Paige Cognetti, a Democratic candidate for the 8th Congressional District seat, announced Wednesday that her campaign has raised more than $640,000 in the final quarter of 2025 and enters the New Year with more than $778,000 cash in hand.

“I’m grateful for the outpouring of support we’ve received for our campaign to take on corruption in Washington and build a government that works as hard as the people it’s supposed to represent,” said Cognetti, who also serves as the mayor of Scranton. “It wasn’t my plan to run for Congress, but I couldn’t sit by while Congressman Rob Bresnahan used his office to trade hundreds of stocks and vote to hurt our community. We are building a campaign that puts NEPA first.”

Cognetti, 45, was elected mayor of Scranton in 2019 as an Independent after Democratic incumbent Mayor Bill Courtright resigned from office after pleading guilty to federal bribery, conspiracy, and extortion charges. Her victory in 2019 made her the first woman elected mayor of Scranton and she secured re-election in 2021 and 2025 as a Democrat.

She is challenging Bresnahan, who defeated long-time incumbent Matt Cartwright in 2024, and says that tackling corruption is one of her major reasons for running for the office. Cognetti has been a vocal critic of Bresnahan who, despite running on a pledge to ban congressional stock trading, has made more than 600 trades in a managed brokerage account since arriving in Washington.

Cognetti also received good news on Tuesday, as the city of Scranton received another bump up in its credit rating, from BBB+ to A-, which is the highest grade for the city in recent decades and the latest positive step in a total financial turnaround from near bankruptcy in 2012.

It’s believed to be the first time the city has broken into the top, A-level category of credit ratings, said Scott Shearer of PFM, the city’s financial advisor for 12 years.