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Former member of Congress · last served 118th Congress

Official portrait of Rep. Matt Cartwright

Matt Cartwright

DEMOCRAT U.S. Representative · PennsylvaniaHouse 2013–2025 (PA-17, PA-8)

Matt Cartwright was a Democratic U.S. representative from Pennsylvania, first elected to Congress in 2013, who sponsored 2 bills that became law (113th–118th Congress).

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355Bills & resolutions sponsored113th–118th Congress (excludes amendments)
9Passed a chamberof 339 substantive bills (excludes resolutions and ceremonial bills)
2Became law2 substantive + 0 ceremonial · 113th–118th Congress
—Broke with partyNo roll calls in PORKER’s records (they start in 2011)
—Missed votesNo roll calls in PORKER’s records (they start in 2011)
$13.9MPork: own shareFY2024 earmarks, 15 items; shared items split

How we count: “Broke with party” is a yes/no roll call where the member voted against most of their own party on that vote (party as recorded; even splits not counted). “Pork: own share” splits each earmark shared by several members evenly among them.

Recent votes

No recorded roll-call votes in PORKER’s records. Roll-call records start in 2011.

5 most recent bills

Top bills sponsored

Laws first, then bills that passed a chamber, were reported from committee, or drew the most cosponsors.

Elections Rep. Cartwright has won

Rep. Cartwright has won 6 U.S. House elections (2012–2022). Of the contested races, margins ran from 2.5 to 20.6 points.

010204060Margin of victory, points (axis starts at 0)2012, PA-17: won by 20.6 points2012PA-172014, PA-17: won by 13.5 points20142016, PA-17: won by 7.6 points20162018, PA-8: won by 9.3 points2018PA-82020, PA-8: won by 3.6 points20202022, PA-8: won by 2.5 points2022
Democratic winRepublican winseat changed partyunopposed
Elections won6 in the data (1976–2024); losses are not listed
Closest win: 2.5 points2022, PA-8
Won an open seat or took one from the other party1 of 6 elections (open seat or changed party)
Seat history, Pennsylvania’s 8th districtWinners, most recent three: Brian K. Fitzpatrick (R) 2016 → Matt Cartwright (D) 2018–2022 → Robert P. Bresnahan, Jr. (R) 2024. Elections shown, not terms; special elections not included.

Full election history for this seat →

Source: MIT Election Data and Science Lab, U.S. House V15 / U.S. Senate V8 (CC0), retrieved 2026-10-18; winners matched to member records by seat and term. Results run through the 2024 elections; nothing from 2026 is shown until it is certified. A margin is a fact about one election, never a score of how well a member represents anyone, and PORKER does not rank members by it.

How has Pennsylvania’s 8th district done while Rep. Cartwright served?

2022 to 2024 in PA-8: typical household income was about the same after inflation, the share of people below the poverty line was about the same, and the share of workers looking for a job was about the same.

Typical household income · after inflationU.S. $81.6KPennsylvania $77.5KPA-8 $69.7K
PA-8: $67.7K in 2022 → $69.7K in 2024
PA-8 about the samePennsylvania about the sameU.S. up 2%
Share of people below the poverty linePA-8 13.8%U.S. 12.1%Pennsylvania 11.6%
PA-8: 14.2% in 2022 → 13.8% in 2024
PA-8 about the samePennsylvania about the sameU.S. down 0.4 points
Share of workers looking for a jobPA-8 5.2%U.S. 4.6%Pennsylvania 4.3%
PA-8: 5.4% in 2022 → 5.2% in 2024
PA-8 about the samePennsylvania about the sameU.S. up 0.4 points

Each mini chart has its own scale, fitted to its lines (it does not start at zero), so compare the numbers, not the heights. Teal = district, oxblood = state, grey = U.S.

While they served, not because of them. This shows what happened in Pennsylvania’s 8th district during Cartwright’s time representing it (2019 to 2025). It does not say what the member did or caused. It is not a score, and PORKER never ranks members on it.

Only one set of district lines is shown. PA-8 was redrawn in 2012, 2018 and again in 2022, and a redrawn district is a different place. So this card shows only the longest stretch on the same lines during the term, 2022 to 2024 (no 2020 yearly estimate), not the full 2019 to 2025.

See the full 20-year record →Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates (tables B19013, B17001, B23001) and BLS CPI-U-RS for inflation, retrieved October 18, 2026. “About the same” means the change is inside the 90% margins of error. Who held the seat: Congress.gov member service records, year level.

Official records on bills this member sponsored

118th Congress. What Congress.gov lists for the 41 bills sponsored.

RecordBillsSource
Bills sponsored41Source: Congress.gov member record, PORKER copy of October 26, 2026 ↗ See them →
With a sponsor’s constitutional-authority statement40See the 40 →
With a CBO cost estimate listed1See the 1 →
With a committee report listed0None listed
Evidence
How counted
Bills where this member is the lead (first-listed) sponsor in the 118th Congress, read from the stored Congress.gov bill records
Fields
cboCostEstimates, committeeReports, constitutionalAuthorityStatementText, notes
PORKER copy refreshed
October 26, 2026 (nightly)

Read this first. These are counts of records Congress.gov lists. Many bills never get a CBO estimate or a report, so a zero is not a mark against a member. We never show this as a score.

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Data as of Oct 26, 2026 · Sources: Congress.gov, Senate.gov, House Clerk, Appropriations Committee earmark tables. PORKER is non-partisan.