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Candidates › NJ-08 race › 2025–2026
Robert Menendez
D Democratic nominee for U.S. House, NJ-08
Representative since 2023
Other accounts (1)
The same platforms’ other accounts, such as a congressional office’s or an earlier campaign’s.
- On the ballot
- On the general election ballotNov 3, 2026 · New Jersey US House 8
- Where to vote
- Find your polling place (opens in a new tab) · More ways to vote
- Top priorities
- Affordability
- Childcare & Education
- Climate Change & Environmental Justice
- Gun Control
- Healthcare
- In Congress
- Representative since 2023 · votes with their party 97% of the time. See the record · Office phone 202-225-7919
- Money
- $2.2M raised, $1.8M spent, $722.4K cash on hand (through Oct 14, 2026). Where it comes from
- Who gives
- 2.3% of individual money from donors at $200 or less · 43% from New Jersey · largest committee giver AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR JUSTICE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (AAJ PAC), $10K
- Outside groups
- $912.5K supporting Menendez
- Backed by
- Mikie Sherrill · Andy Kim · Cory Booker and 29 more. As the campaign lists them
- Sponsored most in
- Transportation and Public Works, Arts, Culture, Religion, Housing and Community Development
8 priorities from robmenendez.com, in the order they are listed there. Every heading and the text under it is copied exactly, as one passage for each page it is from, and links to that place on the page; hover a source to see which passage it opens.
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. Workers across all industries deserve to earn a living wage, and nobody should be forced to work multiple jobs just to survive.
As your representative in Congress, I introduced the Working Families Task Force Act, which would establish and ensure a whole-of-government approach to creating solutions to address affordability, child care, affordable housing, and more. I also cosponsored the Raise the Wage Act of 2023, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2027, and the Child Care for Working Families Act, which would ensure that families can afford the child care they need.
I will continually 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;
- Address our country’s child care crisis by expanding child care stabilization grants and supporting child care centers and the early learning workforce;
- Support tax fairness for our district by restoring the full SALT deduction;
- Expand access to affordable healthcare by lowering prescription drug prices, supporting community health centers, and strengthening protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions;
- Work toward federal solutions for the ongoing supply chain crisis;
- Increase the federal minimum wage to $17 by 2028, and renew the national minimum wage to keep pace with inflation; and
- Address the student debt crisis.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · robmenendez.com/issues/affordability
The cost of childcare and education has skyrocketed in recent years, disproportionately impacting working families and making life even more difficult for residents of our district. We must continuously invest in our future – this means increasing equitable access to child care and to all levels of education.
In Congress, we work every single day to devise and enact future-forward solutions. That’s why I introduced the Parental Workforce Training Act, which would create a pilot program to issue $10 million in federal grants to local workforce boards for the purpose of subsidizing child care expenses for participants, and cosponsor the Child Care for Every Community Act and the Child Care Stabilization Act.
I’m also fighting to make all levels of education more accessible and affordable. I support the Keep Our Promise to America’s Children and Teachers Act and the Universal School Meals Program Act to ensure equitable access to quality elementary and secondary education. I’m also a proud cosponsor of the College for All Act and the Loan Forgiveness for Educators Act, which would make crucial reforms that address the root cause of the student debt crisis and make it easier for borrowers to satisfy their student loans.
In Washington, I will legislate to:
- Expand and extend the Child Tax Credit and cap child care costs at 7% of income for many families;
- Guarantee universal preschool for all families;
- Invest in early childhood care, including universal pre-K;
- Fully fund child nutrition programs;
- Expand public school funding to reduce class sizes and support our education workforce;
- Lower interest rates on student loans and expand loan forgiveness programs; and
- Guarantee tuition-free higher education at public institutions for the majority of students.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · robmenendez.com/issues/childcare
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 isn’t a distant threat. It is here and has had severe impacts on our area, hurting underserved communities the most. I think every day about the world we are leaving to the next generation.
We must move swiftly to address climate change and continuously champion environmental justice for our communities. That’s why I fought to secure millions in environmental justice grants for the residents of our District. I am also a cosponsor of the COAST Anti-Drilling Act and the Clean Water Act to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and establish standards of protection for wetlands, streams, and other water bodies.
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 initiatives like 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.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · robmenendez.com/issues/climate-change
Gun violence plagues our country. More people than ever before are dying due to gun violence – more than 43,000 in 2023 – and nearly 80% of murders in the United States involve a gun. In the past decade, thousands of mass shootings have occurred, killing and injuring hundreds of 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.
I joined the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force to protect our communities from these senseless acts of violence, and since taking office in January 2023, I have cosponsored more than twenty gun violence prevention bills, including the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, the Assault Weapons Ban, the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, and Ethan’s Law. And we’re just getting started.
As your representative in Congress, I will always 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 and expand the federal Assault Weapons Ban;
- Close loopholes in gun purchasing laws and strengthen the ability to take guns away from abusive dating partners, felons, and children;
- Address the growing threat of ghost guns that allow those who cannot lawfully own a weapon to access a firearm and skirt our gun laws;
- 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 in schools near our children; and
- Support Ethan’s Law and any legislation that ensures safe storage of weapons.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · robmenendez.com/issues/gun-control
Healthcare is a human right. It is crucial that we lower the cost of quality health insurance, protect the right to choose, improve equity and access to medical care, and make sure that every American receives the best healthcare possible regardless of ability to pay. I will consider all legislative options to do so.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) 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 dismantle 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.
And we know that Republicans will not stop with abortion and will keep pushing to places that none of us want to go. That’s why I have made it my mission in Congress to stand tall for the Eighth Congressional District and all Americans as a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus. I have cosponsored several major reproductive bills like the Right to Contraception Act and the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe and restore a woman’s fundamental right over her own body.
And too often, our healthcare system forces American families to make an impossible choice between their health and financial stability. That’s why I voted for the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which would require the disclosure of information regarding healthcare costs, address opaque practices that make quality care less accessible, and increase accountability. I’m also the Chair of the Dads Caucus Mental Health Working Group, which fights to address stigmas associated with mental health and expand access to the services and supports families need.
We must ensure that access to all forms of healthcare is protected and expanded. As your champion in Congress, I will fight to:
- Protect and expand the ACA for the millions of people who rely on it every day;
- Lower the cost of life-saving prescription drugs and 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;
- Codify Roe v. Wade and restore a woman’s fundamental right to have autonomy over her own body – period;
- Enact 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; and
- Repeal the Hyde Amendment, which only serves to make it harder for women of limited means to access abortions.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · robmenendez.com/issues/healthcare
Our immigrant families shape who we are as a community and I am privileged to represent a district that is strengthened by people from across the world. However, since President Trump took office, our communities have not been safe. They have been terrorized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and families have been torn apart across our district. Loved ones have disappeared into a cruel private detention system that puts profits over people at facilities like Delaney Hall and Elizabeth Detention Center. That is why I’ve been working to shut down private detention centers since coming to Congress.
In Congress, I have led our New Jersey Democratic delegation in efforts to stop the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) from detaining our neighbors at warehouse facilities and fought illegal restrictions on oversight of immigration detention centers. I saw firsthand ICE’s aggression and extreme tactics when my congressional oversight efforts led to a confrontation with more than 20 armed ICE and HSI agents at Delaney Hall in an incident that gained national attention.
I have also co-sponsored the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act to end the use of private immigration detention facilities and prohibit family detention. I will continue to fight this Administration’s extreme anti-immigrant agenda and work to abolish ICE so we can finally end the abuses that our communities have faced.
As your Congressman, I will always protect the dream and promise of our country by:
- Fighting to abolish ICE.
- Working to close private detention centers and reunite families.
- Pushing to decriminalize immigration and end mass deportation.
- Fighting to protect Dreamers, TPS recipients, farmworkers, essential workers, and others.
- Ensuring our residents know their rights and can protect themselves and their families from ICE.
- Supporting real solutions for immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship, humane border policies, and robust asylum protections.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · robmenendez.com/issues/immigration
Unions have been a pathway to financial stability and a higher quality of life 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 for re-election has earned from organized labor. We must continue to make the American Dream an achievable reality for all our residents.
My first bill in Congress was the Working Families Task Force Act to improve conditions for working families through a whole of government approach to achieving several imperatives, including improving access to quality jobs with livable wages and strong labor standards. I also worked with unions to introduce the Airline Employee Assault Prevention Act to protect ticket agents and airport workers in our district and across the country from workplace violence.
I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act in the 118th Congress because I believe in a worker’s right to unionize and that all Americans deserve to have a voice as to the conditions of their employment. I also cosponsored the Empowering Striking Workers Act, the Tax Fairness for Workers Act, the Raise the Wage Act, and the No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act. And our efforts in Washington have delivered more than $11 billion in federal funding for critical infrastructure projects, which will create good-paying union opportunities.
I will always stand with our unions and their dedicated members. In Congress, I will continue the 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;
- Increase access to good paying, high quality jobs with strong labor protections;
- Pass critical legislation like the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act;
- Hold employers accountable for violating workplace rights, misclassifying workers, interfering in union elections, and union busting activities; 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.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · robmenendez.com/issues/organized-labor
Transportation is a top priority because so many New Jerseyans depend on it every single day.
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.
One of my biggest priorities in strengthening our district’s infrastructure, from repairing and building bridges, roads, and schools, to investing in the public transportation systems that keep our region moving. Our Eighth District received $6.9 billion for the transformative Gateway Program from the U.S. Department of Transportation – the largest-ever mass transportation grant in our country’s history. In addition, we have secured $4 billion from the Federal Railroad Administration for our heavily-trafficked Northeast Corridor. Our efforts have also delivered grants for commuter ferry electrification, clean buses, critical infrastructure projects, and more.
As a Member of Congress, I am working diligently to:
- Ensure that our district gets every dollar and cent it is entitled to from the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Act;
- Advocate for long-term, sustainable funding for NJ Transit that does not put the burden on our hard-working residents;
- Secure continued 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.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · robmenendez.com/issues/transportation