OUR GOVERNMENT

U.S. House of Representatives, 1st district

MUNICIPALITIES SERVED: Maple Shade and Palmyra

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Born and raised in South Jersey, Donald is committed to improving the lives of working families by focusing on the issues that matter most to them: raising wages and strengthening our economy, ensuring affordable access to a high-quality education, and supporting the brave men and women that protect our nation and our neighborhoods.​

He knows firsthand what it’s like to be a single parent having to balance work, family life and a checkbook. Early in Donald’s career, he worked for minimum wage, and when construction work was slow or he was injured on the job, he was thankful for unemployment and disability insurance. These on-the-job experiences shape his work in Congress. Now, his top priority is raising the federal minimum wage with common-sense predictability over the next seven years to $15 an hour.

Donald is the only electrician in Congress and worked for years installing and restoring power for New Jersey homes, businesses and industrial sites. He rose through the ranks and eventually became a business agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 351, as well as President of the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO, where he advocated on behalf of thousands of hardworking men and women for nearly 20 years.​

As a graduate of both Camden County College and a skilled apprenticeship program, Donald knows we need to advance job-training programs in our country. He also fully understands the value of a quality, affordable education and, as a member of the New Jersey Legislature, he played a key role in historic higher education reforms that established New Jersey as a research and medical education hub.​

Donald has developed a reputation as an effective, bipartisan reformer. Among his accomplishments, he led the charge to increase New Jersey’s minimum wage and championed a groundbreaking effort to improve our economy and bring new, family-sustaining jobs to the region.​

As the only member of New Jersey’s congressional delegation on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Donald is working to raise wages, protect the middle class, strengthen workplace protections and advance paid leave and equal pay. He is a member of the the subcommittees on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, and also Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.

Congressman Norcross serves on the House Armed Services Committee where he focuses on protecting our national security, supporting service members and veterans, and strengthening New Jersey’s Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. He is the Ranking Member for the Tactical Air and Land Forces (TAL) Subcommittee, and is on the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee.

Donald was appointed by the members of his caucus to serve as Assistant Whip in the 115th Congress. He was also selected to be a member of the Steering & Policy Committee, the Communications Committee and, most recently, as a Co-Chair of the Rebuilding America Task Force. He is also a founding member of the bipartisan Building Trades Caucus and vice-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic.​

Donald and his wife Andrea live in Camden City and are the proud parents of three grown children and grandparents of two.

U.S. Senior Senator

Senator Bob Menendez’s story is a quintessential American story. He grew up the son of Cuban immigrants in a tenement building in Union City and has risen to become one of 100 United States Senators. He is the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 2021, and from 2013-15. The Committee is one of the oldest and most revered Committees in the Senate, at a time when world affairs has a dramatic impact on our economy at home. He has earned a national reputation for his international leadership in the Senate, which pairs with his long-time reputation as a fighter for New Jersey families who puts their economic security ahead of powerful special interests.

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A product of New Jersey's public schools and a graduate of the state's universities, Bob learned early on the importance of standing up for what's right, no matter how powerful the opposition. He first entered public service as a 19-year-old college student when his high school would not provide books to students who could not afford them. Bob launched a successful petition drive to reform the local school board and a year later won a seat on that very board. He stood up to corruption in Union City and went on to become its mayor, a state legislator and was elected to Congress in 1992. He quickly rose to leadership positions and has given New Jerseyans a seat at the table during critical negotiations on every issue since then: war and peace, jobs and the economy, education, health care, veterans issues, world affairs, transportation and housing.

Senator Menendez’s career has been a tribute to his desire to protect the powerless from the powerful and ensure fairness for every American. He led the fight in Congress to make sure New Jersey received its fair share of recovery funds to help communities rebuild after Superstorm Sandy, chaired Senate Banking Committee hearings to hold the administration accountable for getting  relief resources out of Washington, and passed landmark bipartisan legislation providing relief to homeowners hit with unreasonably high flood insurance premiums.

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The son of immigrants, Bob understands the importance of New Jersey’s Liberty State Park, in the shadow of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, at the gateway for millions of immigrants who came to this nation seeking the American Dream and a better life for them and their children. That’s why he was one of eight Senators who wrote and fought for comprehensive immigration reform legislation that passed the Senate in 2013 with an overwhelming bipartisan show of support.

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While Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he established himself as a new foreign policy leader for a new century, seeking to do globally what he has done in New Jersey – supporting the most vulnerable in our society and lending a voice to those least able to speak for themselves. He has advocated for women and children struggling with oppressive poverty in Central America and Africa, and stood by democracy activists struggling to reform governments from Cuba to China to Russia. In addition, he has evoked a strong national security posture in the face of tyrannical leaders of Russia, Iran and Syria. He has led the Foreign Relations Committee in bipartisan efforts, reaching across the aisle in September 2013 to unanimously pass a resolution to allow the President to use military force in Syria, which led to the end of the use of chemical weapons against civilians.

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Bob uses economic statecraft to realize the nexus between economic issues and foreign policy to allow America – and New Jersey – to prosper in our intertwined global economy Bob has been widely recognized for his leadership on promoting safe and healthy families. He has championed legislation to support mothers suffering from postpartum depression, help families meet the challenges of autism, and keep young athletes safe from harm on the playing field. He serves on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and has championed increased consumer protection and corporate accountability, fairness in lending, affordable housing, and comprehensive approaches to community revitalization. He served as Chairman of the Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development where he fought for smart growth, jobs for the 21st Century and updating our aging transportation system. As a member of the Finance Committee, he has sponsored legislation increasing access to health care, advocated for fairness in the tax code to help middle class families get college educations and be able to retire, and Bob has pushed for trade initiatives to ensure America’s global competitiveness.

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Bob received his B.A. from St. Peter's College in Jersey City and his law degree from Rutgers University. He currently lives in Paramus and has two children, Alicia and Robert.