Democrats breathed a sigh of relief when President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid this summer. But in a critical corner of Pennsylvania, Republicans saw opportunity.
Biden, born in Scranton, has deep personal and political roots in Northeastern Pennsylvania, a region that embodies the white, working-class realignment that has reshaped US politics, and that stands at the center of races for the White House, Senate and House. With the union-aligned president off the ballot, Republicans hope to press their advantage in the area, aiming to win back Pennsylvania for Donald Trump and sweep out two other Northeastern Pennsylvania Democratic institutions: Rep. Matt Cartwright and Sen. Bob Casey.
Trump plans to return to Scranton Wednesday for another rally in Cartwright’s mountainous 8th District, signaling the importance of a battleground that’s home to the President Joseph R. Biden Expressway, and which could have outsize influence on the presidential race, and control of both chambers of Congress.
“If there’s any race that Republicans benefited from Joe Biden not being on the ballot, it’s that one,” said Nick Trainer, a Republican strategist who has worked on campaigns in the region.
Republicans argue that Biden — “Scranton Joe” — was uniquely suited to the area’s labor roots and large Catholic population. Vice President Kamala Harris, they say, is not.
“I just don’t see how a San Francisco progressive liberal can resonate with the median household income of $60,000 a year,” here, said Republican Rob Bresnahan, the 34-year-old businessman challenging Cartwright.
Cartwright is one of five Democrats who hold districts Trump won in 2020, and Republicans hope other largely working-class areas in Ohio and Michigan could also tip their way after Biden’s exit.
Faceless, Nameless
Cartwright, though, has survived Northeast Pennsylvania’s changing politics thanks to a distinct brand and deep foundations.
“You chat with people around this district, they’ve all met him, they all know him,” said Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti.
A few blocks from her City Hall office, a downtown monument along Biden St. honors local heroes including Casey’s namesake father — a former governor from the Electric City — and Marion Langan Munley, a groundbreaking state representative from a prominent local political and legal family Cartwright married into. Casey, also from Scranton, faces his own difficult re-election against former hedge fund executive David McCormick in a race that could tip the balance in the Senate.
Cartwright has fended off previous challengers who had questionable ties to the district. Bresnahan, by contrast, was born and raised in the area and he now leads the local business built by his grandparents, Kuharchik Construction.
Instead of a carpetbagger, Cartwright has cast Bresnahan as something else unwelcome in this region: a multi-millionaire who sold out local workers.
Bresnahan became chief financial officer in his family’s company at 19, and owner after college. Democratic attack ads have labeled him a “rich kid” in a hard hat who inherited opportunity and flipped it for profit after he sold Kuharchik to a Canadian private equity firm last year.
“What we’re talking about with private equity are people who are faceless and nameless and don’t live here,” Cartwright said, “and don’t give a hoot about the people who do.”
His allies pointed to other local businesses that have been depleted by private equity firms. “He had this great opportunity,” but sold it to “the chop shops of the business world,” said a statement from Maurice Cobb, secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, which supports Cartwright.
Bresnahan said he “brought on a financial partner” because they “aligned exactly with our investment strategy.” The deal, he said, allowed him to reinvest in Kuharchik and add more than 30 jobs. The company — whose website emphasizes its union workforce — specializes in electrical work for highway construction, including providing traffic lights and street lights.
Bresnahan, with rapid-fire energy, blames Cartwright for failing to bring economic change to the region, and said his own work reflects a dedication to improving his home, both by expanding Kuharchik and redeveloping buildings, bringing new businesses to faded downtowns.
“I didn’t need to grow,” into development or add “100 more mouths to feed,” Bresnahan said. “I did it because I’m not waking up to be mediocre. And it’s about time that this district has someone that’s going to truly fight for Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
He bristles at the suggestion he was handed success, saying he purchased Kuharchik via stock redemption and took on significant financial obligations to his grandparents.
“Everything in my life has been a battle to obtain,” he said.
Election Epicenter
The district’s working class was at the epicenter of the 2016 election shock.
The 8th includes part of Luzerne County, which narrowly backed Barack Obama’s re-election but swung dramatically toward Trump in 2016, unleashing a 32,000 vote shift in a state decided that year by just 45,000.
Officials and operatives in both parties say the region was one of many where blue-collar voters historically aligned with Democrats as the party of unions. Those ties frayed as Democrats became increasingly liberal on social issues and manufacturing jobs moved away, and snapped when Trump emerged as an unlikely avatar of working-class frustration.
“These are like Kennedy Democrats, moderate Democrats, many pro-life, pro-gun Democrats, and that’s not who the party is,” said former Rep. Lou Barletta, a Republican who represented part of Luzerne in a neighboring district.
Lackawanna County, which includes Scranton, is the district’s Democratic base, but even there Cartwright’s vote share fell from 76% in 2014 to 59% in 2022.
Polling by both parties now suggest he enters the final weeks of this campaign narrowly ahead. Cartwright and his Democratic allies have a spending advantage on TV, according to the nonpartisan ad tracking firm AdImpact, though Republicans hope a Trump surge makes the difference.
“Economic Cancer”
Cartwright, 63, traces the region’s story of economic exploitation back more than a century — and ties it to his race this year.
Anthracite coal mines (whose 1902 labor strike is also commemorated in downtown Scranton) drove the region’s economy, Cartwright said, until the mine owners tapped them out and left, leaving “huge scars upon the landscape.” The area turned to manufacturing, but after NAFTA executives closed down factories and headed to Mexico.
He calls it an “economic cancer” of “absentee landlordism” by owners “not rooted in this community.”
Cartwright, an attorney who methodically unspools his arguments, has key backing from labor leaders, and notes that he’s withstood Democratic losses in his district in each of the past two presidential elections.
A senior member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee also points to his work to bring back “every penny of our fair share of federal tax dollars,” including for infrastructure projects and $20 million, he said, for local law enforcement and prosecutors.
“My Home”
Bresnahan paints Cartwright as another politician who has failed the region — much like the ones voters rejected when they turned toward Trump.
“Every year we see press conference after press conference,” Bresnahan said, “and nothing seems to turn into fruition.”
As an example, he points to the nearby Fort Jenkins and Water Street bridges, both closed.
Cartwright and Casey announced a $19 million federal grant to repair the spans last year with money from the bipartisan infrastructure bill they supported. The state is handling construction, and work began on the Fort Jenkins span in June. The Water Street Bridge is expected to be demolished in 2026, according to local officials, and replaced.
Bresnahan and GOP ads also zero in on Cartwright’s support for Biden policies, tying him to inflation and migration at the Southern border.
“This is my home,” Bresnahan said. “I want to make it the best possible place it could be.”
The outcome could resonate far beyond.
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