U.S. House of Representatives candidate Jim Bognet speaks to reporters at Monday’s ‘MAGA Meet-Up’ at the Luzerne County Republican Party’s Kingston office.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
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A crowd listens to congressional candidate Jim Bognet as Monday’s ‘MAGA Meet-Up.’
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, speaks to reporters at Monday’s ‘MAGA Meet-Up’ at the Luzerne County Republican Party’s Kingston office.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
KINGSTON — Ahead of President Trump’s visit to Old Forge on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, and congressional candidate Jim Bognet stopped by the Republican Party of Luzerne County’s Kingston office for a “MAGA Meet-Up” on Monday afternoon.
The small neighborhood gathering was hosted jointly by the Luzerne County Republicans and Trump Victory, a fundraising campaign for the president’s reelection effort.
Meuser and Bognet, who is running for Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district seat against incumbent U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, spoke with reporters before the event started.
“President Trump is going to win Pennsylvania,” Meuser said, a prediction that he would later echo when speaking to the group of local citizens gathered in the building. “We’ve already gotten over 100,000 sign-ups for Trump victory, and everyone is working very hard on a second term.”
Meuser and Bognet both spoke on a variety of topics, including stimulus payments being paid out to Americans and the hot-button issue of mail-in voting, a practice that Trump has spoken against.
“I will be going to the polls to vote, that’s what I believe in,” Bognet said. “I believe that everyone who has the right to vote should have the ability to vote.”
“We don’t want there to be any funny business…some of these ballots are being sent to people whether they’re dead or alive,” Meuser chimed in.
The crowd, about twenty or so men and women, socially distanced and wearing masks (Trump 2020 masks, in many cases; Meuser handed one out to a woman waiting outside as he entered the building), were very energetic when Bognet and Meuser took center stage.
Bognet, a Hazleton native, spoke fondly of his roots in Northeastern Pennsylvania and took shots at his opponent, claiming that Cartwright “was an absentee congressman.”
“Cartwright doesn’t work for the people, President Trump works for the people, and I will work for the people,” Bognet said.