‘Paige against the machine’: How a Democrat who bucked her party is now targeting a swing House district

By Arit John, CNN

(CNN) — In 2019, Paige Cognetti launched her campaign for mayor of Scranton, where the incumbent had resigned from office before pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

Wary of the county Democratic Party’s closed nominating process, she ran as an independent. That fall, she found herself in a courtroom with her rivals as county Democratic leaders sought to have the special election reclassified, potentially booting her and three other candidates off the ballot.

“To sit there in a courtroom and have the local Democrats trying to essentially rig the election, it made me realize how right I was, that we needed to step up,” Cognetti told CNN.

The challenge to her bid failed, and Cognetti went on to become the first woman elected mayor of Scranton.

Now, in her bid to flip Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, Cognetti is once again framing herself as an alternative to the politics of self-interest. She’s also called on Democrats to have a forward-looking message if they win back the US House this November.

“We would be mistaken if we took Democratic victory in 2026 as a mandate to go into some sort of impeachment process,” Cognetti said. “What the American people need is to be able to afford to live and be able to feel confident that there is opportunity for themselves and their kids. That is what people are going to be out voting for.”

She’s challenging Rep. Rob Bresnahan, a freshman lawmaker who campaigned on banning congressional stock trading before becoming one of the most active stock traders in Congress during his first months in office. Bresnahan has said his stock trades were managed by financial advisors. In May 2025, the congressman announced he was forming a blind trust and introduced legislation to ban congressional stock trading.

“Really, Rob Bresnahan recruited me into this race for Congress,” Cognetti said. “It was not my plan, just like it wasn’t my plan to run in 2019. But I will not sit by and let the people of northeastern Pennsylvania have somebody representing them that is truly just there for themselves.”

It’s a message that’s resonating with Democrats as they continue trying to rebuild the party’s relationship with working-class voters. The district, located in northeastern Pennsylvania, voted for President Donald Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns. But Bresnahan defeated Rep. Matt Cartwright with just under 51% of the vote in 2024, even as President Donald Trump won nearly 54% of the vote.

Samantha Bullock, a spokesperson for Bresnahan’s campaign, pushed back on Cognetti and her allies’ framing of the race.

“Paige Cognetti would love this campaign to be about anything other than her failed leadership in Scranton,” Bullock said in a statement to CNN. “Rep. Bresnahan does not trade his own stocks, and Cognetti’s theatrics don’t change the fact that she is part of the Democrat machine that has failed Scranton for years.”

How Democrats view the race

Bresnahan is one of four Republican incumbents who Pennsylvania Democrats are targeting this November. Gov. Josh Shapiro endorsed the Democratic nominees in all four races, including Cognetti, who ran unopposed.

In the 8th District, Democrats are hoping to make a connection between corruption in Washington, which helped fuel their successful efforts to flip the House in 2006 and 2018, and Americans’ affordability concerns. They view Cognetti, who was easily elected to full terms as mayor in 2021 and 2025 as a Democrat, as their best bet in a race viewed as among the state’s most competitive.

“She’s often been not afraid to buck her own party and to stand up for what she thinks is right, and that makes her really appealing to everyday voters who have felt often disenfranchised with either party,” said Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who has endorsed Cognetti.

Cognetti has pledged to reject corporate PAC money and called for a ban on congressional stock trading.

“Her argument is really simple: It’s when politicians enrich themselves and their donors, working people pay the price,” said Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, a liberal advocacy group seeking to limit the influence of money in politics. The group has endorsed Cognetti.

‘Paige against the machine’

Cognetti, an Oregon native who worked on former President Barack Obama’s first White House campaign, left her job in the state auditor’s office to run in a special election to fill the remainder of former Mayor Bill Courtright’s term.

“When you have corruption, Democrats need to make sure that they are calling it out as they see it,” Cognetti said. “And that includes when somebody in the Democratic Party does something wrong.”

Cognetti’s unofficial campaign slogan was “Paige Against the Machine,” a nod to the ‘90s rock band Rage Against the Machine and her fight against local Democratic leaders.

“She was tapping into a deeper feeling within the voters in Scranton,” J.J. Abbott, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist, told CNN. “They were just really tired of the good old boys’ network, and ‘the way things have always been done’ being the driving force for how decisions were made.”

If elected to Congress, Cognetti said she wants to audit the federal government while also arguing Democrats should reverse parts of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that the GOP passed last year.

“We can’t hold dear some of the programs that we have,” she said. “We certainly need to rescind the cuts from HR 1, but that doesn’t mean that Medicare and Medicaid are perfect.”

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