Bresnahan files to run against Cartwright in 8th District

Rob plans to run.

After months of speculation, Pittston native and businessman Rob Bresnahan Jr. has filed paperwork seeking the Republican nomination for the 8th District Congressional seat long held by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic.

Bresnahan, 33, of Dallas Township, said he has received “a humbling amount of encouragement” to enter the 8th Congressional District race.

Bresnahan filed a statement of candidacy on Monday, according to Federal Election Commission records, which lists his campaign committee as “Rob for PA,” with a Pittston address.

“I was born, raised, and educated in Northeastern Pennsylvania and have spent my professional life focused on creating family-sustaining union careers and investing in redevelopment projects in the Wyoming Valley,” Bresnahan said. “I am honored to be considered a voice for our community and I look forward to advocating for the place I have always called home in Congress.”

Bresnahan said he will be announcing his plans in the coming weeks.

At this time only Bresnahan and Cartwright are listed as candidates for the seat, which will be up for election again in November 2024.

Cartwright, 62, is serving his 6th two-year term in Congress. A senior member of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, Cartwright serves as the ranking member of the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee and he is the second-highest Democrat on the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee.

First elected to the seat in 2012, Cartwright most recently won reelection last November, when he defeated Republican Jim Bognet by 7,000 votes in one of the most-closely watched races in the country. Cartwright also defeated Bognet in 2020.

Bresnahan, meanwhile, was tipped as a possible Cartwright challenger in an August Politico report that suggested he and Air Force veteran Jon “Slick” Baum were “weighing bids in northeast Pennsylvania to take on Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright in his Trump-friendly district.”

“Both could self-fund,” the Politico report noted.

A Politics PA report on his filing noted that Bresnahan serves as president of RPB Ventures LLC and also served on the Board of Directors for the Penn-Del-Jersey Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA).

The grandson of Walter and Rhonda Kuharchik of Kuharchik Construction, Bresnahan started working for his grandparents when he was 19, as described in a 2022 Sunday Dispatch profile about his investments in the Pittston community.