SCRANTON — Ahead of the Nov. 3 election, Pennsylvania voters have identified the economy as a top issue, driven by concerns about the cost of living, unemployment, and utility prices.
It’s a key focus in the 8th Congressional District race between Republican incumbent Rob Bresnahan, who seeks a second term, and Democratic candidate Paige Cognetti, the first woman to be elected mayor of Scranton.
The race is also one of three toss-up U.S. House contests in Pennsylvania identified by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. With Bresnahan’s 2024 win, Republicans flipped the seat held by Democrat Matt Cartwright since 2013.
Located in the northeast corner of the commonwealth, the purple district covers Lackawanna, Pike, and Wayne Counties, along with parts of Luzerne and Monroe Counties.
Members of Congress, elected for two-year terms, vote on legislation that affects the economy, including changes to federal taxes and budgets, as well as government spending. They can also secure federal funding and advocate for the district they represent through shaping and voting for legislation.
While Bresnahan and Cognettii differ on tariffs and the ongoing war in Iran, which have contributed to increases in gas and grocery prices, they both support tax breaks, healthcare reform, and reining in rising utility prices. Employment is the economic issue both candidates agree on most, supporting apprenticeships and technical training, as well as pro-union policies.
Below, we break down the candidates’ positions on some of the key economic issues ahead of the Nov. 3 election: tax policies, affordability, and jobs. You can learn more about their positions during an WVIA debate scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 29.
Tax policies
Bresnahan’s campaign platform includes cutting taxes “so you can keep more of the money you earn for your family.”
Bresnahan voted for President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Signed into law on July 4, 2025, it made permanent most of the individual and business tax cuts from 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including reducing the top corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, doubling the standard deduction, and expanding the Child Tax Credit. It also created federal income tax deductions for tips, overtime pay, and taxpayers 65 and older through 2028.
Bresnahan has called the legislation “a win for working families, small businesses, and anyone tired of Washington stacking the deck against the working-class people of Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
While the OBBA is expected to boost the economy in the short term, researchers at Brookings, a nonpartisan think tank, said in a preliminary analysis released in March that it will raise federal deficits by between $3.7 and $5.1 trillion over the next decade. High-income households are expected to see the largest benefits, with many of the spending cuts, particularly to Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP, falling on low-income and immigrant families.
At the Republican National Committee’s first midterm convention in Dallas, Bresnahan said he is “ready to keep fighting to preserve these tax cuts and stop Democrats from repealing them.”
Cognetti has said that Democrats should reverse parts of the OBBBA, decrying funding cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, as well as SNAP.
She has also claimed that Bresnahan made money trading stocks by voting for the OBBBA. Bresnahan sold up to $130,000 in stocks in four companies that oversaw about half of all Medicaid managed care organizations ahead of the vote.
Bresnahan, who has publicly supported a ban on congressional stock trading, also drew criticism last year after reporting dozens of trades around the time of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.
In both instances, he said a financial advisor made those transactions. Since then, he’s stopped trading.
During her six-year tenure as mayor of Scranton, Cognetti has raised taxes twice, in 2023 and 2024, both times by 2%.
Cognetti says she is against tax breaks for wealthy corporations, arguing on her campaign website that “the last people who need more money in their pockets are big companies and their billionaire executives.” In campaign materials reviewed by Spotlight PA, she pledges to fight for commonsense tax reform, to make no taxes on tips permanent, and to enact a working families tax credit.
During the early days of last year’s federal government shutdown, Bresnahan introduced the No Taxation Without Operation Act, aimed at preventing the IRS from collecting federal income tax during a partial or full government shutdown and freezing any penalties or accrued interest. So far, the legislation has only been introduced and has not seen a vote.
While Bresnahan has supported the Trump administration’s tariffs, a tax tacked on to imported goods, he’s acknowledged the challenges the levies have created for residents in his district.
“We need to know where the goalpost is, and we need to be working towards that goalpost. I think the American consumer and industry is very resilient, but we need to know where we’re rowing the boat to," he said in May 2025.
Cognetti “opposes broad tariffs on our allies that needlessly cause increased prices,” according to campaign materials, but says “targeted tariffs can be a tool to protect our farmers and manufacturers.”
Affordability
Healthcare, gas, grocery, and utility prices are key affordability issues as the cost of living continues to squeeze voters’ budgets.
The Affordable Care Act included premium tax credits to help make health insurance less costly. Those credits were enhanced in 2021 when the American Rescue Plan Act passed, and extended in 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act. However, they expired at the end of last year.
Bresnahan was one of 17 House Republicans to vote in January in favor of the Breaking the Gridlock Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D., Mass.) and aimed at reinstating enhanced ACA health insurance subsidies for three years. The legislation has not yet seen a vote in the Senate.
While arguing the ACA “failed to deliver on its promise of lowering insurance costs,” Bresnahan said he voted in favor of the extension because “it is the only path forward that keeps discussions alive to protect the 28,000 people in my district from immediate premium spikes.”
Since those tax credits expired at the end of 2025, nearly 202,000 enrollees on PENNIE, the state health insurance exchange, have dropped their coverage.
Cognetti has criticised Bresnahan for “failing to take meaningful action in time to prevent health care costs from skyrocketing.” She supports reform to “prevent healthcare industry middlemen from denying care and medications prescribed by doctors,” according to her campaign website, as well as to reduce costs, including restoring ACA tax credits.
The cost of groceries, which has risen due to compounding factors including inflation and tariffs, has been a key issue.
Cognetti says she will fight to "break up the huge monopolies that hurt our small businesses and raise costs,” arguing that Big Box monopolies “drive small businesses out of our area, give consumers fewer options, and let a few large companies control everything.” She’s also in favor of capping credit card fees.
Bresnahan has acknowledged that grocery prices are too high.
In July of 2025, he introduced the Local Farmers Feeding our Communities Act, which would allow states, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to establish cooperative agreements connecting local farmers with food banks. Funds would be earmarked for local, fresh, and minimally processed foods.
It’s an effort to revive the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program, a pandemic-era initiative that was ended as part of sweeping cuts early last year made by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The act was included in this year’s Farm Bill, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, which passed the House in April by a bipartisan vote of 224-200. It has not yet seen a vote in the Senate.
Across Pennsylvania, 13.5% of residents experienced food insecurity in 2024, according to the latest data available from Feeding America. Wayne, Lackawanna, and Luzerne Counties’ food security rates were higher, at 13.7%, 16.1%, and 16.6%, respectively.
Both candidates have fought to rein in rising utility prices. As mayor, Cognetti called on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to host a public hearing in Scranton four times over proposed rate hikes for water and electricity. Similarly, Bresnahan in 2025 sent a letter to the PUC urging the commission to reject increased utility rates.
Residents are also feeling pressure at the pump, as oil and gas prices have risen nationwide since the start of the Iran War in late February.
The average price of a gallon of gas as of Sept. 22 in Pennsylvania is $4.57, according to AAA, higher than the $4.48 national average. This time last year, the average price of a gallon of gas was $3.22 in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton area.
Bresnahan in July voted against a nonbinding House resolution to end the war. While he wants to see lower gas and oil prices, he said that “Iran is not a friend to the United States” and cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Cognetti has criticized Bresnahan, saying he has “sent billions of taxpayer dollars overseas, put our service members in harm’s way, and jacked up prices at home.” She’s in favor of ending the war in order to lower gas prices.
Jobs
Both Bresnahan and Cognetti are in favor of policies that support union labor, and that cut red tape for small businesses.
Bresnahan, who stepped down from his role as CEO of his family’s electrical contracting business when he ran for Congress, is a proponent of technical training and earn-as-you-learn apprenticeship programs.
He says he will “vote for commonsense policies that unleash the American economy and get Pennsylvania back to work,” on his campaign website.
Similarly, Cognetti has supported apprenticeship programs operated by carpentry and electric unions during her time as mayor, providing grant funding.
If elected, she will work to “reshore manufacturing jobs, including continuing to add more defense manufacturing in Northeastern Pennsylvania” as well as “cut red tape, make permitting make sense, allow more businesses to start, grow, and thrive,” according to her campaign website.
Bresnahan has a history of breaking party lines on union issues. In December, he voted in favor of the Protect America’s Workforce Act, which would order and restore collective bargaining rights for federal employees that were stripped through executive orders signed by Trump.
“The right to collectively bargain is the cornerstone of fair labor and a strong middle class,” Bresnahan said in a news release. “This is not just a policy idea; it’s a lifeline that ensures fair wage, safe workplaces, and the basic dignity every worker deserves. I am proud that we fought to restore and protect the rights of the hardworking men and women of Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
And in June, he was one of 20 House Republicans to vote for the Faster Labor Contracts Act. Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross (D., N.J.), the pro-union bill would establish mandatory deadlines for parties negotiating an initial collective bargaining agreement and provide mediation and arbitration to finalize those agreements.
While both have passed the House, neither has seen a vote in the Senate.
Cognetti says she will prioritize workers if elected, “protecting and expanding the right to organize, fighting for better wages and benefits, and always prioritizing Pennsylvania workers over profit.”
She has voiced her support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Introduced in 2021, it would expand labor protections related to employees' rights to organize and collectively bargain. While it died in the Senate, the legislation was reintroduced in 2025 as the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.9% in July, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry, lower than the national rate of 4.1%. It’s the first time the commonwealth’s unemployment has been below 4% since October 2024.
However, the department also projects the commonwealth will face a shortage of more than 300,000 skilled trade workers by 2030.