Rob Bresnahan Jr. ousts U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, flipping seat in the Northeast Pa. 8th Congressional District
The district in Northeast Pennsylvania includes Wayne, Pike, and Lackawanna counties, as well as part of Luzerne County.
Rob Bresnahan Jr. has flipped Northeast Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, ousting U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright.
Bresnahan, 34, defeated the incumbent Democrat in a district that includes Wayne, Pike, and Lackawanna Counties, as well as part of Luzerne County. Cartwright, 63, has held his seat since 2013 in an increasingly competitive district that voted for former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
“I am humbled and honored to be chosen to represent Northeastern Pennsylvanians in Congress,” Bresnahan wrote on his website. He added, “Let’s get to work.”
Bresnahan is the CEO of his family’s electrical contracting company and founded RPB Ventures to rehabilitate Downtown Pittston buildings.
In a statement posted Wednesday on X, Cartwright wrote, “I know this is not the result we hoped for, but it has been the honor of my life to serve our community in Congress.”
Bresnahan’s platform included building a border wall, cutting taxes, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.
“I am running for Congress because career politicians have forgotten about people back home,” Bresnahan says on his website. He lives in Dallas in Luzerne County, where he was born and raised, and even touts having his plot reserved in the local Forty Fort cemetery.