Hometown: Harrington Park
Occupation: United States Senator
Age: 57
Personal and/or professional background Cory grew up in northern New Jersey and earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Stanford, where he played varsity football. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and went on to study at the University of Oxford, and then Yale Law School. After law school, he moved to Newark and founded a nonprofit providing legal services to low-income families, helping tenants take on slumlords. At 29, Cory was elected to the Newark City Council, challenging the city’s entrenched political machine. Starting in 2006, he served as mayor of Newark for more than seven years, overseeing the city’s largest period of economic growth since the 1960s. In 2013, he won a special election to the U.S. Senate, was re-elected in 2014, and again in 2020.
What is your top issue? Bringing down costs and making daily life more affordable for New Jerseyans. The costs of basic necessities are soaring: rent, mortgages, gas, utilities, groceries, child care, elder care, and more. Trump and congressional Republicans promised to lower costs—instead, they’ve made things worse, and working families are paying the price at every turn.
How would you improve the economy and make the cost of living (groceries, housing, energy, etc.) more affordable? We used to have a basic deal in America that said if you put in the work, you could do more than just get by—you could get ahead. Buy a home, start a family, save for retirement, and enjoy a secure and dignified life. All without going into crushing debt. That deal is now broken. But it wasn’t broken by you. You’re working harder than ever. It was broken by powerful corporations and the corrupt politicians who have catered to them year after year. It’s time to prioritize New Jerseyans who work for a living. That means cutting taxes for working families, making billionaires pay their fair share, building more homes to bring down costs, and cracking down on the corruption that enables big corporations to get rich by making us pay more.
What is your plan to make healthcare more affordable and accessible? The United States is the only high-income country in the world that does not ensure affordable health care for its citizens—the only one where millions of people risk financial ruin simply for getting sick. This is a moral outrage. We must reverse the nearly $1 trillion in cuts Republicans made to Medicaid; restore the tax credits that lowered monthly premiums on the ACA marketplace; require Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing; and expand Medicare’s drug price negotiation program to reduce prescription costs for American families. We cannot rest until every New Jerseyan has access to high-quality and affordable care.
Do you support the war in Iran and federal defense spending? If not, what would you change? I oppose this illegal war in Iran, and I am leading the effort in the Senate to stop it. More than a dozen American servicemembers are dead. Hundreds have been injured. Gas prices are surging across New Jersey. This is an administration that has no strategy and that learned nothing from 20 years of war in the Middle East. We are repeating the same mistakes and paying the price. There is no legal, strategic or security rationale for this conflict. It was a war of choice launched by a president who promised voters over and over again that there would be no new wars on his watch. I believe it’s time to fight for Americans here at home: affordable healthcare, child care, lower energy bills, cheaper groceries, and more money in your pocket.
What are your thoughts about current immigration enforcement policies and what, if anything, would you do differently? This administration’s immigration policies are unconstitutional and a moral stain on our nation. Masked agents are snatching people off the street, raiding homes without warrants, separating kids from their parents, and detaining American citizens. Here in Jersey, ICE purchased a warehouse to detain immigrants over the objections of local communities. They’ve carried out raids outside of churches and near school bus stops that have caused elementary school children to run away in fear. It’s shameful. We must have lawful and humane enforcement, along with clear pathways to citizenship for those who have built their lives here and contribute to our communities. America is a nation of immigrants—and we are better for it.
What changes, if any, should Congress or the president make in elections (requiring voter ID, regulating mail-in voting, etc.)? There is an active effort in Washington to make it harder for New Jerseyans to vote. It’s called the SAVE America Act, and it’s one of the most dangerous attacks on voting rights I’ve seen in my lifetime. Among other troubling provisions, it would impose major burdens on voting by mail, make it harder for people who’ve changed their names to cast a ballot, and add new restrictive requirements for registering to vote. Defeating this bill is the first order of business. But there’s more we need to do. We should pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, expand vote by mail, institute automatic and same-day registration, and reject the politicians who undermine trust in our elections with baseless claims of voter fraud.
