Candidate Profile: Mussab Ali For 8th Distict Congress

NORTH JERSEY — Rep. Rob Menendez is facing a primary challenge from Mussab Ali in his bid to keep representing New Jersey's 8th District in Congress. The district includes much of Hudson County and parts of Newark and Elizabeth.

Menendez hopes to serve a third two-year term.

Former Jersey City school board president Mussab Ali is challenging him for the Democratic nomination. Both candidates live in Jersey City.

The primary election will be held next Tuesday. Patch is publishing candidate profiles in major contested races, including this one.

Below is the candidate profile for Mussab Ali. Come back to Patch to read more coverage and other profiles.

Profile: Mussab Ali for 8th District Congress

Name: Mussab Ali

Age: 29

Current and past government positions: President of the Jersey City Board of Education [2021–22]; Trustee of the Jersey City Board of Education [2018–22]

Current job: Chief Legal Officer

Education: Rutgers University–Newark (B.S., Biology); Tsinghua University (M.A., International/Global Studies); Harvard University (J.D.)

Volunteer work: President & Founder, Ali Leadership Institute

Family: Both parents immigrated from Pakistan. Mother is a public school teacher; father is a postal worker.

Questions (including answers, verbatim):

1. What do you think are the biggest problems facing your electorate right now, and how do you hope to help solve them?

The people of this district are being squeezed from every direction. Rents are skyrocketing, healthcare costs are crushing working families, and the transit system they depend on every day is chronically underfunded. At the same time, immigrant communities in our district are living in fear of raids and deportation. The federal government should fight for all of us instead of doing the bidding of billionaires and corporations.

My solutions are straightforward. We should pass Medicare for All to guarantee healthcare as a human right, a federal social housing program and expanded affordable housing investment to bring rents down, and dedicated federal funding for NJTransit and the PATH system to give commuters the reliable service they deserve. On immigration, I will fight to abolish ICE and close Delaney Hall, the detention center sitting inside our own district. And I will do all of this while refusing every dollar of corporate PAC money.

2. Why do you believe you're the most qualified person for the spot, among current and future political opponents?

I have spent my entire life in this district, and I have a record of delivering real results for its people. At 20, I became the youngest elected school board member in Jersey City history. As Board President of the Jersey City Board of Education, I passed the district's first fully funded budget in over a decade, raised wages for school workers, eliminated student lunch debt, and remediated lead contamination in over 300 school water fountains.

I am the son of immigrants who built their lives in this district, and I personally understand what is at stake for the families targeted by this administration. My opponent has taken hundreds of thousands in corporate PAC money this cycle alone and recently received the endorsement of a crypto super PAC funded by the same Silicon Valley billionaires backing Donald Trump. The district deserves a representative whose only obligation is to the people of this district, and that is exactly what I will be.

More Information

The 8th Congressional District includes Bayonne, East Newark, Elizabeth, Guttenberg, Harrison, Hoboken, part of Jersey City, part of Kearny, North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken, and West New York.

See the map of the district here.

See the election calendar and voter information for New Jersey here.