Scranton crime spike dogs Dem mayor as she challenges GOP Rep in Biden’s hometown
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is battling a crime crisis in former President Joe Biden’s hometown as she mounts a challenge against freshman GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. in an evenly...
By Fox News · Fox News
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is battling a crime crisis in former President Joe Biden ’s hometown as she mounts a challenge against freshman GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. in an evenly divided swing district. The Electric City has seen a rise in violent incidents, according to local outlets, with five homicides recorded in the first half of 2024 — more than the previous year overall — and a police officer shot in the head who survived. All this comes as Pennsylvania again plays its role as a political bellwether, with at least three congressional districts in the Commonwealth rated even on a partisan level or within one point in either party’s favor. The 8th District — where Cognetti is challenging Bresnahan — is no different. MAJOR CITIES SEE VIOLENT CRIME SURGE AS NATIONAL RATES PLUMMET SIGNIFICANTLY IN 2025: SURVEY During the 2025 Scranton mayoral debate, Cognetti was pressed on crime statistics reported in the New York Post. She replied that the paper — a corporate cousin of Fox News Digital — is "not a crime database." "You can go to the actual crime database; you can check those stats online and see that crime is in fact not spiking in the City of Scranton. You can see by every single type of incident what that looks like." In 2020, Cognetti said during an interview with the Black Scranton Project that she would like to see a city where police officers do not have to carry firearms. "I do want to get to a point where we don't have to worry about any officers having holsters or guns in them. That is ideally where we get in our whole country," she said, amid a broader discussion on the importance of body cameras. "I lived in Japan, in those cities, that is where we need to get. We have a long way to get there," she said, adding that there are also law-abiding gun owners like her brother who lives near Glacier National Park and hunts. A 2024 New York Post report cited Scranton residents concerned about crime, including gang-related shootings, a student found with a…