Riding advantages in his home county of Lackawanna and help from Monroe County voters, Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright defeated Republican challenger Jim Bognet of Hazleton in a rematch of the 2020 election that Cartwright also won.

Unofficial returns on the Pennsylvania Department of State website show Cartwright, a resident of Scranton, getting 144,547 votes to Bognet’s 137,945.

Two years ago, the congressman defeated Bognet by 12,221 votes - 178,004 to 165,783.

That realigned district includes all of Lackawanna, Pike and Wayne counties and parts of Luzerne and Monroe counties, including the townships of Barrett, Chestnuthill, Coolbaugh, Hamilton, Jackson, Middle Smithfield, Paradise, Pocono, Price, Smithfield, Stroud, Tobyhanna and Tunkhannock and the boroughs of Delaware Water Gap, East Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono, Stroudsburg and part of Ross.

The congressman’s win came, in part, with triumphs in Lackawanna, where he held a 52,182 to 36,347 advantage, and in Monroe, 28,748 to 24,021.

Bognet won the other three counties. He took his home county of Luzerne 48,237 to 45,776; Pike, 14,795 to 9,962; and Wayne, 14,545 to 7,879.

Cartwright was first elected to the 17th District seat, which included Carbon County, in 2012.