Profile

U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright represents Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District and was first sworn into Congress in 2013.

His priorities in Congress include strengthening the middle class, creating jobs, ensuring quality health care, protecting seniors, and supporting veterans and military families. A strong believer in working with members of both political parties, he has introduced more bills with Democratic and Republican support than any other House Democrat since he was first elected. As a result, he was named one of the most effective House Democrats by the nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking and a “Bipartisan Champion” by the Common Ground Committee. So far, Rep. Cartwright has succeeded in authoring and passing 16 substantive bills into law, signed and enacted by the last three Presidents.

Congressman Matt Cartwright Official Headshot A senior member of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, Rep. Cartwright serves as the Ranking Member of the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee and the second-highest Democrat on the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee. This presents an excellent opportunity for him to bring every penny of his district’s fair share of federal tax dollars to Northeastern Pennsylvania. He was ranked No. 1 in Pennsylvania two years in a row and in 2022 he was No. 10 out of 435 congressional districts in the country for securing federal project dollars for his district.

Local funding highlights include the expansion of medical and mental health services for women, children, families and the elderly; infrastructure upgrades in the form of water treatment, flood protection and paving projects; workforce development and job training; and new equipment, technology and operation centers for area police, firefighters and emergency responders.

In the 118th Congress, he’s more committed than ever to bringing federal funding home to drive regional economic growth, create jobs, fight crime, and provide much-needed public works projects.
Another of Rep. Cartwright’s priorities is restoring rail service from New York City to Scranton, PA, which Amtrak studies have shown will generate $84 million every year in new economic activity. His efforts include forming the Lackawanna Cut-Off Rail Restoration Caucus, a group of federal lawmakers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey with a focus on rebuilding track between Port Morris, New Jersey and Slateford, Pennsylvania. He also convened and continues to lead a bi-partisan coalition of nearly 50 federal, state, county and municipal leaders and economic development specialists in both states, working with officials from PennDOT, New Jersey Transit, the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority, and the Federal Railroad Administration.

Co-Chair of the Bipartisan House Military Depot Caucus and Dean of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Delegation, he is also the Vice Chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. He recently completed four years in House Leadership as Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee and remains a member of the Democratic Steering & Policy Committee, which makes committee assignments for all Congressional Democrats.

He graduated magna cum laude with a history degree from Hamilton College in 1983 and earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1986, where he was a member of law review.