Redistricting has been finalized in Pennsylvania and the partisan makeup for the 8th Congressional District has barely changed.
Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight gave Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District a partisan rating of R+9 prior to redistricting and currently gives it a R+8 rating. The Cook Political Report says that the race is a Tossup. Former President Trump beat President Joe Biden under the old 8th district map by 4.4% in the 2020 presidential election.
Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District is currently represented by incumbent Matt Cartwright (D-PA-08). Cartwright was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 but has represented the 8th District since 2019. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has the 8th District in its sights, previously placing Cartwright on its list of Democrat incumbents targeted for defeat.
FEC records show that Cartwright has raised $1,931,270.02 for this election cycle and he currently has a campaign war chest of $1,593,870.19 cash on hand.
The FEC records also show that Republican Jim Bognet, the 2020 GOP nominee for Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, has raised $335,016.88 and has $430,564.33 on hand as of December 31, 2021. Cartwright defeated Bognet in the 2020 election by a little over 3.5%. Bognet has been endorsed by former Acting Director of National Intelligence and United States Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell.
The Republican primary is scheduled to take place on May 17. The candidate filing deadline for Pennsylvania primaries is March 15.
Cartwright’s voting record has not strayed from the Biden administration agenda. According to legislation tracked by FiveThirtyEight, Cartwright has voted with Biden 100% of the time. His record includes voting in favor of legislation that would admit Washington, D.C. as a state, requiring background checks for all gun sales, creating a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens, establishing the January 6 commission, increasing the debt limit, the federal takeover of elections, and pro-abortion bills.
Cartwright was born in Erie, Pennsylvania and achieved his undergraduate degree at Hamilton College. He got his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he was an editor of the law review. Before he ran for Congress, Cartwright was a practicing attorney.
The Pennsylvania Daily Star previously reported the Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s selection of the state’s new congressional maps. Litigation ultimately led to the redistricting process winding up in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s hands after Democrat Governor Tom Wolf vetoed a redistricting plan passed by the Republican-led General Assembly.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overruled a decision by Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia A. McCullough which would have allowed the implementation of the General Assembly’s redistricting plan.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR.
