Exclusive — Congressman-Elect Rob Bresnahan on Flipping Scranton: ‘We Needed to Win These Offensive Seats’

SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA - OCTOBER 09: Rob Bresnahan, Republican nominee for Pennsylvania's
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Republicans needed to flip offensive seats like Pennsylvania’s Eighth Congressional District, Republican Congressman-Elect Rob Bresnahan said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily, celebrating the victory.

Bresnahan successfully flipped the seat, taking it from Democrat Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA), who has been in office since 2013. Host Mike Slater noted the tight nature of the race, as Bresnahan took it by roughly 7,000 votes.

“We did not know until — and also in the middle of all of this Luzerne County had a an emergency evacuation because of a bomb threat. So that was around 10:30 and we didn’t know at that point what precincts were reporting. We had generalized numbers, but we didn’t know if it was our strong areas … So let me tell you, we didn’t really know until after one o’clock definitively and with what was reporting,” he said, describing the moment as “surreal.”

“I mean, for the last 13 months and three days, we just had our head down, and we were just going … through Election Day at 8:01 p.m., and looking, looking back at it, we did not leave anything on the table. We left very little to chance. We shook every hand. We spoke to real people. And I think that’s, you know, that’s a differentiator. We didn’t just hide behind TV ads and commercials. We put over 50,000 miles on the on the pickup truck this last year,” he said as host Mike Slater emphasized the significance of the win, as this is the Scranton area.

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“This is Scranton Joe Scranton. … This is a flip. So Rob flipped a seat. This is huge. Like the control of the House is still up for grabs right now, and the Democrats have flipped a few,” he said, noting that Republicans were up four seats going in. Democrats needed to gain five in order to take control and have gained two, but Republicans have flipped some as well.

“So we’re now on the gain, and part of that is because of you winning Scranton,” Slater said. “That’s a big deal.”

Bresnahan cited his previous statement made ahead of the election that this race was a “must win” for Republicans.

“The last time I said, there will not be a Republican majority in the House of Representatives without picking up Pennsylvania Eight. … We needed to win these offensive seats, and that’s exactly what we did,” he added.

Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

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