Watch Rep. Chris Smith Debate Stephanie Schmid Monday

The Asbury Park Press will host a virtual debate this Monday, Oct. 19 between Fourth District Republican Congressman Chris Smith and the Democrat woman challenging him for the seat, Stephanie Schmid.

The virtual debate will be held at noon Monday and can be watched live on the Asbury Park Press Facebook page. It will be moderated by Asbury Park Press reporter Joe Strupp.

Smith, 67, has represented New Jersey's fourth congressional district since 1981 — if re-elected Nov. 3, this will be his 21st term in Congress — and he is one of New Jersey's only two remaining Republican congressmen. The other is South Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, who switched parties last year in protest to the impeachment attempt against President Trump.

The Fourth Congressional District covers nearly all of Monmouth County, including towns such as Holmdel, part of Middletown, Colts Neck, Rumson, Manalapan, Freehold, Eatontown, Red Bank and Wall Township. The fourth district also reaches into Jackson and Lakewood in Ocean County and Hamilton and Robbinsville in Mercer County.

Democrats have been trying to win the Fourth District seat for years, without success. The district has voted for a Republican in the past four presidential elections by comfortable margins: Trump, Romney, McCain and Bush.

Schmid, 40, has the unique position of actually being Smith's former intern: She interned for him as a high school student first getting her feet wet in national politics. Students were placed with Congress reps in their home state; she grew up in Bergen County.

After graduating from Yale and obtaining her law degree from U.C. Berkeley, she worked as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer for Fox Rothschild, according to her LinkedIn profile. There, she represented several mid-level executives at Transocean, the oil rig that exploded in the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill, where 11 workers died.

After that, she worked for seven years as a U.S. diplomat, spending part of that time stationed in Haiti.

Schmid moved to Little Silver before deciding to run for the Fourth District Congressional seat.

"I am going to stand up for everyone, whether they are an undocumented immigrant housekeeper in the fourth district or a wealthy millionaire living in the fourth district," Schmid told Patch in this article first introducing her candidacy last year.

Among other issues, Schmid and Smith disagree most poignantly on abortion.

Before Schmid decided to run for Congress, she worked as the legal counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights. She helped write the Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights Act of 2019, which Smith opposes.

Meanwhile Smith is one of Congress' staunchest abortion opponents, and he has said his strong Catholic faith is the reason he is against it. He is a regular speaker at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Every year he votes in support of the Hyde amendment, which prohibits federal taxpayer dollars from being used for abortion.

In 2017, Smith voted in favor of a national ban on late-term abortions after five months in utero, at which point a fetus has been found to experience pain. Also that year Smith sponsored legislation that permanently banned federal funding for abortion for women except in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother.

Schmid said she also takes issue with Smith's support of the "global gag rule," which prevents international non-profits from receiving U.S. aid if they discuss or perform abortions. She also criticized him for his vote against the Violence Against Women Act, after it was expanded in 2013 to included protections from domestic violence for LGBTQ victims.

"He believes it is overly broad," said Schmid last year. "I want to be clear because a lot of the other media have made this just about abortion and it's not: It's about a world view. In his view, he sees women and LBGTQ people as second-class citizens, and not deserving of the same protections as white heterosexual men. And that's how he votes."

But at the time, Smith said on the House floor that he voted against the Violence Against Women Act because it took $5 million in funding away from his Trafficking Victims' Act.

Related: Chris Smith's Former Intern Is Now Running Against Him

Planned Parenthood Action Fund Endorses Stephanie Schmid For NJ 4

Don't miss a minute of local Middletown news! Click here to get Patch email updates and follow Middletown Patch on Facebook. Have a news tip? Email the Middletown Patch reporter, Carly.baldwin@patch.com