Brad Cohen, mayor of East Brunswick and OBGYN, runs for N.J.-12 Democratic nomination

East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen is running for the Democratic nomination to represent the congressional district which includes Princeton, N.J.-12. Following the retirement announcement in November of current Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.). Cohen, along with 12 other Democratic candidates, are vying to be her successor.

Cohen has diverged from almost all of his competitors by openly supporting American funding of Israeli conflicts in the Middle East. He previously defended Israel at the Princeton Community Democratic Organization’s forum when multiple other candidates called for partial or complete cuts to United States funding directed towards Israel. 

Discussing his views on these conflicts with The Daily Princetonian, Cohen mentioned the ongoing Iran war, which has prompted discussion and events on campus responding to the conflict. 

“I believe very strongly that we need to provide whatever we can as a country to try to ensure that there’s a Middle East that has peace,” Cohen said. 

“Israel, as a country founded in 1948, is, and has always been, threatened by its neighbors,” he said. “They protect their own citizens, 20 percent of which are Muslim, and they have the right to defend themselves.”

“That doesn’t mean that people in other countries that are involved in this conflict don’t deserve a good future as well. But, in my opinion, the underlying issue is not Israel. It is terrorist organizations that have taken over countries and put their own people deliberately at risk,” he said. “That’s supported, unfortunately, by Iran and its proxies.”

Cohen was one of two Democratic candidates absent from Monday’s debate hosted at the University by the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, Vote100, and the Princeton University NAACP chapter. He told the ‘Prince’ that he had a conflicting invitation to speak at an event for Yom HaShoah, a day of remembrance for the Holocaust.

“I had been invited to speak at a Yom Hashoah event in one of the shuls in the area,” Cohen told the ‘Prince.’ “It’s a very emotional issue for me, and unfortunately, when I’m offered to talk about something that important, that personally affected my family … I would have felt terrible being on stage [at the debate] and not being where I felt I had to be.”

Cohen also discussed the relationship between universities and student protestors, a topic that entered the limelight when American students, including those at Princeton, set up pro-Palestinian encampments in 2024. 

“The biggest movements that ever caused any type of major social change in this country came from educated young people,” he said. “You should be free to be able to say what’s on your mind and learn in an environment where you don’t feel that you’re going to be persecuted.”

At the same time, he argued that the University has “an obligation” to prioritize safety. “I think people are making this more complicated than it really needs to be. You’ve always had the right to protest, but it must be done peacefully, and nobody should ever feel threatened on campus.” 

Cohen emphasized that his experiences as a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN), on the East Brunswick Board of Education, and as mayor of East Brunswick, makes him “the most qualified candidate from the standpoint of several things.” 

“Women’s health is [under] attack, where women today … have [fewer] rights than when I started practice that many years ago,” Cohen said. Citing the “onslaught of complications from self-induced abortions,” he warned, “women will die, and that’s unacceptable in this country.”

During his time as mayor, Cohen said, he kept the total municipal tax rates under a one percent increase annually and focused on redevelopment projects. 

“I don’t think it’s time for amateurs to be in D.C.,” said Cohen. “Right now, you need to have people who could get into this ‘swamp,’ as they call it, and know how to move the levers of government.”

Cohen highlighted the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary, and he said that the United States must “reaffirm what it means to be a democracy” by reining in the executive branch. 

“I think our Founding Fathers would be turning in their graves if they saw what we were doing right now,” he said. “We have a Congress that has ceded its constitutional obligations to a president.”

Cohen also expressed his views on criticisms of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which a majority of Americans believe has gone too far in its national immigration crackdown. Some N.J.-12 candidates have emphasized the importance of abolishing the agency, whereas Cohen proposed reallocating some of its funds elsewhere. 

“I think that the whole manner in which we’ve been conducting this is really just so un-American, and it’s racial,” he said. “I think that people that are in this field should be held to the same standard that cops are. Cops could be prosecuted if they do something that’s criminal.”

“I don’t think there’s anybody that would disagree that hardened criminals [who] are illegal should be removed. I don’t think there’s really much debate over that, but that’s not really what’s happening. What’s really happening is that we’re just targeting minority groups.”

Cohen stated that affordability issues are a key focus of his campaign. A Rutgers University poll recently found that New Jersey voters view affordability as one of their central concerns coming into the midterm elections. 

“I know everybody uses that as a catch line. I think it’s even lost what it means to so many people because they use it so much,” he said.

The country has “seniors that are worried that Social Security and Medicare isn’t going to be funded through the rest of their lives” and “housing costs that are astronomical,” he added. 

Cohen specifically said he would aim to stabilize rising healthcare costs, which have increased far above the rate of inflation in the past few years. “For all that we spend, our outcomes are not that great, so let’s fix that,” Cohen stated.

“I do think that physicians and people in the healthcare industry must be part of that discussion. They face it first person,” he said. “That’s why I’m confident saying that I’m the most qualified candidate.”

Emily Murphy is a senior News writer, senior Copy editor, and chief correspondent for the N.J.-12 Congressional election. She is from New York City and can be reached at emurphy[at]dailyprincetonian.com. 

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.