Rob Menendez

Robert Menendez Jr. was born in Englewood, New Jersey. Menendez earned a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008 and a juris doctor from Rutgers University Law School in 2011. His career experience includes working as an attorney. Menendez has served as a board member on the Hudson School Board of Trustees and as a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.[1][2]

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am the grandson of brave Cuban immigrants and proud, hardworking Union members, and I am the son of a dedicated public school educator and a trailblazing political leader. I grew up valuing public service that drives positive change in our communities and was raised to believe in the importance of giving back and taking care of our neighbors.

Today, I’m raising my family in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, and I continue to take to heart all she represents—the welcoming place where the American journey begins and the promise of an America that works for everyone. These ideals guide me and our campaign.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

AFFORDABILITY: Increases in housing, transportation, food, and other costs have made making ends meet more difficult than ever before for many working families in our district. Providing federal support to increase housing supply, including more affordable housing with a nexus to public transportation, and working towards federal solutions for the ongoing supply chain crisis are key priorities and will be a main focus in Congress day one.CHILD CARE AND EDUCATION: The cost of child care and education has skyrocketed in recent years, disproportionately impacting working families and making life even more difficult for middle-class residents of our district. In Washington, I will support legislation that expands and extends the Child Tax Credit, caps child care costs at 7% of income for many families, and implements universal preschool for all families.PROTECTING ORGANIZED LABOR: Unions are a pathway to financial stability for so many working families, many of them immigrants to the United States like my grandparents. However, since the 1980s, the unionization rate has fallen by nearly half as unions and the right to organize have come under attack. I will be a strong advocate for our brothers and sisters in organized labor and their right to organize for fair wages, safer working conditions, and respect for workers. I will also support apprenticeship programs and other initiatives to train our workforce for well-paying union jobs. I strongly believe Congress must pass critical legislation like the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act to protect the right to organize.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Our district, our state, and our country are facing many challenges. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic impacts are still being felt by so many in our district. I am passionate about strengthening families through a core agenda of increasing affordability, making life easier for working families through childcare expansion, and supporting organized labor and the right to fair wages and better working conditions.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to my grandmothers, who sacrificed so much to give our family every opportunity possible. My paternal grandmother left Cuba with her husband and two young children and started a new life here in Union City, New Jersey. She worked every day to ensure my father and his siblings had their chance at the American dream. In the face of countless obstacles, she persevered each and every day and possessed a level of courage I hope that I can channel to be of service to this district. My maternal grandmother believed in people and the idea that there is goodness inside every single one of us. Even in recognizing the immense challenges of our times, she was an eternal optimist. She was unwavering in her belief in our family and our community. While both of my grandmothers have passed, they have left me with so many lessons, and I strive to make them proud each and every day by making the best use of those lessons.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

In addition to my personal experiences growing up, living and raising a family in the 8th Congressional District, I have the professional, civic, and volunteer experiences to be prepared to go to work day one for everyone who calls this district their home. Further, as the son of a public school educator and a trailblazing political leader, the value of public service was instilled in me at a very young age. Growing up in Union City, I saw firsthand the struggles of many working families in the 8th district. Now, raising my young daughter in Jersey City with my wife Alex, I am fully aware of the challenges that our district faces, and I feel compelled to help.

My singular goal is to achieve real, tangible results for the residents of our district. In D.C., I’ll work to end the gridlock and to enact laws that will benefit 8th district residents today, not at some indeterminate time in the future.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Our district is one of the most diverse in the country. Our representatives must act in the best interests of the many different constituencies present in the 8th and use their time in Washington to benefit the district. They must be responsive to residents, and must use their office to help those in need of assistance navigating our federal agencies and resources. Being a representative means being available and responsible to the people who you seek to serve and is the foundation of why I am running for office.

Anyone looking to represent this district must support efforts to expand childcare, to support organized labor, and to increase affordability. And they must fight to bring critical transportation funds to a district that is highly reliant on mass transit systems that have historically been underfunded by the federal government. In Congress, I will fight for all of these key priorities that are so important to our residents.

Campaign website

Menendez's campaign website stated the following:

Affordability

Increases in housing, energy, food, and other costs have made it more difficult than ever before for many working families in our district to make ends meet. As your representative in Congress, I will support efforts to:

Enact Democratic proposals to create over 1 million affordable homes through nearly $10 billion for a new Affordable Housing *Access Program and affordable housing with mass-transit access;

Provide $65 billion towards addressing the capital needs backlog for public housing;

Support tax fairness for our district by restoring the full SALT deduction;

Work toward federal solutions for the ongoing supply chain crisis;

Increase the federal minimum wage to $15; and

Address the student debt crisis.

Childcare & Education

The cost of child care and education has skyrocketed in recent years, disproportionately impacting working families and making life even more difficult for residents of our district. In Washington, I will legislate to:

Expand and extend the Child Tax Credit;

Support Democratic proposals to cap child care costs at 7% of income for many families;

Guarantee universal preschool for all families;

Provide federal funding for children’s hospitals to expand mental health services;

Invest in early childhood care; and

Fully fund child nutrition programs.

Climate Change & Environmental Justice

Tropical Storm Ida, Super Storm Sandy, and other storms in recent years devastated our district with a significant toll of human life, extreme property damage, and damage to our infrastructure. Climate change is here and has had severe impacts on our area, hurting underrepresented, marginalized groups the most. I think every day about the world we are leaving to the next generation. In office, I will advocate to:

Support Democratic efforts to provide half a trillion dollars for our clean energy economy;

Cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 to improve the sustainability of the planet;

Provide cost savings and rebates to district residents as they transition their homes to clean energy;

Ensure that clean energy technology is manufactured in the United States, creating union jobs while battling climate change;

Electrify our public transit infrastructure; and

Champion environmental justice through the Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator Act so that majority-minority communities are no longer forced to shoulder the burden of pollution and climate change.

Gun Control

In recent years, gun violence has plagued our country: more people than ever before are dying due to gun violence, more than 45,000 in 2020, and nearly 80% of murders in the United States involve a gun. In the past decade, hundreds of mass shootings have occurred, killing and injuring thousands. And during the pandemic, gun violence only became worse. Republicans across the country are fighting to make it easier to get access to violent weapons with a stunning disregard for the safety of those who own guns and those around them. As your representative in Congress, I will fight to:

Increase the scope of background checks so that Americans are no longer able to buy guns from private sellers without any safety measures in place;

Re-enact the Federal Assault Weapons Ban;

Close loopholes in gun purchasing laws and expand the ability to take guns away from abusive dating partners, felons, and children;

Educate the public about suicides committed using guns, which account for roughly 60% of suicides and are fatal 90% of the time compared to only 3% for drug overdoses;

Ensure that guns are not put in schools near our children; and

Support Ethan’s Law and any legislation that ensures safe storage of weapons

Healthcare

We need to continue to expand access to affordable healthcare for every person in the 8th Congressional District and to protect a woman’s right to choose. The Affordable Care Act has provided access to healthcare to tens of millions of underinsured or uninsured individuals across the United States, including many in our district. While Republicans in Washington, D.C. continue to try their best to make healthcare harder to access through countless attempts to gut the ACA and through their dismantling of the protections long-afforded to women through Roe v. Wade., Democrats are working every day to expand the ACA and find meaningful solutions to the healthcare challenges facing our families. We must ensure that access to all forms of healthcare is protected and expanded. In Congress, I will fight to:

Protect and expand the Affordable Care Act for the millions who rely on it every day;

Lower the cost of quality health insurance coverage for all families in our district;

Make sure that every American has access to the best medical care available regardless of ability to pay; and

Codify Roe v. Wade and restore a woman’s fundamental reproductive right to have autonomy over her own body—period.

Enact support legislation that protects a women’s ability to access medication that has made abortions safer and more accessible for those who have made that choice.

Advocate to the FDA to lift restrictions and make it easier for women to obtain these medications through the mail so their reproductive choices are not limited by where they live or work.

Repeal the Hyde Amendment, which only serves to make it harder for women of limited means to access abortions.

Organized Labor

Unions have been a pathway to financial stability for so many working families, many of them immigrants to the United States. However, since the early 1980s, the unionization rate has fallen by nearly half, as unions have come under attack and the right to organize has been curtailed. I am proud of the broad support our campaign has earned from organized labor. As a Member of Congress, I will fight to:

Uphold the right of our brothers and sisters in organized labor to organize for fair wages, safer working conditions, and respect for workers;

Pass critical legislation like the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act; and

Support apprenticeship programs and other initiatives to train our workforce for well-paying union jobs that can lead to life-long careers and middle class opportunities.

Transportation

We need a public transportation system that meets the current and future needs of our workforce and our communities. While significant progress has been made by our New Jersey delegation, our federal government still has underfunded public transit infrastructure. This has resulted in outdated equipment, service delays, and bridges and tunnels that are not meant for 21st century transportation needs, leaving residents of the 8th Congressional District frustrated and disserviced. As a Member of Congress, I will work to:

Ensure that our district gets every dollar and cent it is entitled to from the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Act;

Secure funding and federal support for the largest critical infrastructure project in the country, the Gateway Program, which will create thousands of jobs while replacing century-old bridges and tunnels that have the potential to cripple the Northeast Corridor;

Upgrade our power and clean-energy infrastructure through investments in electric buses, charging stations for electric vehicles, and cutting-edge energy technology to secure a zero-emissions future; and

Fight for even more funding to improve transportation and create good-paying union jobs across the 8th District to build a transportation system of the future.

Voting Rights

Across the United States, Republican elected officials have pushed to roll back critical voting rights laws and voter protections, often targeting minority and low-income voting populations. As your representative, I will back legislation to:

Defend the right to vote—a right the Supreme Court has said is “regarded as a fundamental political right” because it preserves all other rights;

Enact comprehensive voting rights legislation, such as the Freedom to Vote Act and the For the People Act; and

Stand up and fight against every Republican attempt to attack minority and low-income people’s right to vote.[3]

—Rob Menendez's campaign website (2022)[4]