Joshua S. Gottheimer ( ; born March 8, 1975) is an American politician, attorney, writer, and public policy adviser serving as the U.S. representative for since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, his district stretches along the northern border of the state from New York City's densely populated metropolitan suburbs in Bergen County northwest through exurban and rural territory in northern Passaic and Sussex Counties.
Gottheimer was a speechwriter for Bill Clinton and served as an adviser to the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton. He has also worked for Burson Cohn & Wolfe, the Federal Communications Commission, Ford Motor Company, and Microsoft.
Gottheimer's net worth was between $16.9 and $75.3 million in 2023, and he and his wife Marla Tusk, who is general counsel at the political consulting firm Tusk Strategies, reported $897,617 in joint income.
Early life and education
Gottheimer was born in Livingston, New Jersey, on March 8, 1975. Gottheimer is the son of Jewish parents, a preschool teacher and a small business owner. Growing up, Gottheimer stocked shelves at his father's store. He was bar mitzvahed both in New Jersey and in Israel. He describes the experience as foundational. At the age of 16, Gottheimer served as a U.S. Senate page for Frank Lautenberg, a senator from New Jersey. Through high school and college, Gottheimer held internships with C-SPAN, the secretary of the Senate, and Tom Foley, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Gottheimer graduated from West Essex High School in 1993. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American history Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude. He was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, master and president of the Interfraternity Council, a member of Sphinx Senior Society, and a University Scholar. While at Penn, he served on the "rapid response team" for Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign. After Clinton's reelection, Gottheimer attended Pembroke College, Oxford, on a Thouron Award, studying toward a Ph.D. in modern history. In 2004, Gottheimer graduated from Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor.
Early career Gottheimer joined the Clinton administration as a speechwriter in 1998, at age 23, working in the administration until its end in 2001. While attending law school, he worked as an adviser for Wesley Clark's 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. After the 2004 election, Gottheimer worked for the Ford Motor Company as their director of strategic communications, then became executive vice president at the PR firm Burson–Marsteller in 2006. From 2010 to 2012, he worked for the Federal Communications Commission, where he led a public/private initiative related to broadband internet. He subsequently became a strategist at Microsoft.
U.S. House of Representatives Elections
2016
In the 2016 election, Gottheimer ran against Scott Garrett, the seven-term Republican incumbent, for the House of Representatives in New Jersey's 5th congressional district. The race was characterized as New Jersey's most closely-watched and one of the most competitive, divisive, and expensive in the country.
In December 2015, the New York Times ran an article about Gottheimer's campaign, calling him a "protégé" of the Clintons and highlighting his early success fundraising, especially from politically connected donors. By June 30, 2016, Gottheimer's campaign had raised over $2.9 million, and it ultimately acquired $4.3 million by the end of the race. Outside Democratic groups would go on to spend an additional $6.4 million boosting Gottheimer. Wall Street donors who had previously supported Garrett, then chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, began migrating to Gottheimer due to Garrett's social conservatism and Gottheimer's Clinton-style approach to economics—which Gottheimer touted by referencing Ronald Reagan and downplaying his own party affiliation while presenting himself as "very fiscally conservative" at fundraisers.
Throughout the campaign, Gottheimer promoted himself as pro-business but socially progressive. He contrasted his social values with Garrett's, who Gottheimer called a "shameless bigot," especially citing reports that Garrett had refused to pay dues to the NRCC because it backed gay Republicans and other candidates who supported same-sex marriage. Gottheimer also called Garrett "anti-woman" for supporting a constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion, and he criticized Garrett for voting against a ban on Confederate flags in military cemeteries, arguing these positions put him out of step with the district's values. The Associated Press summarized the policy distinctions of the race as Gottheimer "[pitching] himself as a fiscal conservative who is socially liberal, promising not to raise taxes while also pledging to fight for LGBT and abortion rights."
In November 2016, Gottheimer was elected with 51.1% of the vote against Scott Garrett's 46.7%, even as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump narrowly won the district over Democrat Hillary Clinton. In all seven of his previous elections Garrett had won by at least eleven percentage points. Though Gottheimer lost in the district's share of Passaic, Sussex, and Warren counties, he led by over 30,000 votes in the more populous Bergen County portion.
2018
Gottheimer faced John J. McCann Jr. in his first race for re-election in 2018. In Gottheimer's first three months in office he raised $752,000, and during the second quarter of the 2018 cycle Gottheimer raised $1,500,000. NJ.com noted that anti-Trump sentiment during the midterm elections likely helped Gottheimer, as McCann echoed the president on taxes, health care, and immigration.
Gottheimer was reelected in 2018, defeating John McCann with 56% of the vote.
2020
In 2020, Gottheimer faced a primary challenge from, Arati Kreibich. During the campaign Gottheimer remarked that, "...if Bernie Sanders, socialized medicine and extremism are more of your view, then my opponent is probably your candidate." Gottheimer received endorsements from Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries. In July 2020, Gottheimer won the primary election with 70.1% of the vote.
Gottheimer was elected to his third term, against Frank Pallotta, with 53 percent of the vote, running ahead of Joe Biden's 52 percent of the vote.2020 election results from CNNPresidential results by congressional district from Daily Kos
2022
The fifth district was redrawn, giving it a 6-point increase of Democratic voters, making the district safer for Gottheimer.
In May 2022, Gottheimer was accused of influencing the Republican primary, and helping Pallotta receive the 2022 Republican primary. This was common strategy where Democrats boosted the far-right Republican candidates, making it easier to defeat in the general election.
As of October 2022, Gottheimer had $14 million in campaign funds, raising $7.9 million for the 2021-2022 cycle, spending $2.5 million.
Gottheimer characterized Pallotta as a "far-right extremist" who would undermine the congressman's bipartisan, "commonsense" approach to legislating. Gottheimer was elected to his fourth term in November 2022, defeating Frank Pallotta, with 54.7% of the vote.
2024
Gottheimer announced he would seek re-election to his fifth term in February 2024. By early October, Gottheimer's campaign funds were at $20.3 million, raising $9.3 million for the 2023-2024 cycle.
In March 2024, the day after Mary Jo-Ann Guinchard won the Bergen County GOP line, Gottheimer began criticizing her as a "right-wing extremist" and "MAGA Mary," claiming that she was opposed to abortion, against red-flag laws, and associated with "anti-government extremist groups and January 6th sympathizers."
Gottheimer was elected to his fifth term in November 2024, defeating Guinchard, with 54.5% of the vote.
2026
In 2025, upon losing the gubernatorial primary to Mikie Sherrill, Gottheimer made it clear that he would seek re-election to the House in 2026.
Committee assignments For the 119th Congress: Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance and International Financial Institutions Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Subcommittee on National Intelligence Enterprise Subcommittee on National Security Agency and Cyber (Ranking Member)
Caucus memberships
Black Maternal Health Caucus Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Congressional Equality Caucus Future Forum New Democrat Coalition Climate Solutions Caucus Problem Solvers Caucus Congressional Coalition on Adoption Congressional Blockchain Caucus Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment Congressional Ukraine Caucus Rare Disease Caucus Blue Dog Coalition
2025 gubernatorial campaign
On November 15, 2024, Gottheimer announced that he would run for governor of New Jersey in 2025, seeking to succeed outgoing Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.
Like other candidates for governor in 2025, Gottheimer positioned his campaign as addressing affordability; he especially cited high property taxes, calling for a 15% reduction. Gottheimer contributed $9.6 million from his congressional campaign funds to a Super PAC called Affordable New Jersey, which immediately began purchasing ads in support of his gubernatorial bid. In a February 2025 Democratic primary debate, opponents Ras Baraka and Steve Fulop criticized Gottheimer's support for the Laken Riley Act, which he defended by saying "If you’re a murderer, a rapist, you break into people’s homes, you shouldn’t be here."
Gottheimer placed fourth in the Democratic primary on June 10, 2025, receiving 11.8% of the vote and losing to Democratic congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. Gottheimer lost every county besides his home county, Bergen, where he came in first with 37% of the vote versus Sherrill's 23%.
Political positions
Gottheimer is considered to be a centrist Democrat. He is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. He described himself as "socially liberal, fiscally conservative, and passionately centrist" in favor of compromise guided by his Jewish values in 2016. During Donald Trump's first presidency, Gottheimer voted in line with Trump more often than any other Democrat in Congress. During 2021 and 2022, Gottheimer voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis. In 2023, of 54 measures "on which Biden expressed a clear position," Gottheimer voted for Biden's position 86% of the time.
Gottheimer is considered steadfastly pro-Israel. Haaretz described him as "one of the [Democratic] party's most outspoken supports of Israel," the New York Times called him "a staunch supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship," and Politico referred to him as an "Israel hawk."
Gottheimer is an outspoken critic of democratic socialism, saying "The DSA are not Democrats. They’re socialists, who want to hijack the Democratic Party," and calling them "anti-American, anti-Democratic." In June 2026, Gottheimer was one of 10 House Democrats to sign onto the Promise to America, a pro-capitalist, anti-socialist pledge, after three candidates backed by the DSA won Democratic congressional primaries in New York. In July 2026, Gottheimer declared that he did not consider New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is seen as a leader of the democratic socialist movement, to be a Democrat.
Social issues
Abortion