Scranton, Pennsylvania, Mayor Paige Cognetti’s past comments supporting the separation of local police from federal immigration enforcement are drawing new scrutiny as the Democrat campaigns for Congress on a message of political independence in one of the country’s most competitive House races.
Cognetti, who is challenging freshman Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, has repeatedly emphasized her willingness to break with her own party and revived the “Paige Against the Machine” message that helped propel her first campaign for mayor.
But Republicans are pointing to comments Cognetti made in 2020, during her first year as mayor, as evidence that her record is more liberal than the image she is presenting to voters.
During a June 2020 interview with Black Scranton, Cognetti discussed the Scranton Police Department’s relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and said city police were not involved in federal immigration raids.
“We don’t want to be a part of those,” Cognetti said. “The Scranton Police Department is not going to be a part of an ICE raid, which is a good thing; we shouldn’t be.”
Cognetti also stressed at the time that Scranton was not a sanctuary city, while saying she was pleased it had developed a reputation as a welcoming community.
“I am glad that we have a reputation for being welcoming. I want to more and more be that city,” Cognetti said. “There are ways we definitely, definitely need to make sure that we are more welcoming, but we are not technically a sanctuary city on the books.”
The conversation also turned to Scranton’s decision not to participate in a federal program that would have more closely aligned local resources with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. Cognetti initially said she could “argue it both ways” when asked which approach was preferable and noted that her administration had not revisited the decision during her first several months in office.
But she later said her “gut reaction” was that she preferred Scranton not participate, citing concerns that involving local officers in federal immigration enforcement could undermine trust between police and residents.
“I like that we’re not opted in because I don’t want the Scranton police officers to go do something in the community they don’t believe in,” Cognetti said. She added that she did not want police to “build trust with our community and then completely break the trust because we’re told by a federal agent what we have to do.”
Cognetti’s campaign pushed back against Republicans’ characterization of her record, pointing to more recent comments in which the mayor has supported securing the border and said that local officials would not interfere with lawful federal immigration enforcement.
“Paige first ran for mayor as an independent outsider against a corrupt Democratic machine, so she’s no stranger to calling out politicians from either party when they get it wrong,” a Cognetti campaign spokesperson said, speaking to the Washington Examiner. “Like a lot of Northeastern Pennsylvanians, she has seen what the scourge of fentanyl has done to our community and has said that [former President Joe Biden] didn’t do enough to secure the southern border.”
The spokesperson added that Cognetti “supports a secure border and removing violent criminals from our streets.”
The campaign also pointed to comments Cognetti made in January 2025, when she reiterated that Scranton is not a sanctuary city and said her administration would not obstruct lawful ICE activity.
“It’s important to note too that Scranton is not a sanctuary city, Lackawanna County is not a sanctuary county, so if ICE comes in with lawful warrants, they will execute those warrants,” Cognetti told local television station WBRE.
“We would never stand in the way of the lawful procedures of the federal ICE agency,” she added.
Cognetti has also criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border. In a January interview with the Contrarian, she called what happened at the border during the early years of the Biden administration “a huge misstep.”
“The secure border is a very, very important thing,” Cognetti said. “I think that was a huge misstep during the Biden administration that they let happen, what they let happen in the first couple of years. It was really terrible.”
Her concerns about the border predate her congressional campaign. In 2021, Cognetti said the federal government needed “better control at our borders” while discussing the flow of fentanyl into northeastern Pennsylvania.
The Bresnahan campaign argued that the 2020 ICE comments undercut the moderate image Cognetti has sought to project.
“Paige Cognetti is a raging, Harvard-educated liberal from Portland whose recent fake moderate act is nothing but a ploy to distract voters from the fact that up to this point, she has embraced and passed every left-wing litmus test, including non-cooperation with ICE, with flying colors,” Bresnahan campaign spokeswoman Samantha Bullock said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
The dispute over immigration comes as Republicans have stepped up a broader effort to challenge Cognetti’s record on policing and public safety. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) traveled to the district Wednesday to campaign alongside Bresnahan and local law enforcement officials, where he emphasized Republicans’ support for police and vowed the party would continue to “back the blue.”
Bresnahan used the appearance to accuse Cognetti’s administration of cutting funding available for police guns and ammunition. His campaign has also pointed to mandatory unconscious-bias training for Scranton police officers and Cognetti-backed diversity and equity initiatives as evidence of what it argues is a broader liberal record.
The broader budget picture is more complicated. Scranton records show overall police spending increased 21.5% between 2020 and 2024, while funding for ammunition increased from $20,000 to $50,000 during Cognetti’s first year in office.
Cognetti’s campaign has also pointed to an analysis of federal and state crime data that found serious crime in Scranton declined 4.1% from the beginning of 2021 through 2025. The campaign says her administration has invested more than $5 million in police training, recruitment, and technology. Scranton Police Chief Thomas Carroll recently told local television station WVIA that he has had “full support from this administration at every turn.”
Cognetti has sought to turn the race toward Bresnahan’s record in Congress, making the incumbent’s stock trading a central part of her campaign against him. She has accused Bresnahan of failing to live up to earlier rhetoric supporting restrictions on lawmakers trading individual stocks.
The race is expected to be among the most competitive House contests in the country as Democrats seek to retake the majority. The Cook Political Report rates the contest a “Toss Up” and gives the northeastern Pennsylvania district a Republican partisan voting index of R+4.
Bresnahan narrowly flipped the seat for Republicans in 2024, defeating longtime Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright with 50.8% of the vote. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, carried the district by 9 percentage points over former Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Democrats view the freshman Republican as one of their top targets as the battle for control of the House plays out in a small number of closely divided districts.
Recent polling has also pointed to a tight contest. A Democratic House Majority PAC poll released in June showed Cognetti leading Bresnahan 47% to 45%, within the survey’s margin of error.