NJ Green Party Launches 2024 Congress Slate: Meet The 'Green 13'

The Green Party of New Jersey is running a candidate in the Senate race and every House district. See the full list here.

Eric Kiefer,Patch Staff

Posted Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 3:16 pm ET|Updated Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 10:11 pm ET

New Jersey Green Party candidates for U.S. Congress pose for a group photo at an event featuring presidential candidate Jill Stein at Kean University in July 2024 (not pictured: Kim Meudt). (Photo: Green Party of New Jersey)

NEW JERSEY — Medicare for All. Affordable housing. Climate change. Workers rights. The minimum wage. A ceasefire in Gaza. These are some of the priorities of the “Green 13” if they are elected to U.S. Congress in New Jersey this year.

One of the largest third-parties in the Garden State, the Green Party of New Jersey has put together a full slate for the 2024 general election, including a candidate in each Congressional district and a U.S. Senate contender.

Learn more about the candidates and their platforms below.

SENATE: CHRISTINA KHALIL

Christina Khalil is running for Sen. Bob Menendez’s soon-to-be-vacant seat in the U.S. Senate. Learn more about her campaign platform here. See Related: Formerly Homeless NJ Senate Candidate Rages Against The Machine

BACKGROUND – Khalil is a native of New Jersey, where she grew up in foster care, later earning a B.A. in psychology and her master’s in social work from Ramapo College. In her free time Khalil has volunteered for community organizations such as the Bergen County LGBTQ+ Alliance. While obtaining her master’s degree, she worked on the front-lines during the height of the pandemic at a medical detox facility and never quit school, while also volunteering at Hackensack High School.

ISSUES – Khalil’s top priorities include a “complete redesign” of the nation’s immigration policy (including investing funds away from ICE), climate change (prioritize investing in clean and reusable energy and resources), universal health care (“removing corporations and big business from health care), criminal justice (combatting a “broken” for-profit incarceration system) and alleviating a growing housing crisis across the U.S., in addition to other issues such as police brutality, the War on Drugs, animal welfare and wildlife conservation, campaign finance reform, foster care reform, reparations and student loans.

DISTRICT 1: ROBIN BROWNFIELD

Robin Brownfield is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 1st Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Donald Norcross. Learn more about her campaign platform here.

BACKGROUND – Brownfield, who lives in Collingswood, is a former organizer for the United Farm Workers, and an adjunct sociology and labor studies professor at Rutgers University, Rowan University and numerous community colleges. With the American Federation of Teachers, she has helped to organize several union locals for adjunct professors in colleges and universities in New Jersey. Known in her community as the artist who designed and oversaw community volunteers in assembling the mosaic mural outside of Thomas Sharp Elementary School, she is also a well-known artist in the Philadelphia area and an activist opposing racism.

ISSUES – Brownfield’s priorities include creating an “Economic Bill of Rights” that establishes the rights to a living-wage job, guaranteed livable income, housing, health care, child care, lifelong education, secure retirement, utilities, healthy food and clean water. She is also advocating for expanding workers’ rights and supporting unions, creating a single-payer health care system, rolling out ranked-choice voting and proportional representation, banning private prisons and detention centers, advocating for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and ending “ableist policies” that create disparities for people with disabilities.

DISTRICT 2: THOMAS CANNAVO

Thomas Cannavo is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Jeff Van Drew. Learn more about his campaign platform here.

BACKGROUND – Cannavo grew up in Pennsville, Salem County and is a retired attorney and 25-year prosecutor. He worked for all three branches of government in CD-2. He is running for office for the first time, because he feels that ordinary citizens “need to step up before our country and world are beyond repair.”

ISSUES – Cannavo is running on a platform of “people over profits,” and is supporting programs such as Medicare for All, affordable housing as a “human right,” phasing-out fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable and sustainable energy, and ending the “[political] duopoly’s” funding of the Israel-Gaza war.

DISTRICT 3: STEVEN WELZER

Steven Welzer is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Andy Kim. NOTE: Welzer's online campaign presence is still in development.

BACKGROUND – As one of the founding members of the Green Party of New Jersey, Welzer produces Green Horizon, an eco-socialist newsletter.

ISSUES – Welzer says the “genocide against Palestine” is his top issue in the 2024 election.

DISTRICT 4: BARRY BENDAR

Barry Bendar is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Chris Smith. Learn more about his campaign platform here.

BACKGROUND – Bendar graduated with a B.A. in political science from the William Paterson College of New Jersey in 1979, laying the foundation for his lifelong commitment to public service. Bendar has over 45 years of experience as an I.T. professional. He moved to Forked River in Ocean County in 1988. As a founding member and live outreach coordinator of Voter Choice NJ, he has been at the forefront of the movement for Ranked Choice Voting, advocating for a fairer and more representative electoral system. He serves as co-chair and elections chair of the Green Party of New Jersey. Since 2009, Bendar has been involved in several local initiatives, serving as the logistics chair for the Relay for Life of Berkeley/Lacey and supporting cancer advocacy through his role as the Congressional District 4 Lead for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. He is an advocate for the Shoreline retention project in Lacey Township and the Animal Protection League of New Jersey.

ISSUES – Bendar is advocating for the “prioritization of people's well-being over financial interests.” Supporting single-payer health care, ranked-choice voting and a “free Palestine” are among his top concerns.

DISTRICT 5: BEAU FORTE

Beau Forte is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Josh Gottheimer. Learn more about his campaign platform here.

BACKGROUND – Forte is a homeowner in West Milford who was born in Rochelle Park. He graduated from River Dell Regional High School in Oradell and Lincoln Technical Institute in Mahwah. He started his career with a building supply company in Maplewood, and has spent most of the last 20 years employed as a manufacturer’s representative for The Sales Group, an independent sales agency.

ISSUES – Forte is running on issues such as universal health care, expansion of Congress, a ceasefire in Israel-Gaza, supporting reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, advocating for the environment through the Green New Deal, and cleaning up “neglected” Superfund sites in the 5th District.

DISTRICT 6: HERB TARBOUS

Herb Tarbous is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Frank Pallone. NOTE: Tarbous’ online campaign presence is still in development.

BACKGROUND – Tarbous is co-founder of Voter Choice NJ, an organization dedicated to bringing ranked-choice voting reform to the state.

ISSUES – Tarbous’ platform includes voting reform and introducing “more voices in politics outside the two-party system.”

DISTRICT 7: ANDREW BLACK

Andrew Black is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. Learn more about his campaign platform here.

BACKGROUND – Black is an Ohio native whose career experience includes working as a warehouse worker and manager.

ISSUES – Black’s priorities include “guaranteeing housing and food for all” through measures such as increasing taxes for the wealthy, limiting people to two houses and prohibiting corporate ownership of homes. He is an advocate of “resolving conflicts through dialogue rather than military intervention” and aims to reduce the U.S. military budget and fund health care, education and jobs. He is also supporting the U.S. divestment from “Big Oil” and investment in green energy technology, as well as a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

DISTRICT 8: CHRISTIAN ROBBINS

Christian Robbins is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. NOTE: Robbins’ online campaign presence is still in development.

ISSUES – Top issues for Robbins include the Israel-Gaza war and the “silencing of free speech.” He is an advocate for a “Green New Deal,” and is a critic of the current “climate catastrophe,” which he says has been “particularly detrimental to New Jersey due to the mass development of the state.”

DISTRICT 9: BENJAMIN TAYLOR

Benjamin Taylor is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Bill Pascrell. Learn more about his campaign platform here.

BACKGROUND – Taylor is a mycologist, writer and political activist. A Wyckoff native, he graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in political science.

ISSUES – Taylor’s platform includes treating health care as a “human right” through a single-payer health care system, funding “free education” and canceling student debt, ensuring the right to an abortion, “drastically” shrinking military funding and expansion, supporting a Green New Deal to combat the climate crisis, decriminalizing all drugs, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, closing for-profit prisons, and supporting “robust citizenship programs” for migrant workers and their families. He also supports increasing the federal minimum wage.

DISTRICT 10: JON SERRANO

Jon Serrano is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District, which was recently occupied by the late Donald Payne Jr. Learn more about his campaign platform here.

BACKGROUND – A Paterson native and former substitute teacher, Serrano is Hispanic, openly gay and a student-worker. He graduated from DePaul Catholic High School and earned an associate degree from Bergen Community College.

ISSUES – Serrano is running on a platform that includes “equitable access to health care,” the “separation of church and state,” women's rights, racial justice and clean energy. Some education plans include increasing pay for teachers, providing schools “equitable funding” and reforming the curriculum to make it more engaging and teach essential life skills. He is a supporter of the right to an abortion, increasing funding for police training, protecting Social Security and Medicaid, decreasing the costs of cancer treatment, increasing regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, and “taxing the rich” to fuel social programs and reduce government budget deficits.

DISTRICT 11: LILY BENAVIDES

Lily Benavides is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Mikie Sherrill. Learn more about her campaign platform here.

BACKGROUND – Originally from Cartago, Colombia, Benavides was an organizer with the New Hampshire Immigrant Rights Task Force and helped to launch a youth group, Young Community Organizers (YOU). In 2004, she co-founded Orquideas de Colombia, a folkloric dance group aimed at promoting Colombian culture. Benavides served as a state representative for Manchester, New Hampshire, and was a member of the Labor, Industrial, and Rehabilitative Services Committee. She has served as a member of the American Friends Service Committee’s Northeast Regional Executive Committee, and has volunteered with Wind of the Spirit in Morristown. Benavides has coordinated volunteers for Mutual Morris, and co-founded the Mayor's Committee on Accessibility, later helping to establish a nonprofit, EJWA Cucharón de Palo, Arts, Crafts and Hobbies in 2022.

ISSUES – Benavides is pushing for immigration reform, reducing military spending and “ending violence against Palestinians.” She wants to take a closer look at the “excessive funding allocated to the military industrial complex,” and has previously advocated for campaigns on federal Temporary Protected Status, driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants and a $15 minimum wage.

DISTRICT 12: KIM MEUDT

Kim Meudt is running for a U.S. House seat in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. NOTE: Meudt’s online campaign presence is still in development.

ISSUES – Meudt’s platform centers around Medicare for All, education reform and free higher education for all, as well as reducing the Pentagon budget to “stop the endless overseas wars.” Meudt is also supporting a “real Green New Deal” that increases jobs, quality of life and reaches net zero emissions by 2035.