The National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday launched its first joint ad campaign with a GOP candidate, months after a Supreme Court ruling lifted caps on coordinated party spending.
The ad campaign, in conjunction with vulnerable Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), features two ads boosting the first-term lawmaker. Bresnahan, who faced scrutiny over stock trades made by his financial adviser in 2025, is set to face Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti in November.
The NRCC and Bresnahan are spending $81,000 on the ads that will air for about a week, according to data from nonpartisan tracking firm AdImpact. While a low sum, the Supreme Court ruling opened the doors for political parties to access the discounted advertising rates traditionally offered to political candidates under federal law.
Prior to the ruling, political committees could spend limited amounts — $65,000 for most House candidates — in conjunction with a candidate, according to the Federal Election Commission.
NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement announcing the ad campaign that the Supreme Court’s “historic” ruling “gives us the ability to better amplify the message House Republicans are already winning on as we continue building on the momentum that will grow our Republican majority in November.”
“The NRCC is proud to launch its first coordinated campaign under this historic Supreme Court decision alongside Congressman Rob Bresnahan, who continues delivering meaningful results for Northeast Pennsylvania,” Marinella said.
The two advertisements, titled “Keep Caring” and “On Call,” feature testimonials from a fire chief and a nurse in Northeastern Pennsylvania, which is represented by Bresnahan in the state’s 8th District.
The first ad, featuring a nurse identified as Lisa, praises Bresnahan for his work supporting rural hospitals in the community.
“We were one of multiple hospitals in northeastern Pennsylvania set to close,” Lisa says in the ad. “Rob Bresnahan was relentless.”
She continued, “He helped negotiate a deal to keep our doors open. He saved all of our jobs, and he helped maintain healthcare for everybody. Rob Bresnahan paid attention to the needs of the people in northeastern Pennsylvania.”
The ad is in reference to Bresnahan’s efforts to help negotiate a deal to keep the doors of two Scranton hospitals open as efforts to find a viable buyer continued. Bresnahan was also a key negotiator of the Rural Health Transformation Program fund, passed as part of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA) said in a previous statement about Bresnahan that the Republican has “made himself the poster child of Washington corruption and completely broken the trust of hardworking Northeastern Pennsylvanians.”
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“He has used his office to benefit himself while unleashing higher prices and devastating health care cuts on his own community,” DelBene said, referring to the cuts to Medicaid made in the GOP’s party-line bill. “Paige Cognetti fights political corruption wherever she sees it because she believes that our government should work as hard as the people it serves.”
The joint ads will air on broadcast, cable, and radio across Scranton.