incredible group of people. What I saw happen, though, in the months of the… especially in the spring, as we went into that big, beautiful bill vote, when we saw Rob Bresnahan say one thing and do another. over and over again.
And when we started to see the impacts of the cuts that were being made, where we had a BRIC grant in to help us buy out 21 properties that can no longer be inhabited, and these people are just waiting for us to buy them out, the BRIC program is no longer… there is just… they’re chipping away not just at… not even chipping away, they’re taking away the safety net under families, under cities, under counties. I feel that I have to do this, I have to make sure that we have a check and balance in Congress for my family, but also for my city. I won’t be able to do a very good job as mayor going forward if the administration and Congress continue to Pull from under us what we need to thrive.
Jen Rubin
So, if people want to get more information about you, about the campaign, what do they do? Where do they go?
Paige Cognetti
paigeforpa.com. We’re having fun with this. It’s really a great district with a lot of great stuff. A lot of folks have probably been to the district if you’ve been to the Poconos, if you’ve taken your kid to camp or gone skiing at one of our great mountains. It’s a great district, a lot of fun, and we are gonna have a great campaign, and I’m confident that we are going to be successful.
Jen Rubin
Well, thank you for spending time with us. I’m sure this is going to be one of the races that is, most looked at. It’s definitely on the list for Democrats to attempt to flip, and we will look forward to speaking to you more. Thanks so much!
Paige Cognetti
Thank you.
