As Congress prepares to reorganize for its 119th session beginning in January, two New Jersey House Democrats have been elected to leadership roles within large House caucuses.
Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), who was re-elected to a second term this year representing New Jersey’s only majority-Hispanic congressional district, was chosen as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s new vice chair of policy, making him responsible for developing the caucus’s legislative agenda.
“I am humbled by the opportunity to join CHC’s leadership team and to expand my service to our Latino communities here in the nation’s capital,” Menendez said in a statement. “As the Vice Chair of Policy, I will work to ensure that the CHC develops and advances a legislative agenda that not only addresses the needs of our communities, but also upholds our nation’s core values.”
During his first term, Menendez briefly served in Democratic leadership as the freshman representative to the powerful House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee; he tied with another then-freshman member, Michigan Rep. Hillary Scholten, in an internal vote, and they ended up each serving on the committee for one year.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly), meanwhile, was selected as the new co-chair of the Law Enforcement Caucus, a bipartisan 120-member caucus that was relaunched in 2021 by the late Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and GOP Florida Rep. John Rutherford.
“I will always get the backs of the countless officers who risk their own safety to keep our families and communities safe,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “I’m extremely grateful for this honor and look forward to working to find common ground on how we can continue to invest to protect.”
One brand-new New Jersey House member’s efforts to take on a leadership role, however, were not as successful. Rep.-elect Herb Conaway (D-Delran) ran for the freshman seat on the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee – the same seat Menendez held for a year – but lost the vote to Maryland Rep. Johnny Olszewski.