U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the Moosic home of an area businessman Friday afternoon to raise campaign money for U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s re-election.
Johnson attended a fundraiser at the home of William Rosado, the owner of the Rosado Group automobile dealerships and restaurants in Milford.
An aide to Bresnahan said the fundraiser was closed to the press. Bresnahan and Johnson did not address a reporter waiting outside.
Johnson arrived about 2:30 p.m. and left about 4. Dozens of cars lined Amato and Glenmaura drives near Rosado’s home.
Who was there?
The attendees included former U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood, Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak, Wyoming County District Attorney Joseph Peters, former Lackawanna County Republican Party chairman Lance Stange, Republican consultant Vince Galko, state Rep. Robert Leadbeter, R-Columbia, insurance executive and television talk show host Chuck Volpe and David Demas, president of a federal prison guard union local. A sign proclaiming “Union Members for Rob Bresnahan” adorned the edge of the property.
Bresnahan, 35, a first-term Republican congressman from Dallas Twp., Luzerne County, faces Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, 45, a Democrat, for the 8th Congressional District seat.
Cognetti criticizes Bresnahan, Johnson
Efforts to reach Cognetti were unsuccessful, but her campaign issued a statement quoting her.
“Rob Bresnahan and Mike Johnson are part of a broken and corrupt Washington that allows politicians to get richer while NEPA families get sold out,” Cognetti said. “It’s laughable they’re touting their work together in D.C., which includes devastating cuts to our healthcare system and higher prices at the pump. We deserve so much better.”
A hot race
The 8th district is expected to become one of the most hotly contested in the country. The seat is one of four in Pennsylvania that Democrats are targeting. Johnson’s visit to Moosic was one of four he attended this week for Republicans running in the targeted seats. Before attending the Bresnahan fundraiser, he appeared in Allentown at a fundraiser for Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh, whose district includes the Lehigh Valley, Carbon County and a sliver of Monroe County.
The 8th district’s seat’s competitive nature — Bresnahan defeated former Rep. Matt Cartwright in 2024 by only 1.6 percentage points — has repeatedly attracted top House Republicans to campaign for Bresnahan. The candidates and outside groups spent tens of millions of dollars on that race.
Johnson raised money for Bresnahan on May 20, 2024, at a Dallas Twp. home.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise publicly campaigned for Bresnahan on April 8, 2024, in Kingston, and Oct. 30, 2024, in West Pittston.
The 8th district consists of all of Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike counties; roughly the eastern half of Luzerne County, including Wilkes-Barre, Pittston and Hazleton; and all of Monroe County, except for Polk and Eldred townships and part of Ross Township.