After redistricting, PA's 7th and 8th districts set for congressional rematches

Voters in Pennsylvania’s 7th and 8th congressional districts will see pairs of familiar names on their ballots this year, as the Democratic incumbents face the same Republican challengers as in 2020.

Redistricting has changed the maps, but Republicans Lisa Scheller and Jim Bognet are again running against U.S. Reps. Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright in the 7th and 8th districts, respectively.

Scheller is the CEO of Silberline Manufacturing Co. and a former Lehigh County commissioner. Bognet was a Trump administration appointee in the Export-Import Bank and has worked on Republican campaigns, including presidential runs by John McCain and Mitt Romney.

The incumbents won their races by similar close margins in 2020 — 3.8 points for Wild and 3.6 points for Cartwright. A record-high percentage of eligible voters turned out then, electing President Joe Biden in the pre-vaccine days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it’s the midterms, a time when the president’s party typically loses seats in Congress.

“Joe Biden's approval ratings are in the low 40s. People are concerned about the economy,” said Adam McGlynn, a political science professor at East Stroudsburg University. “It's just a better environment for (Bognet and Scheller) to be running in than two years ago, which is why it makes sense for them, at least on paper, to be running again.”

He also noted that a congressional campaign “is a significant undertaking in time and in resources,” and since Bognet and Scheller have done it before, they “might already have a base of donors and an understanding of what it entails” in a way that fresh Republican candidates would not.

The incumbents lead the way in fundraising, though, and ended the latest reporting period with more cash on hand. As of Sept. 30, Cartwright had $1.26 million to Bognet’s $691,000. Wild had $1.58 million, almost three times Scheller’s $544,000.

Decision 2022:What's on voters' minds? Pa. folks talk inflation, abortion and 'salespeople' politicians

Messaging this election comes down to two main themes, McGlynn said. For Democratic candidates, it’s “protecting a woman's right to choose” following the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. For Republican candidates, it’s “prices are out of control, something must be done” or “prices are out of control, vote in a different party.”

In a Muhlenberg College/Morning Call poll of 404 likely voters in the 7th District, 34% ranked inflation as the most important issue, followed by abortion at 28%.

Voters concerned about those issues are strongly split on who is the best candidate to address them. “Among 7^th District voters who identified inflation as their top issue in the 2022 midterms, Scheller holds a commanding 76%-18% lead over Wild,” Muhlenberg’s report on the poll says. “However, among voters noting abortion as their top issue, Wild maintained a lopsided 87%-11% lead over Scheller.”

Here’s what the candidates have said about abortion and inflation.

7th District: Abortion

Scheller said in an Oct. 21 debate hosted by LehighValleyNews.com that she’s “pro-life, but I believe in exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. We need to create a culture that celebrates life, and has the resources available so that women and families will choose to have their babies.”

During a Republican primary debate, Scheller also expressed support for exceptions for rape and incest. She said “Yes, I’m open to” supporting federal legislation that would, in the moderator’s words, “make it a crime for a physician to perform an abortion where there is a detectable fetal heartbeat, unless the life of the mother is at stake.”

She also called for “defunding Planned Parenthood completely, not just the abortion piece.” The organization provides additional services such as birth control, STD testing and cancer screenings.

At the Oct. 21 debate, Wild said that “I firmly believe that the government and elected officials have absolutely no place in anybody's doctor's office. Women should have complete control over their own bodies, and it's shameful that we are even considering otherwise.”

Wild voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify the right to abortion, in 2021 and again this year after the Dobbs decision. In both cases, the bill passed only in the House.

7th District: Inflation

Asked about policies to reverse inflation, Wild highlighted her efforts to reduce health care costs.

“I have been the leader in fighting to bring down prescription drug prices. And we finally got that done, in part, by making sure that Medicare can negotiate some drug prices and by capping insulin at $35 per month for seniors,” she said.

Wild also pointed to the Biden administration's recent closure of the “family glitch” in the Affordable Care Act, something she has been pushing for since 2019. The glitch prevented families from receiving subsidies if the individual employee’s premium was considered affordable by the IRS, even if the higher cost of insuring the whole family was not affordable.

“I'm a job creator. I'm someone who wants to create businesses and wants to control inflation. We need to stop the spending,” Scheller said.

She criticized a new tax credit for electric vehicle purchases and said she wants “to stop the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents” — though the Treasury Department has not committed to hiring that number.

“We should be opening up Pennsylvania's energy. That is a big topic of mine, because we need energy to fuel our homes, to fuel our businesses, to fuel our factories, to fuel our cars,” Scheller said, pointing to the rising cost of heating oil.

More:PA is getting $170M for EV charging. Where will new stations go in the Poconos?

8th District: Abortion

“I believe women ought to make their own choices. It's up to them, their doctors, their faith. They ought to make their own health care decisions in privacy and consultation and I trust a woman's right to make her own decisions,” Cartwright said during a debate hosted Oct. 20 by WVIA, adding that he voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act in 2021 and 2022.

Cartwright also stated that he and his wife are Catholic “and we would not choose abortion.”

“The matter has been sent back to the states, and I believe that's where it belongs. So I do not think we should take federal action on abortion,” Bognet said.

In March 2022, prior to the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Bognet completed a survey from the National Pro-Life Alliance. He answered “yes” to all questions, including “Will you support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning abortion except to save the life of the mother?”

8th District: Inflation

During the inflation portion of the debate, Bognet criticized government spending and energy policy, including the cancelation of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline.

He accused Democrats of hating American energy and said, “I love American energy. I think we should be drilling more. I think we need more natural gas.”

“We knew Big Oil was taking advantage, profiteering off people living paycheck to paycheck. I voted for the anti-price gouging bill to crack down on Big Oil. We knew Big Shipping was driving up their prices. I voted for a crackdown on ocean shipping cost profiteering,” Cartwright said.

From 2021:Montana tribal members, fearing water contamination, relieved as Keystone XL pipeline blocked

The oil bill passed the House but not the Senate; the shipping legislation passed both and was signed into law by Biden.

Cartwright also touted his efforts toward getting Nacero, a Texas-based energy company, to choose Luzerne County as the site of a plant that will convert natural gas into gasoline.

How the district maps have changed

Pennsylvania lost a seat in Congress after the 2020 Census, so along with geographic changes, each district’s population has grown by almost 60,000.

Those changes may be less important in the 8th District, where “you already had a situation where you had a Democratic congressman getting elected in a district that was voting Republican,” McGlynn said.

The district went for Trump by 4.4 points in 2020, at the same time as it sent Cartwright back to Congress for a fifth term.

The 8th still includes all of Lackawanna, Pike and Wayne counties, and many parts of Luzerne and Monroe counties remain in the district.

The most noticeable change in the Poconos and Lehigh Valley is that the new 7th District includes Carbon County, where former President Donald Trump received nearly two-thirds of the vote in 2016 and 2020. As before, the district includes all of Lehigh and Northampton counties.

The 7th District has lost more Democratic parts of Monroe County — Delaware Water Gap, East Stroudsburg and Stroudsburg boroughs, and Stroud Township — to the 8th District. Its Monroe territory is now anchored in the conservative West End and includes all of Polk and Eldred townships — the Monroe townships with the two highest percentages of Trump voters in 2016 and 2020 — and part of Ross, which had the third-highest.

“So that district now becomes a little more conservative, and thus a little more appealing for Republicans, at least as a prospect for pickup,” McGlynn said.

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Where do Wild, Scheller, Cartwright and Bognet stand on abortion, inflation?