Ballina extends best wishes to candidate in US elections
Cllr Jarlath Munnelly is pictured earlier this year presenting a bowl of shamrock to Mayor of Scranton Paige Cognetti. Also included in the photograph is Eileen Corcoran of Mayo County Council.
Councillors in Ballina have extended their best wishes to Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, who is running for a seat in the US House of Representatives in the mid-term elections on November 3rd.
Mayor Cognetti, a Democrat, is running against incumbent Republican representative Rob Bresnahan Jnr in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Cllr Jarlath Munnelly raised the matter at the October meeting of Ballina Municipal District and proposed that councillors write to Mayor Cognetti to wish her luck on election day, highlighting the longstanding ties between the two towns.
Ballina and Scranton have been officially twinned since 1990, building on connections that date back generations when many families emigrated from Ballina to Pennsylvania during the Famine. The link has been maintained through regular visits across the Atlantic, strengthening the family, cultural and community ties between the two towns.
The strength of the connection was highlighted in April 2023 when then US President Joe Biden visited Ballina. Born in Scranton, Mr Biden has family ties to the Mayo town, with his great-great-great-grandfather, Edward Blewitt, emigrating from Ballina to Pennsylvania over 170 years ago.
Mayor Cognetti has served as Scranton’s mayor since 2020 and is now standing to represent Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district in the US House of Representatives. The district voted for Donald Trump by 8.5 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
- Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
