Race between Cartwright and Bresnahan down to the wire

WILKES-BARRE — At press time, Republican challenger and business owner Rob Bresnahan Jr. held a narrow lead by a couple thousand votes over Democrat incumbent Matt Cartwright in the 8th Congressional District race, one of the most closely watched in the county.

According to unofficial and incomplete results, at approximately 11:27 p.m., Bresnahan had tallied 174,958 (50.59%) votes to 170,875 (49.41%) for Cartwright.

All results remain unofficial until they are certified by the county Board of Elections.

The 8th Congressional District of Pennsylvania includes all of Lackawanna, Pike, Wayne and parts of Luzerne County.

At press time, according to the AP, roughly 95% of votes were counted for Lackawanna County, 85% for Luzerne County, 82% for Monroe County, 95% for Pike County, and 95% for Wayne County.

Cartwright, 63, of Moosic, is seeking his seventh 2-year term in the House of Representatives.

Cartwright was first elected to the seat in 2012 and most recently won reelection in November of 2022, when he defeated Republican Jim Bognet by 7,000 votes.

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.

Bresnahan, 34, of Dallas Township, is the President of RPB Ventures LLC and is a graduate of the University of Scranton.

According to previous Times Leader reporting, after months of speculation, he filed to run against the longtime Democrat incumbent in October of last year.

During a recent interview with the Times Leader Editorial Board, both candidates discussed their stance on various issues affecting voters, including border security, reproductive rights, healthcare and what their plans would be if elected.

Of note, Cartwright said he is committed to continue fighting for women’s health and freedom and that he will continue to advocate for expanded access to family planning and IVF.

He also co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act to restore the federal protections of Roe v. Wade.

“There’s only one person who should make that choice for a woman — herself,” Cartwright said.

Bresnahan also discussed his stance on reproductive rights, pushing back against attack ads painting him as an extremist on abortion rights.

“I’ve been on the record, from day one, that I would never support a federal ban on abortion,” Bresnahan said at the time, adding that he also believed in exceptions in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.

Additionally, Cartwright discussed the challenge voters are facing of affording life-saving medications. He said he helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act — landmark legislation that brought down insurance premiums, capped insulin co-pays at $35 and limited out-of-pocket costs for seniors on Medicare.

“Importantly, it finally gave Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, reining in Big Pharma and generating meaningful savings for Americans,” Cartwright said.

Bresnahan said if elected he would legislate with his union roots in mind and as a business owner, Bresnahan discussed his cooperation with collective bargaining agreements.

The business owner added that he would like to see the expansion of 529 plans, which helps students in college, trade schools and vocational schools pay for their educational expenses.

Both Cartwright and Bresnahan highlighted border security as a key issue, Cartwright saying that he favored a tough border bill.

“We have to have control over all of our borders,” Cartwright said. “We have to have quicker adjudication of people wanting to come across the border. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, Cartwright said he voted to increase funding for customs and border protection by more than $1 billion.

Bresnahan told the Times Leader that he had been to the border twice — once near Yuma, Arizona, and again near Sierra Vista, Arizona, where he painted a sinister picture of migrant crossings.

In Sierra Vista, Bresnahan painted a sinister picture of the migrant crossings and called them a “humanitarian crisis.”

“These are people that are not eligible for asylum. They are cartel-organized, gang-run operations,” Bresnahan said. “This is what I saw.”

If elected, Bresnahan said he planned to vote in the best interest of the people of the region, even if it meant bucking party politics.

Although Bresnahan framed Cartwright as a partisan who breaks with the Democrats “less than two percent of the time,” Cartwright said he is committed to working across the aisle to address the issue of border security, and that he voted with Republicans to fund border wall construction.

Additionally, Cartwright said that since taking office in 2013, he introduced more bills with Democratic and Republican support than any other House Democrat. This includes sponsoring bills to fund state and local law enforcement, prevent and prosecute violence against women and expand hearing benefits for seniors on Medicare.