Paige Cognetti

Cognetti was born in Eugene, Oregon. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oregon's Robert D. Clark Honors College with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and Romance languages, and earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. Cognetti first worked as an English teacher in Japan with the JET Programme. She was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaigns and served as an advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Obama's first term. ==Political career==

Cognetti was appointed to the Scranton School Board in 2017, but resigned in December 2018 to become a special assistant to Pennsylvania's then state auditor, Eugene DePasquale. She has run on reform and pragmatism platforms; on the school board, she criticized Scranton's no-bid school bus contracts and unapproved payments to contractors. Mayor of Scranton In 2019, Cognetti ran in the special election to finish the term of former Scranton mayor Bill Courtright, who had pleaded guilty to corruption charges in July that year. A lifelong Democrat, Cognetti ran as an independent after she deemed the local Democratic Party's closed caucus system undemocratic. Her campaign focused on investments and budgets for local businesses, education, and infrastructure. Cognetti won the special election with 36% of the vote. 2026 U.S. House campaign On September 2, 2025, Cognetti announced her candidacy for Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district in 2026, aiming to unseat Republican incumbent Representative Rob Bresnahan. Cognetti identified as a progressive independent in 2019. She is involved with the Majority Democrats PAC. ==Personal life==

She is married to Ryan Cognetti and has two children. ==Electoral history==

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