Dems sweat union support in key Pennsylvania battleground

Democrats have a union problem in working-class Scranton.

The city that gave President Joe Biden his blue-collar bona fides sits at the center of a battleground district that's critical to Democrats' hopes of retaking the House. Now, several unions are breaking for the Republican incumbent in a highly competitive district that shifted toward President Donald Trump in 2024 — underscoring the challenges Democrats continue to face in winning back working-class voters.

Over the past few months, GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan has locked up support from several major unions that had endorsed the Democrat he unseated in 2024, including the American Federation of Government Employees and the Pennsylvania Laborers' District Council. The laborers' council had also backed Bresnahan's Democratic challenger, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, in her last mayoral bid.

Phil Glover, who leads the AFGE chapter for the region, told POLITICO that "we would like the House to flip" to Democratic control and is supporting the party's candidates in other races in Pennsylvania. But he said Bresnahan has shown he has the union's back — including by crossing party lines to support a bill that would restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers — and they would have his in return.

"I believe overall the Democratic Party is better for unions," Glover said. But "there are individuals in the Republican Party that have chosen to build relationships with unions in their districts, and for those people I think you don't just jump off that train whenever there's a [Democrat] running."

That support is straightforward compared to the other union endorsement Bresnahan recently secured.

Last week, the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters endorsed him — nearly two months after its members appeared to endorse Cognetti in a voice vote at the union's convention in late April, per social media posts and a video captured by Pennsylvania Cable News and reviewed by POLITICO.

The state and national Teamsters chapters declined to respond to repeated requests for comment from POLITICO. Cognetti and staffers for both her campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — who had promoted her seeming endorsement on social media but later deleted the posts, according to screenshots shared with POLITICO — also declined to respond to questions about the situation.

The Teamsters' political arm donated $5,000 to Bresnahan's campaign last year, along with contributions to several other battleground Republicans and GOP campaign arms.

It's a bizarre turn of events from an arm of the powerful union that caused an uproar in 2024 when its president spoke at the Republican National Convention and the Teamsters declined to endorse a presidential candidate after backing Democrats for decades.

And it's part of a longer pattern of Democrats bleeding support from their traditional allies in organized labor, especially from the building-trades unions. Several of them went in early for GOP gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio. National exit polls also show voters in households with a union member shifted right between 2020, when Biden won them by a 16-point margin, and 2024, when Vice President Kamala Harris only carried the group by an 8-point margin.

Democrats argue that Pennsylvania unions tend to favor incumbents and suggested Cognetti could easily overcome the endorsements for the incumbent given the dour midterm outlook for Republicans. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has endorsed Cognetti, called her a "far better fit for the district" than the first-term Republican who "voted to take health care away from tens of thousands of people in the Scranton area" when asked by POLITICO about the union shifts.

Cognetti also counts several major unions in her corner, including the state's largest teachers' union and the SEIU PA State Council, as well as several local trades unions. Her campaign argued that Bresnahan, who's faced a firestorm of criticism over his regular stock trading despite calling to ban it, is disconnected from the working class.

"Rob Bresnahan is no friend of working people: he is a poster child for public corruption, enriching himself by playing the stock market on his votes that are hurting hardworking Northeastern Pennsylvanians," Emma Mustion, a spokesperson for Cognetti's camp, said in a statement.

Republicans cast the 8th District shifts as signs of trouble for Cognetti, who has also had some friction with local unions as mayor, in a closely contested congressional race. Samantha Bullock, a spokesperson for Bresnahan, said "Democrats have a serious problem on their hands with Paige Cognetti's failure to hold onto labor support in this district."

Cognetti's strategy "has got to be running up the numbers in Scranton and Wilkes Barre," which are the bluer parts of the district, said local GOP strategist Vince Galko, who's not working with either campaign. But "the heart of her base in those areas are trade unions … and they're siding with her opponent," he said. "That's not a good sign."

Adam Wren contributed to this report.