Somerset County Commissioner Director Shanel Robinson runs for N.J.-12 Democratic House nomination

Somerset County Commissioner Director and U.S. Air Force veteran Shanel Robinson is running for the Democratic nomination to Congress to represent New Jersey’s 12th district, which includes Princeton. Robinson is one of 12 remaining candidates in the Democratic primary following current Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman’s (D-N.J.) announcement last fall that she would not seek reelection to the seat. 

Robinson told The Daily Princetonian in an interview on Tuesday that affordability and universal healthcare would be among her top priorities if elected. 

She pointed to the proposed Housing for All Act in the U.S. Senate and Watson Coleman’s proposed act providing a universal basic income as model policies. Robinson also noted that, while New Jersey has a minimum wage of $15 an hour, the federal minimum wage has stagnated. 

“Poverty is a policy choice. Humanity is not just a talking point, and affordability should not be out of reach,” Robinson said. “Affordability encompasses all those things that are interdependent.”

“We spend money on defense like it’s nothing,” Robinson said. “Having policies in place that address those concerns and issues will allow us to rise up as a country and a nation in ways that we have not seen before,” she continued.

She is one of three congressional candidates in the N.J.-12 race with military experience, but has been the only one to receive an endorsement from the veterans group With Honor Fund, which was founded in 2017 to support principled candidates with military service on both sides of the aisle. 

“They support principled veteran leaders on both sides of the aisle. So I think that speaks volumes to who I am as a leader and what they saw in me, because I’m not the only veteran in the race,” Robinson said. 

The other candidates with military experience are Adam Hamawy and Matt Adams.

On the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, Robinson said she believes in a reformation of the federal agency, as well as a restoration of the Supreme Court’s role in the balance of power between the three branches of government. 

“The way ICE is operating now is not the intended purpose when ICE was formed … and what they have become is pretty much thugs with a license by this administration,” she said. 

Robinson further pointed to the need for a clearer “pathway to citizenship” through policies like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). 

“This lawless president and the radical Supreme Court [are] not representative of who we are as a country,” Robinson said. 

“I think we do need to expand our Supreme Court and then [hold] elected officials accountable and responsible for the work that they’re supposed to do,” she added.

Robinson also cast doubt on the behavior and decisions of the presidential cabinet, such as on the U.S.’s current involvement in the war with Iran.  

“There are already rules of engagement when you go into war. This administration has not followed that,” she said, pointing to how the administration did not have Congressional approval.

Robinson further stated that she does not believe the U.S. should continue to provide aid to Israel. 

“I am against the policies that that government has operated under and their leader, not the Jewish people,” she said. “And so I’m against providing any type of weapons or aid to any country that will kill innocent people.”

Robinson also brought up human rights abroad and at home, pointing to immigration and U.S. conflicts overseas and suggesting invoking the 25th Amendment “on the president if need be.” The 25th Amendment allows the vice president, alongside a “majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law to provide,” to declare that the president is unable to serve in the role.

Robinson hopes that the candidates can come together “beyond the race,” regardless of who wins the primary.

“Everybody has something to bring to the table, so staying connected beyond the race and working through what we need to work through as a party is the best place to be,” she said. 

To her, the future of the Democratic party lies in “staying connected to the voters.”

“I think we’ve lost our way,” she said. “We’ve made decisions [in]the absence of the voice of the voters as a whole. And I think we need to get back to basics with that and also fight when the moment demands it — we’re in a fight for our lives right now.”

The New Jersey Democratic primary will be held on June 2.

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 she can be reached at emurphy[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

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