Bresnahan faces no Republican challenger; Cognetti is the only real Democrat on the ballot as a toss-up general election takes shape across the Poconos and NEPA
When voters in Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono, and across Northeastern Pennsylvania head to the polls on Monday, May 19, 2026, the 8th Congressional District primary will be a formality. Republican Congressman Rob Bresnahan Jr. is unopposed. On the Democratic side, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is the only candidate running a real campaign — a second name, Eric Stone, appears on the ballot but has filed no fundraising reports, has no campaign website, and has made no public appearances. The Cook Political Report and The Center Square have both described Cognetti and Bresnahan as the only actual candidates in the race.
The filing deadline passed on March 10, 2026, with no additional challengers. The real contest — a November 3, 2026, general election that Cook recently moved to “Toss Up” — is already underway.
What’s on the line locally
The 8th District covers all of Lackawanna, Wayne, and Pike counties, the eastern half of Luzerne County, and most of Monroe County — including Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono, Delaware Water Gap, and the townships of Coolbaugh, Tobyhanna, Barrett, Paradise, Pocono, Hamilton, Jackson, Smithfield, Middle Smithfield, Chestnuthill, Tunkhannock, and Price. Only Eldred, Polk, and part of Ross Township fall in the neighboring 7th District. The roughly 765,000 residents span the Pocono tourism economy, Wyoming Valley coal country, Pike and Wayne County lake communities, and Monroe County’s New York-commuter corridor. Flood insurance, the Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport, water infrastructure, the opioid crisis, and Medicaid access are front-and-center issues.
Bresnahan: Legislative wins and a stock trading scandal
Bresnahan, 35 — born April 22, 1990, in Kingston — flipped the seat red on November 5, 2024, defeating five-term Democrat Matt Cartwright by about 6,200 votes. A fifth-generation NEPA native raised in Wyoming Borough and Hughestown, he ran the family union electrical contracting firm Kuharchik Construction before taking office on January 3, 2025. He serves on the committees on Agriculture, Small Business, and Transportation and Infrastructure and is a Problem Solvers Caucus member.
His legislative record has direct Pocono relevance. He secured a $3 million federal grant for the Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport in Mount Pocono, over $1.5 million for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in Avoca, and championed $11 million in Head Start funding for Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. He introduced the National Flood Insurance Program Affordability Act — critical for flood-prone communities along the Brodhead Creek and Susquehanna — the Save BRIC Act on May 6, 2025, to protect FEMA pre-disaster mitigation funding, and the SMART Act on July 16, 2025. On March 27, 2026, he urged the DEA to emergency-schedule 7-hydroxymitragynine, a potent kratom derivative showing up in gas stations and smoke shops from Hazleton to Honesdale. On December 9, 2025, President Trump rallied alongside Bresnahan at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono.
But a self-inflicted stock trading scandal has overshadowed the record. Despite campaigning on banning congressional trading — calling it “sickening” — Bresnahan executed 626 trades worth over $7.2 million by August 2025, making him Congress’ second-most active trader. NBC News reported in November 2025 that he dumped roughly $130,000 in Medicaid-related stocks on May 15, 2025 — a week before voting for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s sweeping Medicaid cuts. Those companies manage half of all Medicaid accounts nationally, a detail that lands hard where Geisinger, LVHN, and Pocono Medical Center serve large Medicaid-dependent populations.
On March 10, 2026, Politico published audio from a WILK-AM interview in Wilkes-Barre where Bresnahan said he discusses “what different positions are coming up” with his adviser — contradicting his June 10, 2025, tele-town hall claim that he had no “dialogues” with advisers. On March 13, 2026, former Republican Congressman Jim Greenwood called on him to resign. Bresnahan says he stopped trading by late December 2025. His estimated net worth is $48 million.
Cognetti: Anti-corruption Democrat with high-level backing
Cognetti, 45 — born August 27, 1980, in Eugene, Oregon — holds an MBA from Harvard, served at the U.S. Treasury Department from 2009 to 2012, and moved to Scranton where she joined the School Board in 2017. When Mayor Bill Courtright resigned in July 2019 after pleading guilty to federal bribery and extortion, Cognetti ran as an independent — “Paige Against the Machine” — and became Scranton’s first female mayor. She won re-election in November 2021 and November 2025 as a Democrat. Under her tenure, Scranton’s credit rating climbed to A- on January 12, 2026, the city’s highest in decades.
She announced her congressional bid on September 2, 2025, and has locked up endorsements from Governor Josh Shapiro (February 5, 2026), Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, former Congressman Matt Cartwright, and EMILY’s List. The DCCC added her to its “Red to Blue” program on February 23, 2026. On Saturday, April 18, 2026, she appeared at a town hall at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke with Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who called Bresnahan one of Congress’ “worst offenders.” Bresnahan’s campaign fired back, accusing Kelly of “parachuting into Nanticoke” and saying Cognetti “doesn’t know NEPA.”
Republicans have also attacked Cognetti as a “vanity candidate” running for Congress while still serving as mayor. The Washington Examiner reported on April 7, 2026, that maternity leave for new Scranton city hires was cut to unpaid under contracts negotiated during her tenure. Bresnahan has flipped three local unions that previously backed Democrats, including the Pennsylvania Laborers District Council — which endorsed Cognetti in her November 2019 mayoral race.
The numbers
Cook PVI: R+4. Trump won the district by 9 on November 5, 2024; McCormick by 4. But Cook moved the race to “Toss Up,” with analyst Erin Covey writing that Bresnahan’s problems are “largely self-inflicted.”
In Q1 2026, Cognetti outraised Bresnahan for the first time — $1.39 million to $715,000. Cash on hand: Bresnahan $2.21 million, Cognetti $1.92 million. Outside groups have already spent an estimated $32 million on district races over the past two years. A House Majority PAC poll from August 27–28, 2025, showed Cognetti leading 45–43 with 13 percent undecided.
For Pocono-area voters and residents across the five-county district, the May 19, 2026, primary is a prelude. The real fight starts the day after.
The 8th District includes all of Lackawanna, Wayne, and Pike counties and most of Luzerne and Monroe counties — including Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono, Milford, Honesdale, Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, and the Pocono Mountains resort region. The general election is November 3, 2026. Check your registration at vote.pa.gov.