U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted Republicans will expand their narrow House majority in the November midterm election during a visit Wednesday to Wilkes-Barre.
“I feel very bullish about the midterm election,” Johnson said. “I'm absolutely convinced we're going to defy the historic trend. Republicans are going to keep and grow our majority in the House so that we can keep this going.”
Johnson spoke during a news conference aimed at promoting Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s reelection campaign against Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democrat. The stop at the Mary Stegmaier mansion was the latest on the speaker’s 30-day tour of 34 competitive House districts in 18 states.
Johnson questions polling
Johnson, a Louisiana representative, challenged the premise of a WVIA News question centered on President Donald Trump’s slumping job approval ratings and polls showing doubt about Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last summer.
The RealClearPolling.com average of polls during the last month shows Trump’s job approval rating at 39.2% compared to 58.4% disapproval. A July poll by Politico, an online publication that tracks politics, found almost half of voters can’t explain the bill. The ones who can are more likely to say it doesn’t benefit them, Politico reported.
Johnson said the act provided “the biggest tax cut in history” and created business conditions that will mean new jobs and a “pathway out of poverty for more people, so that wages are increased and you have more opportunity for people who are working hard to make ends meet.”
“What I'm seeing is energy on the ground. I'm seeing hardworking American families who understand this Congress fulfilled our promises that we made in 2024,” he said.
Backing Bresnahan, bashing 'Marxists and communists'
Johnson called Bresnahan “an extraordinary member of Congress” and portrayed the midterm election as “unlike any other in the past.”
“It's going to decide the future of the republic because we are locked in a contest between people who love America and its founding principles, and Marxists and communists, frankly, who are battling to take over the Democrat Party and want to tear that thing down to the foundation and go down a different road,” Johnson said.
“We're not going to do that. You're going to have patriots like Rob Bresnahan who get reelected,” he said.
Ripping Cognetti's crime record
The bulk of the news conference had Bresnahan portraying Cognetti as soft on crime and two local police chiefs touting his crimefighting record.
Bresnahan called for “an honest conversation” about Cognetti’s public safety record and “not a conversation spoon-fed to the media by her administration.”
He pointed to crime statistics that show 27% more murders in Scranton from 2019 to 2024 compared to the previous six years (an increase from 11 to 14); 449 rapes between from 2021 to 2025 compared to 158 between 2014 to 2018; and a 116% increase in arson from 2019 to 2024 (six in 2019, 13 in 2024).
“So those are the statistics. That's numbers that cannot be argued with,” he said.
Scranton Police Chief Thomas Carroll has said fewer rapes were counted as rapes before 2021 because many were classified as aggravated assaults, creating what looks like a large “discrepancy.”
A WVIA News analysis showed serious crime in Scranton dropped 4.1% from 2021 to 2025, but that number includes homicide/murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, rape, robbery, burglary, thefts from either a vehicle or otherwise, arson and human trafficking.
Carroll has said statistics for these years are the most reliable because a new reporting system was fully in place by then. He called rape and aggravated assault statistics for 2019, the year before Cognetti took office, and 2020, her first year, unreliable because of duplicate reporting and the transition to the new reporting system.
Bresnahan also pointed to his six police union endorsements compared to Cognetti’s none.
“I'm proud to have the support of six fraternal orders of police because law enforcement knows I will have their back,” he said.
Cognetti on endorsements
Asked about her lack of police endorsements in an in interview two weeks ago, Cognetti noted her support by the state AFL-CIO, which includes many unions, but said police unions never interview her before endorsing, though firefighter unions do.
“If you look at that, it probably is no surprise that I've not been asked to sit before the FOPs,” Cognetti said. “I think they have a pre-cooked plan for the type of politician that they support, and I think that the politicians that they support are independent of record and more based on partisan politics.”
Chiefs back Bresnahan
Wyoming Area Regional Police Department Michael Turner touted Bresnahan obtaining “millions and millions of dollars for police departments, emergency services, and he requested millions more for this year.”
“I've known Rob and his family my entire life. One thing for sure, I don't want my area to be the city of Scranton,” he said.
Kingston Police Chief Richard Kotchik echoed Turner.
“His support and commitment to securing resources for law enforcement have helped police departments make important investments in technology, modernize reporting systems and update patrol vehicles throughout our Commonwealth,” Kotchik said.
Cognetti defends crime record
Cognetti touts the city adding five more police officers in the midst of a spike in homicides and gang violence in 2024, spending more than $5 million to upgrade police equipment and training, and plans for a new police command center next to City Hall.
In a statement issued by her campaign after Johnson’s visit, Cognetti portrayed Bresnahan as failing to act independently and teaming up “with Washington party bosses like Mike Johnson to spread lies about our communities.”
“As a mayor and as a mom, public safety is personal to me,” she said. “That’s why I’ve invested millions of dollars in local law enforcement to keep our community safe and make our police officers safer on the job.”
