The defeats of sixth-term Rep. Matt Cartwright and three-term Rep. Susan Wild came as the GOP's U.S. House majority hung in the balance and Democrats seek a last line of resistance to Donald Trump's second-term White House agenda.
The Republican victories also ensure that the GOP has recaptured a majority of the state's congressional delegation, now 10-7, since the party lost it in a slate of 2018 defeats.
Republican Rob Bresnahan, a first-time candidate and developer who runs a family construction company, beat Cartwright in a district around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Meanwhile, Ryan Mackenzie, a member of the state House of Representatives, beat Wild in a district around Allentown.
Both districts hold narrow Democratic registration advantages, but Republicans have helped fund challengers to Cartwright and Wild for years in hopes of beating them.
Both races were among the nation's most expensive, with more than $35 million reported spent to the Federal Election Commission in the Wild-Mackenzie race and more than $31 million reported spent in the Cartwright-Bresnahan race.
Cartwright was one of just five Democrats nationally to run for reelection in districts won by Trump in 2020, and the region has notably embraced Trump's politics since the president-elect first ran for president in 2016.
