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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. New Jersey Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill is here for kind of a double duty segment. As a Navy veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, we'll get her take on the leaked war plans that accidentally got sent to a journalist and the larger questions they suggest around Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in particular, and others in the Trump administration. Also on threats to Social Security, the congresswoman sees, coming from Trump and Elon Musk and the Republican Congress. Sherrill supported the bill that recently got passed that restores Social Security benefits to some retired federal workers, including what she says is 23,000 in New Jersey. As much as for her role in Congress, Mikie Sherrill is here as a candidate. We're inviting all the major candidates, as many of you know, in the primaries for mayor of New York and governor of New Jersey to come on this show and answer my questions and yours. In the governor's race, we've so far had Democrat Steve Fulop and Republican Jon Bramnick. So, Mikie Sherrill is here also as a Democratic primary candidate for governor. So here we go. Congresswoman, always good of you to come on. Welcome back to WNYC.

Mikie Sherrill: Well, thank you for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, it is my questions and yours, in these candidate interviews, although we're going to talk about Sherrill and her role as a member of Congress first, and then go to explicit candidate questions, but you can call now and get ready to ask the congresswoman a question as you consider your choices in the primaries, or ask about something in Congress. 212-433-WNYC, call or text, 212-433-9692.

Let's start on the news with your member of Congress hat on. Is that leak a big deal? I was listening to a conservative talk station yesterday and the host was saying like, "Yes, they obviously messed up, but it was an honest mistake, they acknowledge it, no harm was done to the mission against the Houthis. This clearly won't happen again, so let's not make more of it than it is." How close is that to your own view?

Mikie Sherrill: It couldn't really be further apart from my own view if they tried. There are so many problems with what's going on right now, that I don't even know where to begin. If it didn't mean that we would take out the entire national security apparatus of the United States of America, I would probably want every single one of these people fired. This would be a fireable offense for any young enlisted or junior officer if they had done this. I don't even know why anybody would call this an honest mistake. I don't care if it was honest or not honest. It is a dereliction of duty.

I mean, this is just so far beyond what I would ever have expected, and to think that one of them was in Moscow when this occurred. I was a Russian policy officer. The briefings, the security briefings I took when I went to Moscow. I've been in Finland. I don't even take my own phone overseas. I had a burner phone, and then I'm in Finland making sure that I'm not on the Russian network as I'm at the border, and these guys are in Moscow and possibly in the Kremlin as they're texting battle plans, classified battle plans.

Then we get beyond this and then you have Gabbard and Ratcliffe basically lying to Congress about what took place. I am so beyond disgusted at the incompetence, and the cover up, and the lack of concern for our national security that I really have a difficult time expressing it right now.

Brian Lehrer: How did they lie before Congress? I do see, and it's been reported now that Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, has taken responsibility for doing this. He's the one who decided to use the Signal app instead of the usual channels, and acknowledged it. Do you feel any better about Mike Waltz than any of the others? What are you referring to as lying to Congress?

Mikie Sherrill: No. No, I do not. I mean, first of all, they lied to Congress by saying there was nothing classified on that Signal chat. Gabbard wouldn't even say she was in the chat, after the White House confirmed it. That's how I think they lied to Congress. Then, Mike Waltz is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He's saying he takes full responsibility, and then he says some quote, which, by the way, for anyone who's not familiar with Signal and hasn't used that as a chat function, it's a chat. It's like if you're texting your mom. To think that somebody else could suddenly insert themselves into that text chain is not how texting works. We all know that.

Mike Waltz says, "Oh, I take full responsibility," but then onto the other side of his mouth, he starts to try to purport that there's some conspiracy going on, by saying stuff like-- I think I'm quoting him. He said, now whether he did it deliberately or it happened, he's talking about the journalist, or it happened by some other technical means, is what we're trying to figure out. He said, "We have the biggest technical minds looking at how this happened." Mike Waltz knows how it happened.

He created a Signal chat with this guy in it. Now he's trying to act like there's some big nefarious thing that happened. No, it's incompetence. It's pure and simple incompetence and mishandling of classified information at the highest levels of government from people who should know better.

Brian Lehrer: How about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's role? His first comment to reporters, as I've seen it printed, was to lie and deny that it happened. He said, "No one was texting war plans and that's all I have to say about it." Should Hegseth's role be singled out here, or is it really more on Waltz and-

Mikie Sherrill: Hegseth needs to be fired immediately. I mean, here's a guy who either is lying, which I think we all believe to be true, or is just completely unsuited for this role, which actually, I think we all believe is true as well. I mean, he's saying this and yet he's texting, "1410, more F18s launch. Second strike package, 4:15. Strike drones on target. This is when the first bombs will definitely drop pending earlier trigger based targets. 1536, F18 second strike starts. Also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched. More to follow per timeline. We are currently clean on OPSEC. Godspeed to our warriors."

They're not clean on-- I mean, my God, it's shocking. This, by the way, I think everyone can assume being texted on Signal, especially with a person in Moscow, was being viewed in probably real time by foreign adversaries. Putting, I might add, all of the men and women involved in this mission at risk for their personal security. We're lucky nobody died.

Brian Lehrer: Why do you think none of our adversaries, if they knew about it, didn't alert the Houthis or do something that would have in fact put American lives at risk or hampered the mission, which seemed to go off as planned?

Mikie Sherrill: I assume it's because they want the ceilings open, so they probably shared our objectives here.

Brian Lehrer: Also on Hegseth, a New York Times article calls this the latest incident in a rocky start for Hegseth. It says he got criticized by the Republican head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Wicker, for a statement that seemed to concede Ukrainian territory to Russia before any negotiations. Wicker, who you know is a conservative Republican from Mississippi, as well as Armed Services chair, was quoted in The Times article saying, "It is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool." I'll just add one more here from The Times article. It says, "Other signs point to a dysfunctional Pentagon on Mr. Hegseth's watch."

Last week, the Defense Department removed an online article about the military background of Jackie Robinson, who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in 1947 after serving in the Army. The Times says the webpage was later restored, but your take on his performance so far, and any potential ramifications of his performance generally, Hegseth, for the country's combat readiness.

Mikie Sherrill: I think he's endangering the United States of America. I think he has proven himself to be incredibly incompetent. It sounds like my views are shared by the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. I think the national security apparatus of this country largely believes Hegseth is not up to the job.

Brian Lehrer: Next issue. Social Security. I see you describe yourself as a leading supporter of the Social Security Fairness Act, which was signed into law in January. A lot of listeners who weren't directly affected don't know about that act, so I'll ask you to explain it. Basically, I know it restores Social Security Benefits to many retired federal workers. I saw your press release, where you tied that to the need to stand up to Trump and Musk on what may come next, with respect to Social Security. What is the Social Security Fairness Act, which I guess the Republican House did pass.

Mikie Sherrill: Yes. We had some regulations that did not allow some people in public service, like firefighters and police officers, to receive Social Security benefits. This often came as a surprise to them. They would be retired, and they didn't realize that they had not earned these Social Security benefits because of the regulations in place. It's long been something that I had been fighting to restore to them even if, in some cases, they had left their job as a firefighter and worked at another job where other people were receiving Social Security, they still couldn't receive it.

It really impacted people's retirement. We were hearing-- we held a roundtable in my district about this. We were hearing from retired firefighters who'd spent their life in a tough job and served the public, and then were really struggling in their retirement, to retire with dignity. Were really impoverished as they were doing that. Not able to even meet-- struggling to pay grocery bills, for example, or struggling to provide for their spouse in their retirement. This was a huge issue that we were fighting for, and we were able by discharge petition, because we could not get Speaker Johnson to put it on the floor for a vote, even though we felt we had the votes, and of course we did.

We were able to, in a bipartisan way, get a discharge petition forcing it onto the floor so we could rectify this in the House, and then it passed in the Senate. Checks are already going out to about 20,000 people here in New Jersey.

Brian Lehrer: Do you think the Republican budget for the next fiscal year will really try to cut benefits, or Musk and the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who got embarrassed by saying on TV that his mother wouldn't miss it if a Social Security check didn't arrive. Are they basically just putting their feet in their mouths politically, or do you think you're going to really have to fight, as a member of Congress, to preserve Social Security in any legislative way?

Mikie Sherrill: Well, I think we've already been shocked to see the attacks on Medicaid. You saw every single Republican, except one, support deep cuts to Medicaid. The one Republican who voted with Democrats actually did it not because he agreed with us, but largely because he wanted deeper cuts to Medicaid. When we look at this, it's really shocking, because then you hear from senators, you hear from senators like Tuberville, who suggested that that would decimate Alabama.

You hear from senators like Justice, in West Virginia, which has the highest percent of residents on Medicaid, who acknowledge that these cuts would really harm people in their states and yet don't seem to be speaking out against Elon Musk or DOGE or these cuts that are coming through the House. In fact, Speaker Johnson, who is trying to push the House bill in the Senate, says talks are going well. Suggesting that the Senate is ready to go along with this. We've seen with Social Security, they're trying to break it by getting rid of phone service, which we know a lot of seniors rely on, and cutting offices so you can't go in person if you have a problem.

Brian Lehrer: Can I ask you a specific follow up question about that?

Mikie Sherrill: I think we can call that a Ponzi scheme. Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Because it does seem contradictory that they're heading toward closing in person Social Security offices, not all of them, but some around the country, at the same time that they're going to require people to go in person to Social Security offices. Obviously, we're talking about elderly people who are not always in the best physical shape to go out. That's a hedge against fraud, that they go and sign up for Social Security or deal with their benefits issues in person more at the same time that they're closing offices, or planning, to around the country.

Do you know, first of all, if any of the offices are in New Jersey that are slated for closure? I haven't seen a New Jersey one on the list, but what about that particular contradictory act?

Mikie Sherrill: Yes, we haven't seen one on the list yet in New Jersey. Certainly, we'll be fighting to make sure that remains the case, but you're exactly right, Brian. I know just personally, my in-laws and my parents are the targets of scammers and fraud every day, it seems like. I mean, I'm constantly answering questions about fraudulent emails and phones calls and texts and if it's legit or not legit. My father was almost taken by a scammer and almost lost-- almost had somebody get into his bank account. Luckily, realized in time to stop it and called the bank to stop that.

It really feels as if they are targeted non-stop. In order to avoid this, going in person often feels a lot more secure to people. They can actually go to the Social Security office, with people employed by Social Security, so they're not getting scammed and they can get good results. You're exactly right. This is kind of the playbook, right? "Oh, no, we're just making it more efficient. We're just cutting offices and then we're just making people go to the offices knowing that elderly people might have a harder time getting there." Thus not actually saying that they're cutting Social Security, or trying to strip people off the rolls, but in effect doing just that.

This is the kind of underhanded way I think we see DOGE operating, and really harming people across the country. That's why I'm so kind of disgusted with some of these Republicans in office who point out the problem, point out that cuts to Medicaid, for example, are going to decimate Alabama and West Virginia. I know here in New Jersey, one in three school children, one in three children, excuse me, rely on Medicaid for healthcare. We know seniors across our state, families have their loved ones supported in nursing homes through Medicaid, and without that don't know how they're going to care for their parents.

I know how much it would decimate New Jersey, they know how much it's going to decimate their states, and yet they seem to be kind of going off the cliff with Trump and DOGE and House Republicans and harming people across the country.

Brian Lehrer: Let me get to a couple of listener questions in this section, with your member of Congress hat on. Then we'll take a break and we'll switch to you as a candidate for governor of New Jersey. Listener writes, "On the issue of the attack on Yemen and the leak, does the senator care that we bombed Yemen? Four people did die, or does she support the act, just not the lax security?"

Mikie Sherrill: I think what we saw under the last administration was this has not-- actually bombing Yemen has not actually created better, safer sea lanes, and there's no-- I'm always against military action without a thoughtful strategy. I've been very critical of that in the past, and I remain critical of it. I don't think that we have a thoughtful strategy in place. So, no, I'm not supportive of this bombing run. It was not-- this has been tried, it did not work. We needed a new strategy [crosstalk]-

Brian Lehrer: Interesting.

Mikie Sherrill: -more thoughtful. However, different administrations make different decisions. What I think is illegal here is the fact that actually, the battle plans were tran-- which are classified. There's just simply, I mean, a layman can tell that this is classified strike information. You don't have to be a veteran. You don't have to have served to read the text and just know that this is not public information. That it can put people in danger. What is illegal here is sharing that classified information on a text chain that is unsecure.

We know that the Pentagon even flagged this on March 18th. Recently, to say Signal is not-- there's problems with Signal, it's not secure, here's what the problems are. Then, Signal is not supposed to be loaded onto government devices.

Brian Lehrer: One more text here. Listener writes, "Nicole from Morristown here. My question is, what are Dems in Congress doing? Condemnation on social media and otherwise is appreciated and shared, but it's time for some action. I realize Republicans have the power, but what is being discussed to work around those channels if necessary? I'm sure you hear things like this a lot. We talk about it almost every day on this show. Now, so many people in the Democratic base think the party isn't doing enough. They certainly want Senator Schumer out. Members of the base do."

You voted against that Republicans stop gap budget that Schumer voted for. Is he fit to lead? How do you answer the caller's question or the texter's question? What can you do besides talk?

Mikie Sherrill: I think we can legislate, litigate, and mobilize. What I mean by that is, the litigation strategy, which I'm sure many of your callers are familiar with, we're seeing from attorneys general across the country. It's very important. We're not going to see this from the US Attorney's Office. I mean, we just had a complete partisan pack, basically, appointed as the US Attorney for New Jersey. She will not be bringing thoughtful cases, but we need to litigate at the state level against what's going on, and we have been finding some success in courts. It's certainly not enough.

When I say legislate, I mean we need to stand strong. I am really hopeful that we will start to see, as people in Republican states across the nation are being very harmed by this administration, that they will push back on their Republican legislators, and we will actually see some people who are breaking from this administration. We've not seen it yet, and I've been pretty disgusted, but I'm hoping that we'll continue to do that. So it's important that Democrats are very strong on their legislation strategies. Mobilizing. We've seen town halls with thousands of people, we've seen different rallies which are gaining steam.

I know people are rallying here in New Jersey at Tom Kean Jr., and Chris Smith, and Jeff Van Drew's offices. I know that Democratic members of Congress are holding town halls in Republican districts in New Jersey, so that they can bring information to people across the state. I was just in Bedminster with the postal workers, to rally with them, as we know that Musk is trying to privatize the Postal Service. Then really, I think, using every means and platform we can to point out to the American people how this is harming our country.

I sent a letter to eight agencies about the fact that DOGE is now in these agencies, like in the Department of Transportation, where they're working to cancel a Verizon contract worth $1.5 billion in favor of Starlink, Elon Musk's company. That Musk had the FAA purchase 4,000 Starlink terminals. That we saw the Department of State was directed to purchase several hundred million cyber trucks. Luckily, that was eventually canceled, as that was pointed out, but I'm also running for governor. I mean, this is where I think Democrats have real power, is in the states. In these state governors who can stand against Washington and provide a very different and more thoughtful path forward for the country.

Brian Lehrer: A perfect segue to part two, which we will do after the break, with Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, as we ask her to put on her candidate's hat. We're going to take questions from you. We have some callers who've been waiting for a while, that have very pertinent questions for you as a candidate in the Democratic primary for governor of New Jersey. So, Congresswoman, stay with us. Listeners, stay with us. Callers, hang in there. We're going to get right to you after this break.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, as we continue with New Jersey Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, now in her role as candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor this year. We're going to get Mary Lou in Hopewell on the line here, who's going to ask you your first candidate question. Hello, Mary Lou.

Mary Lou: Good morning, Brian. I appreciate your show and WNYC every single day.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Mary Lou: I'd like to ask Representative Sherrill why she asked her constituents to rehire her for what is right now an exceedingly important job in D.C., and then less than a month later, announced she wanted to quit that job and turn around and run for governor. With the tiniest of margins in D.C., we can't afford to lose her seat, which is in a risky purple district, and her focus is needed in D.C. every single day rather than campaigning for a new job and risking a seat in our delegation. That's my concern.

Mikie Sherrill: Thank you. Yes, thanks for the question. I am luckily, we have a great seat here. It was a Trump district when I first won it, and a very difficult seat to win and flip, and I'm really proud that I was able to have the largest red to blue flip in the entire country in 2018. I've worked really hard to serve the people and to, I think, move a lot of people in the district into supporting a Democratic vision and efficiency and effectiveness. Now, of course, after redistricting, the district is more blue, and so I do not think we would lose this seat. That's certainly something I'll work very hard to make sure does not happen.

People in New Jersey were asking me to take on this role, this challenge as governor, knowing that that is where Democrats can provide really effective governance. I'm incredibly proud of the work I've done in Congress. After only my second term, being named the most effective legislator in the New Jersey delegation. So I've worked really hard to bring people together, but the partisanship has not ended. We are now in the minority.

I'll continue to work on the, as I mentioned, the legislating and litigating and mobilizing strategy that we need to have, but we really need, in Trenton, a fresh perspective and new leadership and a new vision as we fight hard to build more houses and drive down costs, and to lower utility bills by investing in clean, cheap power like solar, and really taking on healthcare costs and fixing the healthcare system here. That is where I think I can be most effective as we look to the future of our state and our country.

Brian Lehrer: Doug, in Colts Neck, you're on WNYC, with Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, running for governor. Hi, Doug.

Doug: Hey, good morning. Love your show. It's a real public service. Thanks so much, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Doug: Listen, Representative Sherrill, I have a question for you about the pension system and COLAs. Without going into too much background, I'm sure you're aware of the assault on the New Jersey state pension system by Christy Whitman in the '90s, carried forward by Governor Christie. I very much appreciate what Governor Murphy has done in terms of full funding of the system. When I became a teacher, though, I was promised a defined benefit pension with yearly COLAs and retiree health benefits funded by the state.

Over 37 years, I lived up to that obligation. The state's not living up to its obligation in relation to my COLA. My question for you is, if elected, will you in fact support and aggressively work for full funding of the pension system, as Governor Murphy has, but also include in that the reinstatement of the COLA for public [crosstalk]?

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. For people who don't know, a COLA, in this context, is not a soda. It's a cost of living allowance that pegs the pension benefit to inflation so it will go up a little bit every year with the cost of living. Congresswoman, there is an opposite side of that, which is to say the pension system is not sustainable, with the money that the state has, or wasn't, at least before those two Republican governors made difficult choices to change it, and so address it from both of those standpoints.

Mikie Sherrill: Yes. Brian, I don't think you could say it was not sustainable. I mean, the choices that were made were simply to not fund it. To use payments that were put into the pension system, to use them elsewhere to fund other things, to come up with, I would suggest, sort of questionable math on returns that people expected to not fund the pension system and pretend as if it were going to continue to move forward and support people. We're at a point now, just to give you a sense of what this looks like when you don't fund your pension system for decades, we're at a point now where we're paying $7 billion to fund our pension payments, a little over $7 billion.

New York, with a larger pension system, is paying $1.5 billion a year. By not funding it, we are putting a tax on future generations. It's more than that. It's also driving up the cost of borrowing for our state. As we think about how we're going to innovate, how we're going to build out the HELIX near Rutgers, which is an innovation space, or other projects we have across the state. The cost of borrowing was so high, when Governor Murphy started, after having our credit rating drop 11 times under the previous administration, that we couldn't even borrow at that time until we started making these payments.

Brian Lehrer: So briefly, to the caller's precise question, would you restore the COLAs?

Mikie Sherrill: The caller asked two things. Am I committed to paying the pension system? Yes. Would I restore the COLAs? What we are working to do now is getting the pension system to a certain percentage of funding and then working towards the COLAs, but I think we're seeing, in many cases, with firefighters, with police officers, with teachers, that because we haven't had cost of living adjustments in so long, people are struggling in their retirement, and we need to figure out a way to address that. The first priority is to keep funding the pension system so people have, at a minimum, their pension payments.

Brian Lehrer: Eric, in Middletown, you're on WNYC, with Mikie Sherrill, member of Congress running for governor.

Eric: Hi, good morning, Representative Sherrill, and good morning, Brian. I'm a big fan of the show.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Eric: Representative, I'm calling about state funding for education. In particular, the state funding formula that, as it's currently constituted, severely disadvantages big suburban school districts, successful school districts like the one I live in in Middletown. As you may be aware, the Middle Board of Education recently proposed closing two very successful elementary schools and a middle school, in part because of state school funding issues, where more and more money is going to big cities without results-driven analysis, and big suburban school districts like our own, again, delivering good results, are forced to consider solutions as drastic as closing elementary schools.

Brian Lehrer: Congresswoman

Mikie Sherrill: Yes. I think we saw underfunding in the school systems for many years, so to actually see the work being done to fund the school systems, to fully fund the formula, I think was a really good start to making sure that we have and continue to maintain a school system we can be very proud of. We have one of the best school systems in the nation. Unfortunately, it's still by zip code. So we need to continue to push into education to create opportunity for everyone.

The caller is exactly right. I mean, we have definitely seen that the funding formula does not take into account appropriately school systems that have a lot of children with learning differences. That is a very costly education system, and that's not paid for correctly by the school funding formula. It hasn't been updated since 2008. As everyone knows, here in New Jersey, we've had a lot of movement of where people are moving into the state, and which school systems are burgeoning, and which ones are having fewer students.

We need to modernize and stabilize it, because we also know that, unfortunately, for towns, many times they get their funding formula very late in the game and are kind of right before they're opening schools, firing teachers, or cutting programs, which we never want to see in our town. I think we've taken-- the governor's taken some steps to stabilize this right now, but we certainly do need to modernize it as we go forward.

Brian Lehrer: We have two minutes left in the segment. I want to get one more caller in, brief answer from you, and then one closing question from me, to compare you to another candidate who was on. Dale, in Island Heights, you're on WNYC. Hello, Dale, right to the point.

Dale: Hi, am I on?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Dale: Okay. My point is, I'm calling about the SAVE Act. I'm a member of the League of Women Voters, and I want to know what she thinks of it, and if she realizes how it will totally change how we register people to vote in the nation. Right now, people can register to vote by online, by mail, and by in person, but the new SAVE Act would require people to register to vote in person.

Brian Lehrer: I'm going to leave it there, Dale. Also, Congresswoman, President Trump announced yesterday that he's ordering, I don't know if he has the authority to do that, all the states to require proof of citizenship in order to vote.

Mikie Sherrill: Yes, I voted against the SAVE Act, which was the GOP voting bill. I'm against that requirement. I have a daughter in the military, she certainly doesn't-- she's not able to come here to register in person, even though she's a New Jersey voter. So, I voted against that bill, which is different from the New Jersey Save Act, which is about retiree benefits.

Brian Lehrer: The question that I'll throw in here is when Steve Fulop, who's also running the Democratic primary was on, he said he's for congestion pricing to drive into Manhattan. Are you?

Mikie Sherrill: I am not for the current New York congestion pricing, because that is simply a tax on New Jersey commuters that funds New York infrastructure and transportation systems. As we are facing a shortfall in the resources we need to run New Jersey transit better, and to fix our New Jersey transit system, we're now-- we've just finished-- we're now entering into a new summer. I hope this won't be our fourth summer of hell, as we've experienced for past summers. I would like to see, if there is any congestion pricing from New Jerseyans, that that goes into our New Jersey transportation systems.

Brian Lehrer: I know we're at the time where you said you have to go. If you have another minute, I'll let you close with what's in your Affordability Agenda, which I know is a big thing that you're running on, and that obviously, is a number one concern for so many people in the state and the country.

Mikie Sherrill: Yes. Well, first of all, thank you so much, Brian, for having me on the show. That went by fast. Thank you to all of the callers for some really thoughtful, great questions, as I always get on the show. In running for governor, I really, as I've run past elections, start with listening to people, and trying very hard to understand, what are those things that I can do, in the office I'm seeking, to most impact their lives? I often say, what is that last thing that's kind of keeping you up at night, that you can't sleep because you're not sure how you're going to tackle this problem?

What I hear from people are really, their concerns about mortgages and rental prices. A woman in Paterson, who was retired and had to start working again because her apartment rent went up so much. The cop in Chatham who can't afford to live in the town that he serves. The couple trying to buy a home, their first home, because they want to start a family, who can afford nothing where the husband grew up. I mean, nothing in Livingston. He's looking out over an hour away and still losing bid after bid after bid. That's why I'm tackling housing.

Building more housing to drive down costs, and we have to get creative here, because we're densely populated state with environmental issues, so we have to convert old underutilized commercial spaces into homes. We have to streamline the state's permitting process, because we know the status quo isn't working, and our state isn't always functioning well for building. Making sure that we're getting through that permitting process faster. We need to lower utility bills. We've got to invest in clean, cheap power like solar. There's a reason Texas is the leading solar power provider, and it's not because it's green, even though that's important to me, it's because it's cheap.

New Jerseyans need to see their utility bills go down, not up, as they're about to this summer. Then it's taking on health care costs, like taking on the pharmacy benefit managers who are driving up drug prices by as much as 10 times. We need to bring more transparency to health care prices and premium hikes because we know that in a nation that spends more on health care with worse results than many places around the world, we are a state that spends some of the highest prices on health care. So we really need to drive down costs for families, and at the same time protect rights and freedoms here.

We are seeing those under attack every single day from Washington. As we're working to address the affordability agenda and invest in families, making New Jersey work for working families, we also have to make sure that in this state, you know your rights and freedoms are protected. Unlike, unfortunately, again and again, where we're seeing loyalty oaths coming from Washington, and the military, and the DOJ, and real unrest. Here in New Jersey, people know that we care about the Constitution, we're patriots, we care about this country, and we're going to invest in our working families.

Brian Lehrer: Congresswoman and candidate Mikie Sherrill, thank you very much for coming on with us. We really appreciate especially that you came on and answered so many listener questions. Thank you very much.

Mikie Sherrill: Thank you, and have a great one.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we'll continue to interview all the major candidates in the primaries for governor of New Jersey and mayor of New York, as we invite each of them on, as long as they're willing to answer listener questions as well as my questions. We've so far had Democrats Sherrill there and Fulop, in the New Jersey primary, and Republican Jon Bramnick. On the Democratic side, we'll continue to-- I mean, on the New York City mayoral side, we'll continue to interview all the Democrats who accept, because there is no Republican primary.

Looks like Curtis Sliwa has that one as a lock. So all the primary candidates are on the Democratic side in the New York City mayoral race. The candidates are on both sides in the New Jersey gubernatorial race. We'll continue inviting each of them on to answer my questions and yours.

 

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