Adam Rueda

Adam Rueda

Independent

Candidate, U.S. House New Jersey District 5

Elections and appointments

Next election

November 3, 2026

Education

High school

Pope John XXIII Regional High School

Bachelor's

Bucknell University, 2019

Personal

Birthplace

New Jersey

Profession

Sales

Contact

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Adam Rueda (independent) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent New Jersey's 5th Congressional District. He declared candidacy as a write-in for the 2026 election.

Rueda completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Adam Rueda was born in New Jersey. He graduated from Pope John XXIII Regional High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Bucknell University in 2019. His career experience includes working in sales.

Elections

2026

See also: New Jersey's 5th Congressional District election, 2026

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for U.S. House New Jersey District 5

Incumbent Josh Gottheimer, Nick Gebo, Chandiha Gajapathy, Sean Kirrane, and Adam Rueda are running in the general election for U.S. House New Jersey District 5 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Josh Gottheimer (D)
		Nick Gebo (D)
	Submit photo	Chandiha Gajapathy (R)
		Sean Kirrane (R)
		Adam Rueda (Independent) (Write-in)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
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Endorsements

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Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Adam Rueda completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Rueda's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Hello! My name is Adam Rueda. I am a 28-year-old Bucknell graduate. I was raised in Andover Township (Sussex County). I grew up attending Catholic school at Reverend Brown grade & middle school and then Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta. At PJ, I was inducted into both National Honors Society and as a National Hispanic Scholar. I was an Ambassador within the Office of Admissions as well as the proud recipient of the Tri-County Scholarship, a need- and performance-based grant to attend private high school.

To attend Bucknell, I received the Diversity Scholarship, which was awarded to incoming freshman that were going to bring diversity of experience and fresh perspectives to campus. While at Bucknell, I was Vice President and Social Chair of my fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and proudly graduated as a First-Generation College Graduate. My entire life, including college, I have worked odd-jobs to survive.

My degree is a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus in Financial Management and Accounting. I am proud to have participated in Student Managed Investment Fund, a year long course where selected students invest and manage a portion of Bucknell's endowment. After graduation, I have gained life experience working as a Senior Financial Analyst at a commercial real estate brokerage in Morristown, as an Interior Design Salesperson in Short Hills & Manhattan, and as a DJ in NYC & Brooklyn.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• We have created a new political party, greenparty2.0, that is led by Earth-first, health-first Gen-Z activists. We are champions of gun control as well as restoring true free speech in this country. This includes online, in the media and in the workplace. I am proud to say that we have appointed 11 executive committee‬ chairs including myself. Each of these executive committee members are‬ college-educated, young professionals, all of whom sport diversified degrees and‬ notable track records of activism in relevant topics. Viewed as a whole, our board boasts‬ a wide breadth of life experience and professional expertise.‬
• As an Earth-first, health-first minded candidate, I am deeply concerned about the health and sustainability of our home planet, as well as our own bodies, and see vividly how the two are interwoven and inter-related. It is of upmost importance that we pay much closer attention to the chemicals and pollution we are releasing into the air, our waters, spraying on our crops, processing into our foods and feeding to our children and loved ones.
• I am deeply concerned about the impact of lobbying and self-profiteering in our federal government, as many existing politicians are bought and paid-for by large corporations and interest groups. I am deeply concerned that career politicians in DC are enriching themselves by voting on behalf of their own financial holdings and interests, and not the constituents they are there to actually represent. Many existing politicians accept massive funding from the Fossil Fuel industry, and even more from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby. I believe this lobbying and campaign financing shackles our representatives to advocating for their financiers and contributes massively to the problems we have with the war on science and participation in genocide.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Environmental policy, health policy, making healthcare much more accessible, climate change, science policy, agriculture and small farmers, and education.

I am also very interested in election reform, including ways to boost voter turnout and ways to empower new, fresh candidates, outside of establishment Republicans and Democrats, to have a legitimate chance in elections without having to bend-the-knee to large corporations or interest groups. This could include ballot reform, open primaries, and much more.

Our party is passionate about thinking creatively about gun control, which could include reform to gun storage req., increasing hoops to get a gun, including mental health evaluations, as well as limiting access to assault weapons.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

A strong willingness to actually represent the constituents of their district is the most important. Beyond that, a strong compass of ethics and morality is crucial to be able to trust yourself to make the right decisions without too much outside interference.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The core responsibility is to represent your constituents, and put your constituents' needs and desires before all other interests, including your own. As a Representative it is your core duty to voice the concerns and desires that are representative of both the people that voted for you, and the ones that did not.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I remember 9/11 when I was 4 years old. My baby sister was born 6 days later.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I worked many jobs growing up to survive such as pool boy, maintenance person, snow shoveler, limo dispatcher, intramural sports referee, wedding set-up and take-down, and others.

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

It is dominated by only 2 parties. We are the only advanced democracy in the world that has an advanced democracy where the entire federal or national government does not have at least 3 parties represented. 2 parties is not enough space to color the many variations of ideologies and value systems that exist in this country.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

No. greenparty2.0 supports elevating young professionals and working-class people to federal positions. Our government is already filled to the brim with bootlickers of billionaires and career, profiteering politicians. Our general population in this country is not dominated by billionaires or lawyers, so why should our national government be? That is not representative of anyone. We need leaders that actually understand what it is like to be a working-class person, or a student entering the workforce. We need leaders that actually use and rely systems such as Medicaid, Medicare, Student Loan Relief, and many, many other hotly debated programs to provide color and diversity of experience in our national chamber, which it is currently sorely lacking.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Rapid and increasing ecosystem degradation as well as the increased volume and intensity of extreme weather events such as wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes. This can be addressed by divesting from fossil fuels and exploring science, research and acting swiftly to implement green solutions.

In addition, we have a massive problem with gun control as schools, churches and public places continue to be attacked with assault rifles meant for the battlefields of war.

Furthermore, the health and education of our general public and our children is of upmost priority. It is crucial we regulate food companies, that are often in business or in-partnership with pharmaceutical companies, and get Americans off of the processed-food to prescription-drug hamster wheel that is ever-profitable for big business, but does not serve any everyday American or their wallets.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

Sure. It is always good to have more elections instead of less elections, considering the only time the vast majority of Americans get to actually exercise their democracy and make their voice even remotely heard is through their voting.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I am for exploring term-limits, as being a public servant was not meant to be a career role and many of our current Representatives have been insulated in government much too long and are out-of-touch with their constituents or the problems of our nation in general.

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

AOC & MTG. They both think independently, go against the grain of their own party when they do not agree, and are not puppets of big business and other interest groups.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Yes, compromise and hearing and understanding the other position is crucial in any interaction, whether it be a sale, a friendship, a relationship or policymaking. Open dialogue and critical thinking are more necessary now than ever in a political landscape in this country that is increasingly polarized and even more frequently gridlocked.

How should the U.S. House use its investigative powers?

The US House needs to investigate large behemoths of the fossil fuel industry such as Exxon, Chevron, BP and Shell to expose their gigantic war-on-science propaganda campaign that has been weaponized against all Americans to discredit credible scientists, research and enable insane profiteering and ecosystem destruction since the 1970s and 80s.

The US House needs to investigate the coordination and collusion of the Biden administration and companies like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson into forcing all Americans to receive a rushed and ill-developed vaccine. In addition, this administration needs to be investigated for suppressing research on vaccine injuries, as well as silencing any criticism or honest discussion regarding this topic on social media, specifically Meta. I fear similar suppression of social media is underway as we speak regarding topics of Israel, genocide and the "war" in Gaza.

What role should the United States government have in the development or use of artificial intelligence?

The US government needs to ensure AI development has sufficient guardrails and ethics standards coded into its development. The US government needs to work to eliminate bias from AI coding. This development needs to be done with great care and oversight, which I fear is a window which has already come and gone.

What legislation would you enact related to election administration in the United States?

Our party believes the system to vote in general elections is extremely outdated. Most notably, the long queues and excruciating wait-times discourage many, many working, would-be voters. The US should explore ranked choice voting or similar reform, like Borda's rule.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Adam Rueda campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2026*	U.S. House New Jersey District 5	Candidacy Declared general	$0	N/A**
Grand total			$0	N/A**
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

See also

2026 Elections

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Footnotes

[show]

New Jersey's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Cory Booker (D)

Andrew Kim (D)

Representatives

District 1

Donald Norcross (D)

District 2

Jeff Van Drew (R)

District 3

Herbert Conaway (D)

District 4

Chris Smith (R)

District 5

Josh Gottheimer (D)

District 6

Frank Pallone (D)

District 7

Thomas Kean (R)

District 8

Robert Menendez (D)

District 9

Nellie Pou (D)

District 10

LaMonica McIver (D)

District 11

Mikie Sherrill (D)

District 12

Bonnie Coleman (D)

Democratic Party (11)

Republican Party (3)