NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA — Ahead of the November 8 midterms, Democratic incumbent Rep. Matt Cartwright and Republican challenger Jim Bognet recently faced each other in a debate televised on WVIA.

Bognet had publicly called for more than just one debate. Wasting no time during the single one he got, the former Trump appointee first uttered the phrase “Biden-Cartwright inflation” during his opening statements, and would repeat it many more times as the night went on, consistently blaming Biden—and by association Cartwright—for the financial strain voters are currently feeling.

Sticking to his standard election-year playbook, Cartwright opened by immediately reminding voters that as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, he “gives NEPA the kind of clout that we haven’t had in a long time.” And staying on brand as a moderate, he also said that he’s worked across the aisle with Republican lawmakers more than any other Democrat in the past decade—voting with the opposing party 77 percent of the time on legislation.

Cartwright has represented Northeast PA in Washington since 2012; despite his lengthy tenure, his reelection is no sure bet. Cartwright won reelection over Bognet in 2020 by just 3.6 points, his lowest margin victory so far. That same election year, Donald Trump carried the district by 4.4 points over President Joe Biden.

With notable rural pockets and a largely conservative constituency in his district, Cartwright has worked hard to appeal to Trump voters, while Bognet has taken every opportunity to make his opponent’s name synonymous with other high-profile Democrats—like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.

Social security

Asked by one of the three panel members about Social Security, both candidates pledged their support of the program, and both questioned the other’s honesty. Bognet said that he would not cut Social Security benefits nor raise the retirement age. To pay for it all, Bognet said he would implement “pro-growth” economic policies, which means stopping the “war on oil and gas” and allowing Pennsylvania to power the Eastern seaboard.

Cartwright noted that he’s received the endorsement of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, as well as his co-sponsorship of the Social Security 2100 Act, which would raise the cap so that more Americans pay into the program for longer, therefore extending the program’s solvency.

“My opponent on the other hand, seems to have found an epiphany about Social Security,” Cartwright said, referencing Bognet’s time working on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, during which he appeared on CSPAN and discussed cutting Social Security. “He called it the big enchilada of entitlements… now he’s singing a different song, but I tell you, I don’t think a leopard changes his spots.”

Reproductive freedom

A hot-button issue in nearly every election across the country this year, a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, also came up during the debate. Cartwright accused Bognet of extremism, and Bognet accused Cartwright of flip-flopping.

“When [Cartwright] ran for this office 10 years ago, he ran with the exact same position I have. He was pro-life with three exceptions: for rape, incest and for the life of the mother,” Bognet said. “In my heart, I believe he still has that position, but Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden require him to be pro-choice to get elected.”

Cartwright countered that while he and his wife are Catholics who would not choose abortion, he denied ever campaigning on taking away women’s reproductive freedom.

“Women ought to make their own choices; it’s up to them,” Cartwright said.

Bognet said that he believes that the issue has been sent back to the states, “where it belongs,” and he would not support taking federal action on abortion.

Gun control

On gun control, Cartwright said he supported giving local municipalities a say on gun access, but that the larger point is for Washington to create broader gun safety laws in the wake of so many mass shootings.

“We have to do sensible things with gun safety laws,” Cartwright said. “I’m a gun owner; I’m a hunter; I’m not interested in going around sweeping up people’s guns, but we have to keep guns in safe hands.”

Bognet disagreed with the notion of local control over gun access, saying that representatives should instead crack down on people who commit crimes using stolen, unregistered weapons. He agreed that the countless shootings that have taken place over the past 10 years are “barbaric” tragedies, but said that in that time, Cartwright has done nothing to put an end to gun crimes.

Bognet harkened back to a campaign sticking point from the previous election, saying that there has been a “crime wave” in this country ever since the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020, when Cartwright and other Democrats “did not support our police, they supported Antifa rioters.”

Cartwright said that Bognet was still trying to wrongly connect him with the “defund the police” movement that arose out of BLM, despite the fact that Cartwright has gone on record as not in support of defunding the police. Cartwright further accused Bognet of doctoring audio from a talk he gave in 2020, to create the opposite impression of what he truly said about police.

“[It was] one of the most dishonest, dishonorable things I’ve ever heard, that’s what [Bognet] did,” Cartwright said.

Bognet denied doctoring the audio, calling it a “New York lawyer lie.”

“I took the audio from his speech [to] the Black Scranton Project, a radical, pro-crime group, and I put it on TV… can you imagine talking to a group like that?” Bognet said.

According to its website, the Black Scranton Project [BSP] is a nonprofit organization and local heritage initiative dedicated to archiving and celebrating Black history and culture of the Scranton region. The group “aims to uplift the creative and cultural spirit in the Scranton area by supporting community artistic and ethnic representation in an effort to elevate the core of neighborhood culture.”

Founder Glynis Johns released a statement following the debate, calling Bognet’s words a mischaracterization and “disheartening.”

“We find it disappointing that our organization was used to leverage a political campaign,” she said. “It must be noted that we continue to forge a relationship with law enforcement built on respect and transparency. In fact, BSP has partnered with the Scranton Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police and the Scranton FBI for a variety of initiatives.”

The full WVIA debate can be viewed online. BSP’s full statement can be read at www.blackscranton.org/press.