ICYMI: “Democrats have a union problem” in PA-08
In case you missed it, a new report is highlighting Democrats’ major union problem in PA-08.
Congressman Rob Bresnahan has earned the support of unions that endorsed Democrat Matt Cartwright in PA-08 last cycle, including the Teamsters and Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council.
The Laborers’ District Council also backed political opportunist Paige Cognetti in her 2025 mayoral race.
“Working Pennsylvanians know they have a staunch ally in Rob Bresnahan, which is why they’re backing him at the ballot box. Political opportunist Paige Cognetti is hemorrhaging support from voters, and things are only going to get worse for her.” – NRCC Spokesman Reilly Richardson
Read more from POLITICO here or see excerpts below:
Dems sweat union support in key Pennsylvania battleground
Lisa Kashinsky
POLITICO
June 26, 2026
Democrats have a union problem in working-class Scranton.
The city that gave President Joe Biden his blue-collar bona fides sits at the center of a battleground district that’s critical to Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House. Now, several unions are breaking for the Republican incumbent in a highly competitive district that shifted toward President Donald Trump in 2024 — underscoring the challenges Democrats continue to face in winning back working-class voters.
Over the past few months, GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan has locked up support from several major unions that had endorsed the Democrat he unseated in 2024, including the American Federation of Government Employees and the Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council. The laborers’ council had also backed Bresnahan’s Democratic challenger, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, in her last mayoral bid.
[…]
Last week, the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters endorsed him — nearly two months after its members appeared to endorse Cognetti in a voice vote at the union’s convention in late April, per social media posts and a video captured by Pennsylvania Cable News and reviewed by POLITICO.
The state and national Teamsters chapters declined to respond to repeated requests for comment from POLITICO. Cognetti and staffers for both her campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — who had promoted her seeming endorsement on social media but later deleted the posts, according to screenshots shared with POLITICO — also declined to respond to questions about the situation.
The Teamsters’ political arm donated $5,000 to Bresnahan’s campaign last year, along with contributions to several other battleground Republicans and GOP campaign arms.
[…]
And it’s part of a longer pattern of Democrats bleeding support from their traditional allies in organized labor, especially from the building-trades unions. Several of them went in early for GOP gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio. National exit polls also show voters in households with a union member shifted right between 2020, when Biden won them by a 16-point margin, and 2024, when Vice President Kamala Harris only carried the group by an 8-point margin.
[…]
Republicans cast the 8th District shifts as signs of trouble for Cognetti, who has also had some friction with local unions as mayor, in a closely contested congressional race. Samantha Bullock, a spokesperson for Bresnahan, said “Democrats have a serious problem on their hands with Paige Cognetti’s failure to hold onto labor support in this district.”
Cognetti’s strategy “has got to be running up the numbers in Scranton and Wilkes Barre,” which are the bluer parts of the district, said local GOP strategist Vince Galko, who’s not working with either campaign. But “the heart of her base in those areas are trade unions … and they’re siding with her opponent,” he said. “That’s not a good sign.”