Smith did not answer the questionnaire. Instead, the information below was compiled from multiple sources.

Age: 73

Personal and/or professional background — Smith’s congressional website states: Elected in 1980, Smith is currently in his 23rd, two-year term. He serves as a senior member on the Foreign Affairs Committee and as Chairman of its Africa Subcommittee, which has oversight over the continent, with U.S. legislative authority over Africa, along with important State Department bureaus and programs. He has been appointed to serve as both the Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and as Co-Chair of the bipartisan House/Senate/White House Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). He has also been appointed as a member of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, which includes the regional focus of Central and South America and functional jurisdiction over the bureaus such as the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which covers his groundbreaking work to fight human trafficking, advance religious freedom and international labor rights. According to the official Congress.gov website run by the Library of Congress, Rep. Smith has authored 50 laws. Smith was born in Rahway and grew up in Iselin. He graduated from Trenton State College, later renamed The College of New Jersey, with a degree in business administration.  Smith was Director of Institutional Sales at his family-owned sporting goods company and served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Right to Life Committee.

On the economy and making the cost of living more affordable: Smith’s campaign website is silent on this issue.

On healthcare affordability and access: Smith’s campaign website is silent on this issue.

On the war in Iran and federal defense spending: Smith has voted to continue the U.S. war in Iran. As recently as Sept. 16 he voted against a resolution directing Trump to stop the war or get congressional approval to continue it. He voted in July for the 2027 fiscal year National Defense Authorization Act, which would authorize $1.15 trillion in military programs.

On immigration enforcemet: Smith voted for a $165 billion border security package, including funds to complete the southern border wall and additional money to the Department of Homeland Security for its deportation efforts.

On elections and voting: Smith voted for the SAVE Act supported by President Trump that would make a number of voting changes, including a requirement of proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, a mandate that states check citizenship status against a federal database and allowing for criminal penalties for election officials who register non-citizens to vote.

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Hometown: Brick, NJ

Occupation: Solopreneur

Age: 33

Personal and/or professional background: Born and raised in Ocean County, I’m raising my young son in Monmouth County. I’m 33, a single mom, and the founder of Hyperfocused Communications, a small strategic-communications firm serving mission-driven leaders. After fleeing an abusive relationship, I came home to New Jersey and went uninsured for months — sick with a cough I couldn’t afford to treat, buried in collection notices from a single urgent-care visit. My sister Brittany is alive today because Medicaid covered her care. That’s why I’m running. I’ve lived what this district is going through — rising costs, healthcare on the line, families squeezed. I’m not a career politician. I know what federal votes do in real kitchens, because I’ve sat at one of them.

What is your top issue? Healthcare. Specifically: keeping people insured, protecting Medicaid, and ending the squeeze that makes one urgent-care visit a financial crisis. In NJ-4 this isn’t abstract — Chris Smith voted YES on HR1, scored by CBO at $911 billion in Medicaid cuts over ten years. NJDHS estimates 350,000 New Jerseyans are at risk and the state faces a $3.6 billion annual Medicaid hit. That’s hospitals, nursing homes, and home care for our seniors and disabled neighbors. My sister Brittany is stable today because Medicaid covered her care. The same program is the firewall for thousands of NJ-4 families. I’m running to defend it and to push toward universal coverage that doesn’t bankrupt working households.

How would you improve the economy and make the cost of living (groceries, housing, energy, etc.) more affordable? Affordability in NJ-4 is a power problem. A handful of corporations set the price of groceries, energy, prescriptions, and rent — while working families absorb the loss and Washington protects the cartel. My approach: bring down healthcare costs by defending Medicaid and moving toward universal coverage; enforce real antitrust against the food, energy, and pharmaceutical giants squeezing households; rein in Wall Street investors driving up home prices in Ocean and Monmouth; restore the expanded Child Tax Credit; and make the wealthiest pay their fair share so we can finally fund property tax relief and the infrastructure the Shore has been promised for years.

What is your plan to make healthcare more affordable and accessible? My plan has three parts. First, defend what works: Medicaid, Medicare, and the ACA. Chris Smith voted to cut $911 billion from Medicaid; I’ll vote to restore it and to expand Medicare’s drug-price negotiation to every drug, every year. Second, close the coverage gap — a public option that lets anyone buy into Medicare at cost, on the path to universal coverage so no one in NJ-4 goes uninsured the way I did. Third, attack the cost drivers: cap insulin and inhalers, end surprise billing loopholes, ban medical-debt credit reporting, and break up the pharmacy-benefit-manager middlemen driving prices at the counter. Healthcare shouldn’t bankrupt the people who work the hardest.

Do you support the war in Iran and federal defense spending? If not, what would you change? No. I oppose another forever war, and I oppose Congress sleepwalking into one. When Rep. Glenn Ivey moved a unanimous-consent war powers resolution on April 9, Chris Smith was in the chair — he didn’t recognize it and gaveled the session closed. That’s not leadership. Article I gives Congress, not the President, the power to declare war. I’d vote to invoke the War Powers Resolution and require an up-or-down vote before any sustained U.S. military action against Iran. On the Pentagon: it has failed every audit it has ever taken. I’d protect troops, veterans, and Lakehurst-area jobs while cutting contractor waste, ending no-bid bloat, and stopping blank-check funding for wars Congress never authorized.

What are your thoughts about current immigration enforcement policies and what, if anything, would you do differently? Our immigration system is broken on every end — at the border, in our courts, and in our workplaces. I support comprehensive reform: a clear, earned path to citizenship for DREAMers and long-term residents; an asylum process that actually works on a real timeline; and strong, humane border management — not chaotic raids that separate families, terrorize US-citizen children, or strip due process. I’d restore the trafficking-prevention funding Chris Smith voted to cut by 71% in HR1 — you can’t claim to fight trafficking while defunding the office that does it. And I’d crack down on the employers who exploit undocumented labor to undercut NJ wages. Dignity, due process, and competence — not cruelty.

What changes, if any, should Congress or the president make in elections (requiring voter ID, regulating mail-in voting, etc.)? The system is rigged by gerrymandering and money — not by ordinary voters. I’d pass the Freedom to Vote Act and restore the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court narrowed it in Louisiana v. Callais. Politicians shouldn’t pick their voters. I support secure, accessible voter ID — issued free of charge so no working family, senior, or veteran is turned away — and protecting mail-in voting with strong signature verification. I support overturning Citizens United and banning corporate PAC money. And on the rot inside Congress itself: ban member stock trading, enforce real ethics rules, and close the lobbyist-to-Capitol-Hill revolving door. New Jerseyans are tired of insiders writing the rules for themselves.

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