Joshua S. Gottheimer ( ; born March 8, 1975) is an American attorney, writer, and public policy adviser who has served as the

U.S. representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

for since 2017. The district stretches along the northern border of the state from New York City's densely populated metropolitan suburbs in

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.exurban and rural territory in northern

Passaic Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69, ...

and Sussex Counties. A member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa * Botswana Democratic Party * Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *De ...

, Gottheimer was a speechwriter for Bill Clinton and served as an adviser to the presidential campaigns of

Wesley Clark Wesley Kanne Clark (born December 23, 1944) is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree ...

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he p ...

, and Hillary Clinton. He has also worked for Burson Cohn & Wolfe, the Federal Communications Commission, Ford Motor Company, and Microsoft.

Early life and education

Gottheimer was born in Livingston, New Jersey, on March 8, 1975. At the age of 16, Gottheimer served as a U.S. Senate page for

Frank Lautenberg Frank Raleigh Lautenberg (; January 23, 1924 June 3, 2013) was an American businessman and Democratic Party politician who served as United States Senator from New Jersey from 1982 to 2001, and again from 2003 until his death in 2013. He was ori ...

, a senator from New Jersey. Through high school and college, Gottheimer held internships with C-SPAN, the U.S. Senate secretary, and Tom Foley, the

speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U ...

. Gottheimer graduated from

West Essex High School West Essex High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in North Caldwell. The high school is part of the West Essex Regional School District, which comprises the constituent municipalities of Essex Fells, Fairfield, N ...

, the University of Pennsylvania, and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...

. He was a member of the

Alpha Epsilon Pi Alpha Epsilon Pi (), commonly known as AEPi, is a college fraternity founded at New York University in 1913 by Charles C. Moskowitz and ten other men. The fraternity has more than 150 active chapters across the United States, Canada, United Kingd ...

fraternity. While in college, he served on the "rapid response team" for Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign. After Clinton's reelection, Gottheimer attended Pembroke College, Oxford on a

Thouron Award The Thouron Award is a prestigious postgraduate scholarship established in 1960 by Sir John R.H. Thouron, K.B.E., and Esther du Pont Thouron. It was created to strengthen the "special relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdo ...

, studying toward a DPhil in modern history.

Early career

Gottheimer joined the Clinton

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...

as a speechwriter in 1998, at age 23, working in the administration until its end in 2001. While attending law school, he worked as an adviser for Wesley Clark's 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. After the 2004 election, Gottheimer worked for the Ford Motor Company, then became an executive vice president at Burson Cohn & Wolfe. From 2010 to 2012, he worked for the Federal Communications Commission, where he led an initiative related to

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

internet. He subsequently became a strategist at Microsoft.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2016

In the 2016 elections, Gottheimer ran for the House of Representatives in , a seat held by Republican

Scott Garrett Ernest Scott Garrett (born July 9, 1959) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for , serving from 2003 to 2017. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1990 to 20 ...

Cory Booker Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. s ...

joined him when he officially announced his candidacy. Gottheimer attracted more attention than previous challengers to Garrett due to his fundraising ability and ties to the Clintons. '' The New York Times'' ran a prominent article about his Clinton ties, describing him as a protégé of the Clintons and noting that Bill and Chelsea Clinton had appeared at a recent Manhattan fundraiser for Gottheimer at which Chelsea introduced him as "something of a family member." His campaign's 2015 financial filings, in which Gottheimer reported raising around $1 million through the end of September, showed that "about one dollar in six came directly from fellow alumni of the Clinton White House and campaigns...or from major donors and employees of consulting firms tied closely to the Clintons." Among those who donated were three former Clinton press secretaries and two former Clinton chiefs of staff. The 5th had historically been one of the more Republican districts in New Jersey, but redistricting after the 2010 census had made it slightly more Democratic by pushing it further into

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Saudi multimillionaire who pleaded guilty in 2014 to simple assault of his estranged wife." Gottheimer and national Democrats attacked Garrett for his social conservatism, particularly comments he made about openly gay Republican candidates, arguing that these views showed Garrett was too conservative for the district. Gottheimer defeated Garrett, primarily on the strength of a strong showing in the district's share of Bergen County, home to over three-fourths of the district's voters. He won Bergen by over 33,800 votes, more than double his overall margin of almost 14,900 votes. It was the most expensive House race in New Jersey history. He was sworn in on January 3, 2017– the first Democrat to represent this district since 1981, when it was numbered the 7th District (it has been the 5th since 1983).

2018

Gottheimer was reelected in 2018, defeating Republican nominee John McCann with 56% of the vote. While he lost three of the district's four counties, Gottheimer won a second term on the strength of carrying the district's share of Bergen County by over 51,000 votes, more than his overall margin of 41,300 votes.

2020

Gottheimer won a third term in 2020, defeating Republican nominee Frank Pallotta with 53% of the vote. As in his previous campaigns, he lost three of the district's four counties, but swamped Pallotta in the district's share of Bergen County, this time by 52,600 votes, more than his overall margin of 32,800 votes. He was also helped by Joe Biden carrying the district with 52% of the vote.

2022

Gottheimer defeated Republican nominee Frank Pallotta with 54.7% of the vote. In May 2022, Gottheimer became involved in the Republican primary contest that would decide his eventual general election opponent. He sent mail to Republican voters that compared Pallotta, a repeat candidate whom Gottheimer had already beaten in the previous House election, to former Republican president Donald Trump. Pallotta won the primary, defeating front-runner and

US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through c ...

combat veteran Nick De Gregorio by 1,475 votes, setting up a general election that Gottheimer was heavily favored to win.

Tenure

In the first session of the

115th United States Congress The 115th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January 3, 2017, to January 3 ...

, Gottheimer was ranked the eighth most bipartisan member of the House by the Bipartisan Index, a metric published by

The Lugar Center Richard Green Lugar (April 4, 1932 – April 28, 2019) was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party. Born in Indianapolis, Lugar graduated from De ...

and Georgetown's

McCourt School of Public Policy The McCourt School of Public Policy is one of ten constituent schools of Georgetown University. The McCourt School offers master's degrees in public policy, international development policy, policy management, data science for public policy, and ...

. In January 2018, Gottheimer was one of six House Democrats who voted with Republicans for a short-term spending bill in an attempt to stave off a federal government shutdown. He is the Democratic co-chair of the bipartisan

Problem Solvers Caucus The Problem Solvers Caucus is a bipartisan group in the United States House of Representatives that includes members equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, who seek to foster bipartisan cooperation on key policy issues. The group was c ...

. Gottheimer voted to impeach Trump a second time following the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. Gottheimer emerged as a leader of the "Unbreakable Nine", who in August 2021 pushed to decouple the bipartisan infrastructure bill from the

Build Back Better Act The Build Back Better Act was a bill introduced in the 117th Congress to fulfill aspects of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Plan. It was spun off from the American Jobs Plan, alongside the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as ...

. The two bills were voted on separately, and only the bipartisan infrastructure bill became law (because conservative senators refused to support BBB).

Committee assignments

Committee on Financial Services The United States House Committee on Financial Services, also referred to as the House Banking Committee and previously known as the Committee on Banking and Currency, is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees t ...

** Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion ** Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets ** Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy

Caucus memberships

Blue Dog Coalition The Blue Dog Coalition (commonly known as the Blue Dogs or Blue Dog Democrats) is a caucus in the United States House of Representatives comprising centrist members from the Democratic Party. The caucus was founded as a group of conservative ...

* New Democrat Coalition *

Climate Solutions Caucus The Climate Solutions Caucus is a bipartisan caucus of U.S. legislators supported by the Citizens' Climate Lobby whose members work to achieve action addressing the risks from climate change. The House of Representatives and Senate each have a c ...

Political positions

Some consider Gottheimer a

conservative Democrat In American politics, a conservative Democrat is a member of the Democratic Party with conservative political views, or with views that are conservative compared to the positions taken by other members of the Democratic Party. Traditionally, con ...

, with GovTrack rating him the most conservative Democrat in the House as of February 2021, as well as more conservative than 32 House Republicans. During Donald Trump's presidency, Gottheimer voted in line with Trump more often than any other Democrat in Congress. As of November 2021, he had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time. Gottheimer has pointed to his work with the

as proof that he is not "ideologically rigid". He has also said that members of Congress "are more bipartisan than people think".

Taxes

On April 15, 2017, Gottheimer announced that he would be introducing the "Anti-Moocher Bill", under which states receiving more federal dollars than they contribute to the national treasury would pay their "fair share", asking: "Why should Alabama get our federal tax dollars and get a free ride, while we're left holding the bag with higher property taxes? It just doesn't make sense." Gottheimer is a proponent of restoring the full State And Local Tax (SALT) deduction.

Health care

In 2017, Gottheimer said "we need to fix the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

. There's plenty wrong with it, whether it's the medical device tax or the

Cadillac tax Informally, a Cadillac plan is any unusually expensive health insurance plan, usually arising in discussions of medical-cost control measures in the United States. The term derives from the Cadillac automobile, which has represented American luxury ...

." He also felt that the

American Health Care Act of 2017 The American Health Care Act of 2017 (often shortened to the AHCA or nicknamed Trumpcare) was a bill in the 115th United States Congress. The bill, which was passed by the United States House of Representatives but not by the United States ...

did not reflect an effort "to reach across the aisle".

Infrastructure

Gottheimer supports New Jersey infrastructure projects, including the Lackawanna Cut-Off and the Gateway Tunnel. In August 2021, Gottheimer led a group of centrist Democrats who threatened to derail the Biden administration's $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package meant to tackle infrastructure.

Syria

Gottheimer said that he thought President Donald Trump acted appropriately in striking Syria in response to the 2018 use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government. "There's room the president has to deal with a crisis, and I believed, if you looked at the heinous crimes and atrocities committed, poisoning your own children, that demanded a response, and I'm glad he responded."

Donald Trump

In 2017, Gottheimer called for an independent commission to probe alleged ties between Donald Trump and Russia. Of the possibility of impeaching Trump over the Ukraine scandal, in September 2019 Gottheimer said, "We need to make sure this is fact-driven and evidence-based. You can't prejudge something that is so solemn and obviously could have a big historical impact on our country, and you need to keep the country together." Gottheimer voted to impeach Trump during both his first impeachment and his second impeachment. Gottheimer was one of eight Democrats to vote against a resolution that would curtail Trump's war powers following the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in January 2020.

Drugs

In 2019, Gottheimer stated his opposition to the legalization of recreational marijuana. The statement came after he voted for a bill that would end the federal penalization of banks that serve the

cannabis industry The cannabis industry is composed of legal cultivators and producers, consumers, independent industrial standards bodies, ancillary products and services, regulators and researchers concerning cannabis and its industrial derivative, hemp. The can ...

Congressional stock trading

Gottheimer supports Representative

Abigail Spanberger Abigail Anne Spanberger (née Davis, August 7, 1979) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Her district includes most of the northern suburbs of Richmond, as well ...

's Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust (TRUST) in Congress Act, which has 50 co-sponsors.

Ukraine

Gottheimer and Representative Brian Fitzpatrick introduced House legislation to support Senator Joe Manchin's initiative to close American ports to Russian oil, natural gas, and coal products.

Electoral history

Books

He is the editor of ''Ripples of Hope'' (2003), a collection of American civil-rights speeches. The text of one of the speeches included in the book, which was delivered by

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

in Selma on January 25, 1965, was previously unpublished. Gottheimer acquired the text from an Alabama police consultant who had transcribed it from FBI surveillance tapes. He is also co-author, with

Mary Frances Berry Mary Frances Berry (born February 17, 1938) is an American historian, writer, lawyer, activist and professor who focuses on U.S. constitutional and legal, African-American history. Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Tho ...

, of ''Power of Words'' (2011), a book about Barack Obama's speeches.

Personal life

Gottheimer is a native of

North Caldwell North Caldwell is a borough in northwestern Essex County, New Jersey, United States, and a suburb of New York City. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 6,694, an increase of 511 (+8.3%) from the 2010 census count ...

, and he currently resides in Wyckoff. He is Jewish and a member of the

fraternity. He married Marla Tusk in 2006. Together, they have two children.

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

Congressman Josh Gottheimer
official U.S. House website
U.S. Congress campaign website
* * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gottheimer, Josh 1975 births 21st-century American politicians American male non-fiction writers American speechwriters Clinton administration personnel Federal Communications Commission personnel Harvard Law School alumni Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey Jewish American attorneys Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives Living people Microsoft people People from North Caldwell, New Jersey People from Wyckoff, New Jersey University of Pennsylvania alumni West Essex High School alumni