The candidate did not respond to the questionnaire.

Age: 56

Hometown: Laurel Springs

Occupation: Attorney

Personal background: As a West Point graduate, a former U.S. Army Captain, and current attorney, I am running for U.S. Congress in the 1st Congressional District of New Jersey. Born in Chicago, Illinois, into a family led by a pastor and federal police officer-father, and a teacher and school administrator-mother, I was nurtured in an environment that championed service to family, community, and country. My life is driven by a commitment to righteousness, assistance to others, and excellence in all endeavors. I believe that leadership’s core attributes extend beyond passion to include integrity, humility, courage, and service. At the young age of seventeen, I received an extremely competitive U.S. Congressional nomination to attend the United States Military Academy Preparatory School then located at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey and graduated from West Point as a U.S. Army commissioned officer five years later. After almost 6 years of honorable military service, I voluntarily resigned my commission. I later earned a MBA from Columbia College and a JD from St. Louis University School of Law. As an attorney licensed in Illinois and New Jersey, my 15-year legal career has been dedicated to serving major corporations primarily as a compliance officer in the healthcare and nutrition industries. I currently manage my own solo law practice.

Political background: I have run for New Jersey Assembly (2013), Camden County Commissioner (2014 & 2015), and Gloucester Township Council (2011 & 2021).

Reason for running: I am running to make to make a real difference in the lives of the constituents within the First Congressional District of New Jersey.

Biggest issue: Secure our Southern Border, Focus on Economic Stability, Provide for our National Defense, Minimize Government Overreach, Restore Parental Authority in our Schools, Secure the Blessings of Liberty.

On the federal government’s role in women’s reproductive health: I believe in the sanctity of life and will protect the unborn with the exceptions of rape, incest, and life of the mother.

On the U.S. transition to clean energy: Involve communities across the nation, Set transition goals, Create baseline for in-state emissions, Increase investment in energy efficiency, Enhance transmission capacity, Upgrade grids, and Assess/Access key resources.

On ensuring free and fair elections and the transition of power: Improve election integrity by protecting the right to vote for all Americans by pursuing reforms such as requiring voter ID, cleaning up inaccurate voter rolls, and ending ballot trafficking.

On the U.S. role in foreign conflicts: As a long-standing ally of Israel, the United States should support Israel. The United States should continue, but limit its aid to Ukraine.

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Age: 66

Hometown: Collingswood

Occupation: Retired sociology professor

Personal background: I am the daughter of a Jewish father and Filipino-American mother. My family was subjected to both racism and antisemitism while I was growing up. While my sister and I were born white, my brother had my mother’s Asian features and coloring. His life was hell, because of racist discrimination and cruelty. I saw my mother treated with disrespect and contempt till the end of her life. Our experiences with being subjected to racism strongly influenced my activism.

I spent five years as an organizer for the United Farm Workers, organizing communities to support the strikes and boycotts of grapes, lettuce, and numerous other products, to assist farm workers organizing into a union. I worked with Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and most of the historic figures in that movement. I also worked on several electoral campaigns and ballot initiatives to garner support for the union.

After graduating with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Rutgers University, I worked for the Social Service Employees Union in New York City, writing for and editing “The Unionist” newspaper and various publications for the members of that union.

I moved to Collingswood in 1987, when my husband got a job transfer to manage a printing plant in Camden, NJ. At first I worked as an elementary school teacher in Camden, NJ, but chose to work as an adjunct sociology and labor studies professor at Rutgers University, Rowan University, and numerous community colleges, so I could have more time with my five children.

As an adjunct professor, I taught up to nine courses a semester, plus summers, and winter sessions, but our family struggled to pay for the basics – housing, food, medical care, clothing for the kids, auto and healthcare insurance, etc. With the American Federation of Teachers, I helped organize several union locals for adjunct professors in colleges and universities in New Jersey, and served on the bargaining committees as a Vice President in three bargaining units. It was only through organizing unions and negotiating pay raises and better working conditions, that I was able to get a little closer to not being perpetually broke.

In 2009, I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which at times became very debilitating. I eventually qualified for Social Security Disability, which allowed me to rearrange my life so I could function better. I still struggle physically with the debilitating pain caused by EDS, but I’ve found numerous ways to compensate for bouts of disability.

I became more involved in my community by establishing several community Facebook groups, including In the Wood, and Collingswood Area Resource Exchange (CARE) . The intention was to create a mutual aid group for people in my community, which is what CARE became. I also became a fairly well-known mosaic artist in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area.

I was featured in a FOX-29 (Philadelphia) News report in 2020, because after sharing a series “Black Lives Matter” mosaic portraits online (during the Covid lockdown), I was commissioned by Tamika Palmer to do a mosaic portrait of her daughter, Breonna Taylor, whose death, in part, launched a rebirth of the Black Lives Matter movement. That portrait can be seen in the documentary “Bree Way: Promise Witness Remembrance.”

Between 2021 and 2022, I designed and supervised a community mosaic mural project entitled “Childhood Memories,” for Thomas Sharp Elementary School in Collingswood, NJ. I donated my services for free, because it was important to me to have the school and neighborhood involved, and for me to give something of value to the community.

 The children, parents, teachers, staff, principal, and neighbors who all contributed to the making of the 57-foot mural have created many memories they’ll keep for the rest of their lives.

Political background: In all my years of activism, I had worked in campaign and support roles. In the 1970’s, I worked on campaigns for political candidates who would benefit the United Farm Workers. I was also an anti-war activist, so I had volunteered nearly every Presidential election year, to campaign for candidates opposed to war. I usually ended up voting for 3rd Party candidates, because their values were closer to my own than those of Democrats or Republicans.

In 2016 and 2020, I became active in supporting Bernie Sanders for President. My husband and I organized phone banking every week from our homes. We had periodic organizing meetings to get people in our area involved in the Sanders campaign. When it became clear that the Democrats would never abide by the will of the people, and allow Bernie to be their Presidential candidate, I searched for another political movement that was most similar to the Bernie Sanders movement. That is how I discovered the Green Party. I had voted for Green candidates in the past, starting with Ralph Nader, and then Jill Stein. It wasn’t until this year that I considered actually running for political office.

Reason for running: I am an activist opposing racism, war, environmental destruction, calling for economic fairness and justice for all people, and have been since the age of 12. I am currently active in actions organized by South Jersey for Gaza, calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Running for House of Representatives is the next step in this activism. I chose to run for the Green Party, because their values and priorities are very much like my own. I’m running, not for myself. I’m not interested in getting rich. I won’t take corporate contributions. I won’t be beholden to banks, corporations, or Wall Street. I am doing this to do whatever I can to make life better for working people who are being exploited by millionaires and billionaires. I want to get money and the profit motive out of politics.

We need Medicare for All, not healthcare for profit. We need to guarantee that all people have safe and affordable housing, enough money to afford food, transportation, clothing, leisure time, guaranteed paid sick days and vacations, paid parental leave, free childcare, and free education from preschool through college. And we need to take measures to abate climate change and ecological disaster, in a world where diplomacy and peace take the place of violence and war.

Biggest issue: During the Sanders campaigns, the call for Medicare for All was always met with the question “But where are we going to get the money?” The same holds true with forgiving student loan debts, ensuring everyone has housing, food, health care, educational opportunities, and jobs with livable incomes. The cry from the right and middle has always been, “But where are we going to get the money?” But then there’s always money to bomb other countries. We devoted billions of dollars to a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, depleting the latter of their young men, and leaving Ukraine in ruins. The worst part, though, was my tax dollars were going to Israel, to arm an apartheid state determined to obliterate Palestinian people or “Arabs.” There’s money to commit genocide, to blow civilian men, women, and children into tiny bits, to leave 50 thousand orphans, to murder 20 thousand children, the bomb schools, and hospitals, and homes, and tents of starving refugees.

I always believed that if another holocaust happened, where one country was committing genocide of people they chose to oppress, I would want to be a person who opposes it. Here we are. Genocide is the worst crime against humanity that can be committed, and the country my father spent his whole life supporting, was demanding that more Palestinians be raped, and more babies murdered. Donald Norcross is proud that he is arming a genocide, and proud of violating our First Amendment Rights by trying to silence those of us opposed to it. Our blue and red politicians have abandoned serving the people of this country, while lining their pockets with donor money, encouraging them to support genocide and what now appears to be a third world war.

We can’t have Medicare for All, because we must murder babies in Gaza. It’s time to get people like that out of office.

On the federal government’s role in women’s reproductive health: None. The Federal government should be providing those services through a single-payer health care system. Women’s reproductive rights are health care issues, and it is not up to the government to interfere.

On the U.S. transition to clean energy: Eliminate dependence on fossil fuels. Create jobs by building a national mass transportation system – trains, electric buses, trolleys, and shuttles – to cut down on fossil fuel emissions. Build green communities – new, energy-efficient housing in areas where there will also be ample green space. Mass use of solar and wind technology to produce electricity. Move away from factory farming to permaculture production, restoring wetlands, restoring the hydrologic cycle, upgrade human infrastructure for flash drought and rain.

On ensuring free and fair elections and the transition of power: We need ranked-choice voting to eliminate the potential for a spoiler in an election, but to also give voters real choices. We need to get rid of the Electoral College. We need to go back to paper ballots, eliminating the hackable voting tabulators. We need to do it where the votes are counted by several people in front of “civilian” witnesses, to make sure there is no miscounting, hiding of ballots, or destroying them.

On the U.S. role in foreign conflicts: The United States needs to keep out. In doing the bidding of oil and war profiteers, the US has brought us closer to the brink of nuclear war – which will ultimately kill all of us. The US is complicit in committing genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, while our politicians receive millions of dollars from AIPAC. While committing genocide, causing mass starvation, and complicit in assassinations that are pulling us into WWIII, the US government is also cracking down on dissenters (or dissidents) who are oppose to apartheid and committing genocide. There is no rise in antisemitism in the US. There is a rise in anti-genocide activism. The movement here includes Jews, Muslims, Christians, and people of all beliefs regarding religion. But the people calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to racist apartheid are being vilified, losing their jobs, being expelled from their schools, by people who think mass murder of an entire ethnic group is fine by them. We shouldn’t have been in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Libya, or the numerous places our government has oppressed in Africa and Latin America. Venezuela has oil, so the US vilifies their elected leaders, and works to overthrow their governments. The US assassinates leaders of countries where they eliminated homelessness, provided socialized medicine, gave new mothers a stipend after having a baby, had paid parental leave and free university education (as was the case with Gaddafi in Libya). We had no business being there, or killing their leader.

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Age: 33

Hometown: Lindenwold

Occupation: Janitor

Personal background: I live in an apartment in lindenwold. I went to Rowan University, I have worked retail, education, and sales.

Political background: 

Reason for running: I am running for office because I have seen the corruption and bad decisions made by our representatives that have affected state and country.

Biggest issue: The crisis at the border is so bad that it has now affected states that are not at the border. There must be a plan and new thinking in how to secure the border.

On the federal government’s role in women’s reproductive health: I believe that the government should be helping women have healthy births, and help them access the medical care they need to bring children into the world.

On the U.S. transition to clean energy:Slow and small steps should be taken because every change makes waves in other places and can have devastating effects.

On ensuring free and fair elections and the transition of power: Accountability of politicians and states should be held responsible for any fraudulent activity. Also, incumbents should have to relinquish power to run so there is no implications of misuse of power.

On the U.S. role in foreign conflicts: Our involvement in foreign affairs should be limited and not involved in activity of promoting war.

Campaign website