Race to watch: What to know about New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District candidates

What questions do you have about the 2024 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.

The 4th District congressional race is a repeat contest between Republican incumbent Chris Smith and Democratic challenger Matt Jenkins. Libertarian candidate John Morrison and Green Party candidate Barry Bendar are also in the fray.

About 38% of all registered voters in the district are Republicans, 22% are Democrats, and most others are independents.

In 2022 when Smith faced off Jenkins, he received 66.9% of the vote, compared to Jenkins’ 31.4%.

The 4th Congressional District includes 19 towns in Monmouth County and 21 in Ocean County.

Republican Chris Smith

Smith was born in Rahway, New Jersey. He grew up in Iselin and graduated from St. Mary’s High School in Perth Amboy. He earned his undergraduate degree in   business administration from Trenton State College. Smith then studied abroad at England’s Worcester College, Oxford University.

After college, he joined his family’s sporting goods company as director of institutional sales. In 1980, he was elected to the House of Representatives. Smith, who has won 22 consecutive elections in the 4th District, is the second-longest-serving current member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the longest-serving member of Congress in New Jersey’s history.

Smith is a senior member on the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee. He also serves as the co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, chairman of the bipartisan House/Senate/White House Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and as “special representative” on human trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

Previously, he served as co-chair of the House/Senate Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and as chairman of the Veterans Committee, the Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Operations, and the Subcommittee on Africa.

Smith has chaired a number of bipartisan congressional caucuses such as the Pro-life, Autism, Alzheimer’s, Lyme Disease, Spina Bifida, Human Trafficking, Refugees, Heart and Stroke Caucus, Fragile X Syndrome, Hydrocephalus and Combating Anti-Semitism caucuses. He also serves on caucuses on Bosnia, Uganda and Vietnam.

Chris Smith’s campaign website, Friends of Chris Smith, describes him as someone who is “relentless in his pursuit of justice on behalf of the people of his district,” but the website does not list his platform.

Smith has received endorsements from multiple organizations, including the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, the State Troopers Fraternal Association of New Jersey, the New Jersey State Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association, New Jersey Right to Life, New Jersey’s AFL-CIO and the National Federation of Independent Business. Smith did not respond to multiple interview requests by WHYY News.

Democrat Matt Jenkins

Jenkins was born in New Jersey and raised in Toms River, where he attended public high school. He attended Ocean County Community College before completing his degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Jenkins spent years working in biomedical research before opening a custom furniture shop. He grew his company into a general contracting business building residential homes. He said he is currently working in corporate wellness.

Jenkins said when he moved to Colts Neck in 2016, he became active in the local political scene and ran for Congress two years ago.

He said a main focus of his campaign is affordability. He wants big corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.

“When you keep cutting money on corporate taxes, you see billions of dollars in buybacks, that means the corporation has so much money they don’t know what to do with it, so they just buy back their own stock, make the company more valuable,” he said.

He said he understands that lowering taxes is not easy.

“There’s no magic wand, people say I’m going to lower prices but it’s not that simple, the system is working exactly as it’s designed, and that is to funnel the money up,” he said.

Jenkins said more must be done to support small businesses and bring them to New Jersey. He said he would work to stop corporations from buying up single-family homes, which artificially drives up home prices and rents.

He said if elected to Congress, he would support expanding green energy.

“Wind, solar, yes fossil fuels would be around for a long time, people are saying, ‘Oh, you want to get rid of fossil fuels,’ no I don’t, but I want to get rid of our reliance on them, our need to be literally victimized by the fossil fuel energy,”  Jenkins said.

He said he has a plan to fix the country’s immigration system but did not share details.

When it comes to women’s rights, Jenkins said it is time to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law for the safety of all women across the nation. He said affordable access to birth control is a right, not a privilege.

“Women need to be able to go into their health care professional, and that relationship should start and end right there, the government definitely should not be in there,” he said.

Jenkins has been endorsed by multiple organizations, including New Jersey Citizen Action, The American Federation of Teachers, Garden State Equality, Moms Demand Action and New Jersey Young Democrats.

Libertarian John Morrison

John Morrison was born and raised in Edison, New Jersey. He attended Penn State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in history before attending Monmouth University, where he obtained a graduate degree in teaching.

He teaches U.S. history and journalism to middle schoolers in the Carteret School District. “In first grade, when they said what are you going to be when you grow up, I wrote ‘governor of New Jersey,’ so I thought I would start in Congress, I have time,” he said. “I carried around presidential flash cards in elementary school, that’s where I nerd out.”

Morrison said he’s been an active member of the Libertarian Party since 2015.

“I always had the inkling, and the feeling that I would run for something someday, if there was ever the opportunity to kind of throw my hat into the ring,” he said.

In 2023, he ran for the New Jersey Assembly in the 13th District and received 1.2% of the vote. Republicans Victoria Flynn and Gerard Scharfenberger were victorious in that election.

He said he enjoyed the experience.

“To do something on the federal level, to run for Congress period, is just a really big check box on anybody’s bucket list that has an interest in public service,” he said. “I love the ability to get the platform of the Libertarian Party out there.”

Morrison said the economy is his number one issue.

“What people need to see is that we do have this issue with the Federal Reserve, that can print money, can set interest rates, and if we’re going to continue to print money at the rate that we’re doing, we’re devaluing our dollar and prices will obviously go up,” he said.

He said the Libertarian Party supports ending the U.S. Federal Reserve.

“I do see value in a central government, I just don’t see value in a bloated and inflated federal government,” he said. “I just think it’s gotten a little too big and it’s gotten a little out of hand.”

He also supports reforming the federal immigration system and reevaluating the points of entry to ensure the free movement of people, ideas and commerce. He  supports term limits for congressional representatives.

“I believe in the value of looking outside of the two parties and finding somebody that has similar opinions [as you],” he said. “If I can get just one person really to look outside of a Democrat or Republican, I will feel I’ve done my job. I really want people to broaden their political horizons.”

Morrison has been endorsed by the Libertarian Party.

Green Party Barry Bendar

A resident of Ocean County, Bendar graduated with an undergraduate degree in political science from William Paterson College of New Jersey. He now works as a database administrator.

Bender has been actively involved in local initiatives for more than 15 years, serving as the logistics chair for the Relay for Life of Berkeley/Lacey. He is the Congressional District 4 lead for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and is the former Democratic chairman of Lacey Township.

He advocates for the prioritization of people’s well-being over financial interests, supports the Shoreline retention project in Lacey Township, and has a long association with the Animal Protection League of New Jersey. He is a founding member of Voter Choice NJ, advocating for a fair and representative electoral system.

Bendar supports a free Palestine and is advocating for human rights and peace in the region.

He is the co-chair and elections chair of the Green Party of New Jersey.

The Green Party supports addressing what they describe as “the climate catastrophe as part of a Real Green New Deal.” It also calls for affordable housing, universal rent control, improved and expanded Medicare for all, a student debt cancellation, restructuring the immigration system and “getting big money out of politics.”

Bendar has been endorsed by the Green Party. He did not respond to interview requests by WHYY News.