Sep
6
Post by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, Kariya-shi, 1992-94)
JET alum Paige Cognetti, who has served as the Mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania since 2019, recently announced her campaign to run for Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district in 2026.
Her announcement follows JET alum Taylor Wettach’s recent announcement to run for Congress in Iowa.
For more information about her, check out these links:
- Times Leader, “Scranton Mayor Cognetti announces campaign for Congress to ‘clean up corruption’”
- Politico: “Scranton mayor launches House campaign, goes after Rob Bresnahan’s stock trades“
- Wikipedia: “Paige Cognetti“
- Campaign page: “Paige for Scranton“
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A few more JET alums in politics!
- JET alum Vanessa Grossl, who was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives (District 88) in 2025 and attended the National Association of Japan America Societies (NAJAS) which was recently hosted in Lexington, KY.
- JETAA Northern California’s Ellen Kamei, who is the current mayor of Mountain View, CA;
- JETAA Hawaii’s Nadine Nishioka who ran for State Representative in 2004;
- Brooklyn’s own Anthony Bianchi (Aichi-ken, 1987-89) who has served as a City Councilman in Aichi-ken, Inuyama-shi for many years and made headlines as the first North American to hold elected office in Japan.
- Virginia Second District Representative (and JET alum) Jen Kiggans, who recently spoke about her formative time on JET during a Virginia reception held at the Japanese Ambassador’s Residence.
- Nashville District 17 Council Member Terry Vo, who has generously volunteered for a JETAADC career panel in the past in addition to previously serving as an officer for Music City JETAA.
- JET alum Kyle Schlachter (Kyoto) is the mayor of Littleton, Colorado (incidentally, where US JETAA Executive Director Jessyca Livingston also lives!)
Ganbatte Paige-san!
If I missed any other JET alums in politics of note, feel free to email me at stevenwaseda [at] jetwit dot com!
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