GOP’s Self-Styled Everyman Busted Over Luxury Habits

A Republican lawmaker who was exposed for secretly owning a helicopter has also spent thousands on a private jet rental—all while campaigning as a Pennsylvania everyman.

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Rep. Rob Bresnahan, 36, spent more than $23,000 on a private charter flight in May, documents reviewed by the Daily Beast revealed. He flew private again in June and July, this time aboard the million-dollar chopper he purchased in 2024.

Bresnahan’s campaign said he personally paid for the flight. It did not address the Daily Beast’s questions about the purpose and details of the trip.

“Rep. Bresnahan personally covered the cost of this flight and voluntarily disclosed it as an in-kind contribution to ensure full transparency and compliance with federal campaign finance rules,” his campaign said in a statement.

The private jet flight in May was followed by two private helicopter trips in June and July. Bresnahan’s chopper was unearthed last year by NOTUS, which reported that the Republican freshman purchased a Robinson R66 that retails between $1 million and $1.5 million in 2024—but didn’t mention it in his personal financial disclosures.

Data from an aircraft surveillance system showed that Bresnahan’s private helicopter flew from Scranton to Canandaigua, a city in New York’s Finger Lakes region, on June 28. Just two weeks later, on July 12, Bresnahan’s helicopter made another trip to Westerly, a coastal town in Rhode Island.

Bresnahan’s team said these flights were unrelated to his campaign. The lawmaker is a licensed helicopter pilot who “often takes to the skies,” according to his Congress webpage.

“These flights were unrelated to the campaign, and unlike Washington insider Paige Cognetti who’s only ever held political jobs, Rep. Bresnahan is a licensed pilot with a long career outside government,” his campaign said, taking a swipe at the Scranton mayor and Democratic congressional candidate.

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“It’s rich for Paige Cognetti’s liberal allies in the media to accuse Rep. Bresnahan of being out of touch when she is a far-left Portland millionaire with a Harvard MBA and secret second home at a ski resort and he’s lived and worked in Northeastern Pennsylvania his whole life,” it added.

Bresnahan, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, is fighting to keep the seat he won by a razor-thin margin in 2024. He secured 50.8 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania’s eighth district against Democrat Matt Cartwright, who got 49.2 percent.

The swanky trips cut sharply against Bresnahan’s blue-collar branding. Though he has a net worth of about $48 million and became an executive at his family’s construction company at age 19, Bresnahan has sought to portray himself as a regular Pennsylvanian who “learned the value of hard work early, sweeping floors, wiring junction boxes, and running heavy equipment with his grandfather.”

Private flights worth tens of thousands of dollars are a far-fetched dream for many in Bresnahan’s own district, where the median household income was $67,979 in 2024.

Last year, Bresnahan introduced a measure to ban members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks. But The Swamp, the Daily Beast’s political newsletter, later reported that Bresnahan himself was a prolific trader during his first few months on Capitol Hill, making hundreds of trades with a volume of $4.1 million until April 8 last year.

Federal records reviewed by NOTUS, however, showed that he appears to have stopped trading individual stocks. Bresnahan has purchased only four municipal and state and federal so far this year, a sharp reversal of his stock trading spree in 2025.