Freshman Focus: Republican Rob Bresnahan, who ousted six-term House Democrat, reveals how he did it
Voters in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District gave six-term incumbent Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., the boot last month in favor of a young, energetic and successful businessman who says he's ready to defend their interests in the nation's capital.
Republican Rep.-elect Rob Bresnahan, 34, tells Fox News Digital in an interview that "kitchen table issues" helped him connect with northeastern Pennsylvanians and oust Cartwright, a progressive who had served in Congress for more than a decade.
"When we were knocking on doors and talking to people every single day over a period of 13 months, the first thing anyone had to say was, ‘I can’t afford my bills. I can't afford rent. I can't afford my mortgage. I can't afford school property taxes. I can't afford groceries,'" Bresnahan said.
Rising prices for food and gas have made living costs unaffordable for Pennsylvanians, he explained. And as voters have watched illegal immigrants overrun the southern border and be provided free food, housing and benefits, while billions in foreign aid flows out from the U.S. to other countries, they felt that foreigners were being treated better than Americans by their government, said Bresnahan.
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"We're looking around at our neighbors saying, ‘hey, what about us here?’ And they couldn't help but feel that they have been put second for a long time."
Bresnahan was a success story before he won election to the House of Representatives. A fifth-generation native of Luzerne County, at just 19 years old he was entrusted to be CFO of his grandfather's construction company, which builds electrical infrastructure for municipalities and highways throughout Pennsylvania.
He spent his college years at the University of Scranton dashing back and forth between the office and class as he worked to help the business recover from the global financial crisis. His hard work paid off, the business grew and Bresnahan became CEO after graduating in 2013.
"I was still living at home with my parents and I was in and out of a dorm room and running a company with 58 employees even though I couldn’t legally drink a Coors Light yet," he told the Citizen's Voice in 2021. "The combination was a heavy workload but it was a sacrifice that I would make again in a second."
But as the years passed, Bresnahan, like many Americans, felt the country was headed on the wrong track. The decisions coming from Washington, D.C., were bad for his business, his employees and the people they serve. And so, he decided to enter politics to make a difference.
"I felt that the country was not heading in the right trajectory with what is happening on our southern border. We had life essentially unaffordable for the average person. And I've always been a person to roll up my sleeves and throw myself into fire," Bresnahan said.
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His winning congressional campaign focused on securing the border, cutting taxes and trimming government spending, creating "family-sustaining jobs" in the Keystone State and supporting law enforcement. In April, Bresnahan received an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump.
"A successful Businessman, Rob has worked hard to Create Jobs and Grow the Economy, unlike his opponent, Matt Cartwright, who is completely beholden to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left," Trump posted on Truth Social.
With the campaign behind him, Bresnahan says he and the other members of the incoming Republican majority in Congress are ready to hit the ground running with a pro-growth agenda in January.
"Securing the border. That needs to be done day one, Jan. 3 at 12:01 p.m., the day after we are all sworn in," he told Fox News Digital. "I think there's going to be a big playbook, but that is a tangible win right off the bat."
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On inflation, Bresnahan says Congress and the Trump administration can tackle unaffordable prices by lowering energy costs. "Talking about just Pennsylvania alone, 52% of homes are heated from natural gas. $45 billion a year are generated from the natural gas industry, and $76 billion in GDP comes out of the fracking and natural gas industry," he said, insisting that policymakers must stop "vilifying natural resources."
The rising national debt, at $36 trillion, is another burden on the economy Bresnahan says Congress must address. "We're spending more on debt servicing – just our national debt and the interest – than we are on our national defense budget."
The young lawmaker said there will be "tough votes" on discretionary spending when Congress convenes in January. But two of the largest contributors to the federal debt and deficit will remain untouched.
"Obviously, we can't cut Medicare. We can't cut Social Security. We have to preserve that for our current generation, and we have to find ways to preserve it for our generation and the next generation. But I don't believe that there's a one-size-fits-all policy on any circumstance, let alone the national debt and the expenditures of the federal government," Bresnahan said.
However, he added that illegal immigrants should not benefit from programs that Americans have paid in to, including Social Security and Medicare.
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Republicans are expected to extend the 2017 tax cuts that became law during Trump's first term in office. Bresnahan says he supports those tax cuts and insists that economic growth spurred by deregulation and investments in infrastructure and American jobs can make up for any potential revenue losses.
"We have to get people back to work," he said. "We have to create economic climates that are conducive to the American people to incentivize them to go to work."
Part of that is to support jobs that don't require a college degree, such as carpenters, plumbers or electricians. "These are great, family-sustaining careers with annuities starting on day one, with health insurance for your family, and you're earning while you learn."
Turning to foreign policy, Bresnahan said the United States must remain a global superpower and pursue "peace through strength."
"But we have to be strong as the United States," he added. Asked about growing GOP opposition to foreign aid, including to Ukraine, Bresnahan emphasized that he supports efforts to push back against Russian aggression – but he wants to do so responsibly.
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"Putin is a war criminal and needs to be stopped," he said. "I am all supportive of providing weapons, missiles, rockets – actually, there's a big manufacturing facility inside of my district. But where I do want accountability is the raw, hard dollars that have been sent. I want audits done on those to ensure they're going to the right causes."
Echoing Trump's beliefs about putting America first, Bresnahan said there is a point where "enough is enough" and that Europe has to match U.S. contributions to foreign aid.
"Again, I'm looking at, you know, 25% of my bridges are structurally deficient. We have aging infrastructure levees that protect over $1 trillion of property here in the United States. You're talking about power distribution grids that haven't been re-invested in since the 1950s with 50 years of usable life. And, you know, we were without power for multiple days now, going on which could possibly be a week (Editor's note: A blizzard in Breshanan's district had postponed this interview). Europe didn't come and send over trucks to help us rebuild our grids."
"Ukraine obviously has a lot going on, but we need to take care of our own people. We have to take care of our own Americans. And I believe Donald Trump had that narrative and that's why he just won an election in a landslide, because it's about us," he added.
Bresnahan hopes to bring "common sense" solutions to the complex problems facing Americans. He has pledged to work with whomever has a good idea, Republican or Democrat, and has earned endorsements from both No Labels and the moderate Problem Solvers Caucus. Though he calls himself a "fiscal conservative," he rejects political labels because "I don't think confirmation bias is the right way to solve any issue."
"I believe most challenges can be overcome through healthy and solid debate," he added.
And what about those issues that inflame passions on both sides? Before this interview, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., made national headlines after she put forward a resolution that would bar Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., a transgender lawmaker who is biologically male, from using the women's bathrooms in the Capitol.
Bresnahan said that while he believes biological men should not play in women's sports or use their facilities, the flare up between Mace and McBride distracts from other important issues facing Americans – like crumbling infrastructure and expensive living costs.
"I don't want the 119th Congress to be hijacked by what bathrooms we should be using when we have been elected to provide real solutions for the real American people. And that's what I'm going down to Washington, D.C. to do."
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report.
