Jim Bognet decided to try again.
The Pennsylvania Republican ran for Congress in 2020, falling short to Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA). After hesitating to put himself through another punishing campaign, Bognet said he was convinced to give it another try by President Joe Biden, whose childhood hometown, Scranton, he would represent if he ousts Cartwright in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District.
No, Biden did not recruit Bognet into the race (obviously). But it was watching the president badly bungle the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan that motivated him to sign up for a rematch with Cartwright.
“I didn’t immediately decide to do it again,” Bognet, 47, told the Washington Examiner. “But when I saw the disaster President Biden made out of Afghanistan … I couldn’t just sit back and yell at my TV screen.”
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Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the 2022 midterm elections are shaping up to be a lot more hospitable to Republicans than 2020, when Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania with 50% of the vote. The party that controls the White House traditionally loses seats in midterm elections. And with Biden’s job approval sinking to 39.4% nationally in the RealClearPolitics average, Republicans could be headed for historic gains in Congress in November.
To be sure, Cartwright has held off Republicans in the region encompassed by the newly configured 8th District. Recall that Bognet failed to take him out last year in the GOP-leaning seat. However, staying afloat amid a Republican wave could prove difficult for the 61-year-old incumbent Democrat. Inside Elections, a nonpartisan political handicapper, rates this contest as a pure toss-up.
Bognet, who is single with no children, owns a communications and public affairs consulting firm. Two years ago, he won a six-way Republican primary before losing narrowly to Cartwright in the general election. His middle name is Rocco, and he likes to compare his two campaigns to the plotline of the fictional boxing movies Rocky and Rocky II. “In Rocky I, [Rocky Balboa] loses a tough fight to Apollo [Creed], but he gets him in Rocky II, and we’re going to win this one.”
Bognet is focused on a traditional suite of issues and the issues voters happen to care about most — especially Republican voters. He wants to increase domestic energy production and crack down on illegal immigration. But Bognet reserved the most attention to the financial hardship caused by inflation.
Prices are climbing faster than they have in 40 years, and Bognet said out-of-control government spending is to blame, as is a Federal Reserve that he believes has strayed from its core mission of managing monetary policy and injected itself too deeply into America’s economy. Bognet’s answer is to turn off the spigot. To do that, Bognet said, the country has to put Republicans in charge of the House and the Senate.
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But what about the fact that the deficit skyrocketed under Trump and with an assist from Republicans in Congress?
“There are Republicans that are big spenders, but every Democrat is a big spender,” Bognet said. “We have a few bad apples; they have a whole bad orchard.”
