We all heard the call. Ultra-MAGA King wants us to unseat dowager Queen Christopher Smith, the reigning “Republican” Congressman of District 4, composed primarily of a solidly-red Ocean and Monmouth County mix of establishment and Grand New Party patriots.
Many have answered the call, and the primary in CD4 is so hot, there’s Kevin McCarthy-money and reinforcements pulling out all the pomp & circumstance to protect the seat of the veteran Congressman Smith.
It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Why is Smith hanging in there, after 41 years, and a primary challenge the likes of which he has never seen before?
My guess? Ego. What else could drive someone to totally disregard the calls for change in his own District, to hide amongst the establishment fundraiser circuit, avoid the debate scene, and act as if his challengers don’t even exist?
You may recall, we endorsed a challenger in CD4 back in January 2022. Mike Blasi was an early challenger, a solid patriot and parental rights advocate, and even after his recent suspension of his campaign, Mike Blasi remains a favorite for his on-the-ground support at BOE meetings. Mike will always have a special place in our hearts.
But it’s time to look at the other options to make a change in CD4. The most viable remaining candidates are the team running with Mike Crispi, and another interesting option, Steve Gray.
Steve piqued my interest from his solid Twitter feed. Check him out Here.
That’s right-he’s F B I!!!!!!! Retired, but still, that’s a very interesting, controversial and compelling reason to give him a look. With all of the erosion of trust that America has experienced in our intelligence community and security and health institutions, there is still a piece of me that will always be drawn to the law enforcement community, and want to find a reason to trust again.
Meet Steve Gray…
Steve was born and raised in the small shore town of Somers Point, New Jersey. He learned his core conservative values and love of America from his mother, a homemaker and his father, a Navy veteran who served in the Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crisis. Steve’s father worked two full-time jobs for 38 years and exemplified the American dream. Steve worked full time through college and paid his way through Atlantic Community College where he studied criminal justice. He then became a patrolman with the Somers Point Police Department at 20 years old. Steve obtained his B.A. in Criminal Justice from Stockton University while working full time and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant at 25 years old.
Steve’s love for law enforcement and dedication to serve his country led him to apply to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After graduating from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Steve was assigned as a Special Agent to the Flagship FBI Field Office in New York City. Steve was working in downtown NYC the morning of September 11th, 2001. After watching the first plane hit he began aiding evacuation of civilians, almost losing his life when the South Tower collapsed. In the days, weeks, and months following the attack by Islamic terrorists Steve worked 16 hour days investigating leads and interviewing witnesses. He oversaw the central command post’s investigation of thousands of leads pouring into the FBI tip lines.
Steve later worked in the FBI’s counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal divisions and worked casesacross the country. Towards the end of his career, he saw firsthand the politicization of the FBI and realized the Bureau was quickly becoming the political law enforcement arm of the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party. Dissatisfied with the track the new “woke” liberal FBI was heading down,Steve decided to retire from the Bureau and continue to serve our nation in another way, by running for Congress.
In Congress, Steve plans to be a rock-ribbed America First conservative and fight for our shared values while returning America to the base principles that made our nation great. Steve has been helping his community for 32 years and will continue to be there for his district when he is elected to Congress.
Steve is pro-life and believes in protecting the rights afforded all Americans under the first and second amendments. Moreover, Steve has always approached life with strong common sense values and a strict adherence to his promises.
Steve decided to run for Congress after several factors started to affect Americans and the United States. First was Representative Chris Smith’s yes vote for the 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill. This bill is basically AOC’s green new deal, social programs and equity. After reading the bill it has been determined there was very little left for actual road and bridge infrastructure. However, the borrowing of money for this bill will be long lasting and our children and grandchildren will be saddled with the interest from this bill for the rest of their lives.
Secondly, Congress has been spending money beyond the means of hard working US citizens and the debt load from those bills has now ballooned over 30 trillion dollars. This debt has increased inflation over 8.5 percent and is acting like a tax on all Americans. Congress has let Government get too big too fast and the results on the economy have been disastrous.
Lastly, as an FBI Agent I witnessed firsthand the politicization of the FBI and the FBI’s movement far left. The FBI has basically become the private law enforcement arm of the Joe Biden Administration and is more concerned about conducting political hit jobs than actually working hard core criminal, counterterrorism and counterintelligence cases.
Steve’s stance on parental choice for medical freedom in schools is very simple. Steve is a parent of a school aged child, and Steve wants to choose what is best for his daughter. Steve does not want state, local, or school government telling him what is medically right or wrong for his child. Steve wants local schools to get back to teaching the core curriculum of mathematics, science, English, and history to prevent our children from falling even farther behind countries like China, Russia, Iran, and India.
Steve’s favorite Constitutional amendment is the first and most important established by our forefathers. The First amendment grants every American the freedoms that make the United States the greatest country in the world.
Steve distinguishes himself from the rest of the pack by his work experience, background and life experience. Steve was a law enforcement officer for 32 years. He was a police officer/sergeant with the Somers Point Police Department in South Jersey for 9 years. He has the distinction of being the youngest-ever patrolman promoted to the rank of sergeant in department history. While in the department, Steve’s leadership skills shined as he was responsible for supervising up to 8 police officers per shift. He was credited with delivering a breech birth baby girl, saving a hostage from an assailant who was holding a knife to the victim’s neck and having the unfortunate encounter with a known murderer who was shot to death by his partner after the murderer attempted to kill several officers with a knife.
As an FBI Agent for 23 years, Steve has been the Supervisory Special Agent of the New York FBI Chinese Counterintelligence Squad and Operations Command, Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI Headquarters North Korean counterintelligence program, team leader of the FBI New York Evidence Response Team and covert counterterrorism special operations surveillance team. He is an FBI-certified firearms instructor and taught FBI Agents at the New York firearms range for 18 years. Steve’s investigated cases within the criminal, counterterrorism, and counterintelligence divisions and has worked closely with members of the British, French, German, Australian, Canadian, South Korean and Japanese governments. Steve has also interacted with members and investigators of Federal, state, and local governments. Steve is the only candidate in the NJ CD4 Congressional race who is actually qualified to challenge Chris Smith in this upcoming primary election.
Steve’s top platform issues are to:
-lower the prices of prescription drugs for all Americans
-secure our southern border and fight illegal immigration
-improve our economy and demand election integrity.
By allowing for more small business compounding facilities and placing a cap on the amount companies can charge each year per prescription, Steve believes this will drive more competition in the market place and lower prescription drug prices. Moreover, Steve wants to prevent big pharma from making a majority of their prescription drugs overseas and bring that manufacturing back to the United States.
Steve wants to permanently secure our southern border by completing the border wall, lift the burdening restrictions on the border patrol which is affecting how they perform their jobs, and institute a more precise electronic surveillance footprint throughout our borders. Steve wants to also begin the removal of illegal immigrants who have come across the border, especially those who have a criminal record or have committed new crimes in the United States.
To improve our economy, Steve wants to reduce the size of the Federal Government, reduce the restrictions imposed by the Biden Administration on our small businesses and corporations, and bring manufacturing jobs home from foreign countries including China, India, and Mexico. Manufacturing in the United States offers good competitive wages and drives the American economy. The pandemic is a perfect example of why Americans should be manufacturing goods at home. I would also continue the tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration on China to curb China’s continued price manipulation of their manufactured goods.
Election integrity is the only way to build trust with our voters. Voters have been disenfranchised by allegations of election fraud in our last election which leads to low voter turnout.
Steve wants to institute a real voter identification system, prevent voter machines from connecting to the internet, and force jurisdictions to have an equal number of partisan election officials watching and inspecting the voting process and vote count.
Steve’s biggest supporters come from his family who have been all in with him since they started this journey. Along the way Steve has picked up major assistance from Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Jonathan Gilliam, and Ola Hawatmeh.
Steve can see that he and the members of the Child Advocate Coalition have the same thought process, and Steve is the only candidate in this race that actually has school-aged children.
Steve was sickened and appalled the Democrats used our children as pawns while they force our kids to wear masks in school even though the science told us the masks were more harmful than good.
Steve does not believe Federal, State, local, or school governments have the right to tell our parents what is medically right or wrong for our children.
Moreover, these governments should not be pushing a leftist woke sexual agenda on our children in New Jersey schools. Steve will fight to defend parental rights while in Congress and is requesting the assistance of the Child Advocate Coalition.
Interview with Elizabeth Nader
This is a tough call, guys. We committed to Mike Blasi, all in. However, I like what I see in Steve.
Learn more, and see for yourselves, CD4! It’s definitely time for change.
So who will dethrone Chris Smith?
That’s for you to decide, my Ocean and Monmouth county friends. Choose your weapons wisely.
Go meet Steve! He will be speaking with Child Advocate Member Courtney Bracken on June 4th, event details Here
Freedom Speaking LLC and Shielding Liberty LLC have partnered with the Child Advocate Coalition LLC to highlight candidates for office all across NJ, from local Board of Education candidates through the Congressional candidates. Views expressed by the candidates may or may not represent the views of the entities referenced above, however the entities are proud to provide a platform for free speech. Featured candidates are invited to submit responses to our interview questions, link their candidate and fundraising sites, and showcase their chosen photographs.