New polling from The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University finds Democrats ahead in two of four battleground Pennsylvania House districts, with a narrow edge in a third and a tie in the fourth. The districts include working-class communities in the northeast, growing towns with large Hispanic populations, a swing Philadelphia suburb, and more conservative areas in central Pennsylvania. In the 2024 election, Pennsylvania was a major battleground and Republicans flipped two House seats — but the new polls suggest Democrats are leading efforts to reclaim both.
In the Eighth District, Democratic challenger Paige Cognetti, mayor of Scranton, leads Republican Representative Rob Bresnahan 51–46. Cognetti and supporters have aired ads accusing Bresnahan of profiting from insider stock trading, and voters gave her an 11-point edge on trust regarding corruption. The polls, conducted Oct. 16–22, 2026, surveyed about 400 likely voters per district via live telephone interviews, with over 99% reached on cellphones.
More than 229,000 calls were placed to over 82,000 voters, with weighting applied to correct for underrepresentation — particularly among non-college-educated voters.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing