NBC 10
October 5, 2018

Donald Norcross

Office Sought: New Jersey 1st Congressional District

Political Party: Democrat

Age: 59

Campaign Website:www.donaldnorcrossforcongress.com

No. of Tweets:778

No. of Facebook followers:10,262

Biography: Norcross says his life has been devoted to fighting for working families, seniors, veterans, and students; having attended community college, raised his first son as a single dad while working as an electrician, and relied on unemployment and disability insurance to provide for his family, his range of experience makes him more capable of understanding New Jersey’s families and communities.

On the Issues:

Raising Wages
“I support raising wages, growing jobs in high-skilled industries, and ensuring fair pay and safe workplaces for all. I know that the best social program in the world is a good job with fair wages and the dignity that comes with it. Now serving in Congress, I can plainly say that raising wages is the moral issue of our time. But Congress hasn’t acted to raise the federal minimum wage in over a decade. Today it remains $7.25 an hour, leaving Americans who work full-time living in poverty. And economic security isn’t just a problem for minimum wage workers. We feel it throughout our communities: families struggling to make ends meet, with stagnant wages and rising costs, unable to save enough for their kids’ education, and worried by the threat of a health care overhaul that we know will mean higher costs and less care. The social contract that guided us for generations – that if you work hard and play by the rules you can make it in America – appears broken. No American with a full-time job should struggle to put food on their table or put their child to bed hungry. First and foremost for me is raising your wages; we know that this will not just increase quality of life for workers, but boost the economy, as well.”

Education 
“Students deserve an education that prepares them for a rewarding career and doesn’t leave them mired in debt. Our focus as a society must be to provide a world-class education for all, and to ensure affordable, accessible higher educational opportunities so that our best, brightest, and most industrious students can start building their adult lives without being mired in debt. First and foremost that means fully supporting our public school system and all those that devote their lives to educating our children. I’ve worked to make our local universities and county colleges hubs for business innovation and high-tech job creation. Now, I’m focused on expanding opportunities for students interested in attending our vocational, technical, and apprenticeship training schools so they can become valued members of our region’s workforce.”

Community Protection and Security
“For Americans to succeed, we must first and foremost provide a secure nation and safe neighborhoods. Our police officers, firefighters, and first responders risk their lives every day to keep our communities safe, and I have stood up for them by instituting programs that help them gain and retain employment, and assist their families in times of need. I was an early supporter of equipping law enforcement officials with body cameras, and authored New Jersey’s first law to do so. I led the successful push to reform our state’s bail laws and keep violence out of our communities by focusing on an offender’s risks, not their resources, and was recognized by the New Jersey NAACP for those efforts. I also worked to increases penalties for illegal gun trafficking and allow police officers to impound vehicles in cases that involve illegal weapons, drugs, or prostitution, effectively removing vehicles of crime from our streets.

My first and highest duty is to protect and defend the American people. I’ve called for common-sense steps to protect Americans, like ending the outrageous terrorist background check loophole that currently allows people on our nation’s Terror Watchlist to legally purchase deadly firearms and explosives. I have traveled to the Middle East on multiple occasions and saw firsthand how the evils of terrorism are shaping our national security policies. I fully support Israel, our strongest ally in a region that is both strategically significant and increasingly unstable. Israel proudly shares our American values of freedom and equality and is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. I oppose the nuclear deal with Iran because, as the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran must never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon when it continues to threaten and vilify the people of Israel and America.”

Jobs
“Our economy can’t grow if we don’t invest in the critical infrastructure that allows employers to do business. America needs a comprehensive infrastructure plan that improves our roads and bridges, our water and electric energy systems, and our telecommunications network. Meanwhile our small businesses stability and predictability from government and a qualified workforce so they can feel confident investing in America’s future. I am focused on strengthening our region’s core industries including our colleges and universities, hospitals, and ports. I championed a groundbreaking effort to improve our economy and bring new jobs to our region through the Economic Opportunity Act of 2013. I have also been a leader in modernizing our state’s brewing and distilling laws, supporting multiple small businesses throughout the state and creating jobs along with unique, Jersey-made craft brews and spirits. As your representative in Congress, I will bring these innovative ideas to the national level and work to create family-sustaining jobs for all Americans.”

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