Grandfather - Sept. 18, 2017

As a little girl, my grandfather used to tell me stories of his life during World War II. He was a bomber pilot and his plane was shot down over occupied France. As my grandfather parachuted from the sky, he didn't know if he would live or die. He didn't know he'd be rescued by the French Resistance and brought to a farm on the countryside, or that he'd hide from Nazi patrols in a barn a lot like this one. What he did know is that he wasn't going to give up. See for my grandpa, there was never blame on both sides. The Nazis were in the wrong – period – and he thought being an American was one of the luckiest things that could happen to a person and you'd better be prepared to serve your country if called upon to do so. So I went to the Naval Academy, graduating in the flight school in the first class of women eligible for combat, and became a Sea King helicopter pilot flying missions in Europe and the Middle East. When I left the Navy, I wanted to keep serving, so I got my law degree and went to work at the U.S. attorney's office. I helped bring a lot of criminals to justice. But I'm most proud of my work developing programs to help people get a second chance and to stop crime before it happens. Now I'm running for Congress, because the values my grandfather shared with me, that my husband and I are now passing on to our kids, are under attack by Donald Trump. We want our kids to respect one another, to dream big and to know they have a place in America no matter who they are or where they're from. I know I'm not alone. Every day I visit with people around this district, listening and sharing their concerns. That's something that's part of New Jersey hasn't had in a while. Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen hasn't held a town hall meeting in four years. Rodney has forgotten the people he was elected to serve. Instead of protecting us, he's voting ninety-eight percent of the time with President Trump – ninety-eight percent. You know, in the Navy I was taught when his ship runs aground there are usually people on the bridge who knew it was gonna happen but they were too afraid to speak up. President Trump is running our country aground and Congressman Frelinghuysen won't speak up. It's time we do.