ICYMI: Mayor Paige Goes on Pod Save America to Talk About Her Campaign Against “One of the Most Active Stock Traders in Congress,” Rob Bresnahan

Paige: “People really want to see change. They want to see that you’re there for them and you’re not there to build your career and pad your pockets.”

SCRANTON, PA – Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti and candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District recently joined Jon Favreau on Crooked Media’s Pod Save America to talk about her record of cleaning up corruption and her plans to take that fight to Washington on behalf of the hardworking people of Northeastern Pennsylvania. 

Paige highlighted the stark contrast between her record and Bresnahan’s since he got to Congress just 22 months ago—starting with breaking his campaign promise to ban congressional stock trading. Bresnahan got to trading on Day 1 in Washington, making over 600 stock trades worth $8 million. He has earned the title of “one of the most prolific stock traders” in Congress.

WATCH FULL SEGMENT HERE

TRANSCRIPT HIGHLIGHTS:

Jon Favreau: “You’ve been mayor for seven years, and you obviously changed a lot about Scranton. You’ve cleaned up a lot of corruption… What is something that you’ve changed about the way your city runs and the way government runs in Scranton that you would try to bring to Washington?”

Paige: “Obviously it’s a different scale. But when I came in in the wake of this scandal, I knew I had to do things differently. So I didn’t take the car for the mayor. There was a mayor car. I gave that to [the police department]. The detective has it. I have no gas card. I won’t take any of those types of perks. That was really important to show people that I was here to lead them. I don’t take any campaign money from any city vendors or any city employees… that was so important to me.

“When I think of DC, I think about our anti-corruption plan. We don’t take corporate PAC money. Obviously, we need a stock trading ban. You can’t be trading stocks on information the American people don’t have. We’ll get to that with my opponent. But we have to show people that we care and we’re there for them. No one forces you to run for Congress. No one forces you to run for mayor. It’s a choice. It is not a choice that is going to get you a beach house.

“I’ve been really proud of what we’ve done. I could have gotten a pay raise this year. I turned the pay raise down. We have to show people that you can run a government.

“We’re seeing that even in some polls, corruption is the number one thing that people are worried about. They should be. We are broken, we’ve got to fix the system, and it starts with a new Congress in January.”

ABOUT PAIGE:

Paige Cognetti lives in Scranton with her husband and two daughters. Prior to her tenure as Mayor, Paige served on the Scranton School Board in 2017 and as a special assistant to the Pennsylvania Auditor General in 2018 where she worked to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in government. 

In 2019, Paige ran for mayor of Scranton as an Independent, taking on the local political establishment in a campaign that was referred to as “Paige Against The Machine.” Paige chose to run as an Independent after the then-mayor resigned after pleading guilty to federal bribery, conspiracy and extortion charges. Paige stunned Scranton’s political establishment when she won thanks to her promise to clean up the corruption in Scranton. Paige was the first woman ever elected Scranton Mayor, and was eight months pregnant when she won. Paige ran for reelection as a Democrat in 2021, winning a full term with over 71% of the vote and beating the Machine again. She beat the longtime local Democratic boss with 76% of the vote in the Democratic Primary in May of 2025.  

As Mayor of Scranton, Paige has made government reform a top priority. In office she has:

• Turned down the city government car and gas card
• Eliminated cash payments and took on no bid contracts
• Took on utilities and fought big businesses gouging consumers
• Held more than 100 public events across every neighborhood in the city
• Cut red tape, slashing building permit fees 
• Led the city’s credit rating to investment-grade status
• Saved millions for taxpayers by refinancing bonds

Paige has reinvigorated the city’s finances and helped attract new businesses while simultaneously laying a solid foundation for a brighter future — restoring confidence through responsible government and reimagining outdated ways of doing business. 

Now Paige is running for Congress to clean up corruption in Washington and give the people of NEPA a Congresswoman who will work just as hard as they do. Congressman Bresnahan campaigned on a pledge to ban congressional stock trading, but has instead made more than 600 trades worth millions in assets since arriving in Washington. When pressed by WVIA on why he won’t stop trading stocks while in office, Bresnahan – who has reported assets in the tens of millions – complained that he did not want to “lose money and go broke.” Most recently, unearthed audio revealed that Bresnahan admitted to speaking with his financial advisor about his upcoming stock positions while voting in Congress.

For more on Paige’s campaign, go to PaigeforPA.com.

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