Hudson ELC Meeting: Featuring NJ State Assemblyman Raj Mukherji

State Assemblyman Raj Mukherji serves as Deputy Speaker Pro Tem and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the New Jersey General Assembly. A lawyer and healthcare entrepreneur, he was previously an information technology CEO, Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, and a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Constitutional Law at New Jersey City University and as a local prosecutor. At 24, Raj was appointed Commissioner and Chairman of the Jersey City Housing Authority, the youngest in city history. At 27, he was appointed Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey. At 28, Assemblyman Mukherji won a six-way Democratic primary election for Assembly by a 36-point margin in 2013 and won the November general election by a 20-point margin. He was reelected in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
 
The son of immigrants, Raj supported himself through high school, college, and grad school as an emancipated minor when economic circumstances forced his parents to return to their native India. After suffering a pituitary tumor, stroke, and other ailments, Raj's father could no longer work as a result of his health but could not afford health coverage without employment. This experience shaped Raj's perspective and interest in healthcare policy. Raj had founded an Internet consulting and software development company while in middle school, grew it, and later sold it to a larger technology company to enlist in the Marines two weeks after 9/11 at age 17, where he served in military intelligence as a reservist. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State University, an individualized Master of Liberal Arts focused on national security from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Seton Hall Law School.
 
Assemblyman Mukherji is presently the only Asian American legislator and the only former Marine in the New Jersey General Assembly. He is also the first Indian-Bengali state lawmaker in the United States.