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Christine Conforti
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Christine Conforti (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent New Jersey's 4th Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on July 7, 2020.
Conforti completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Christine Conforti was born in Montclair, New Jersey. She earned an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service in May 2010 and a graduate degree from the University of Miami School of Education in May 2012. Her professional experience includes working as a business and leadership coach and as a social and emotional learning school consultant. Conforti has served as a Teach for America corp member, as a UN business partnerships project manager, with the United Nations Global Compact, as a MindUP school consultant, and as a Goldie Hawn Foundation- SEL school consultant.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: New Jersey's 4th Congressional District election, 2020
New Jersey's 4th Congressional District election, 2020 (July 7 Democratic primary)
New Jersey's 4th Congressional District election, 2020 (July 7 Republican primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House New Jersey District 4
Incumbent Chris Smith defeated Stephanie Schmid, Hank Schroeder, Michael Rufo, and Andrew Pachuta in the general election for U.S. House New Jersey District 4 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Chris Smith (R) | 59.9 | 254,103 |
 | Stephanie Schmid (D)  | 38.3 | 162,420 | |
 | Hank Schroeder (Make Change Happen Party) | 0.8 | 3,195 | |
 | Michael Rufo (L) | 0.6 | 2,583 | |
 | Andrew Pachuta (Common Sense Party) | 0.5 | 2,067 | |
| Total votes: 424,368 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 4
Stephanie Schmid defeated Christine Conforti and David Applefield in the Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 4 on July 7, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Stephanie Schmid | 67.4 | 38,444 |
 | Christine Conforti | 25.1 | 14,331 | |
 | David Applefield | 7.4 | 4,244 | |
| Total votes: 57,019 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Jim Keady (D)
- Tiffany Kaszuba (D)
- Hassan Shehadeh (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 4
Incumbent Chris Smith defeated Alter Eliezer Richter in the Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 4 on July 7, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Chris Smith | 94.8 | 51,636 |
| Alter Eliezer Richter | 5.2 | 2,853 | ||
| Total votes: 54,489 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Conforti's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Christine Conforti completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Conforti's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am the grassroots candidate who is leading meaningful conversations about the issues that matter to our local community. As a former Americorp service member (Teach For America Miami-Dade), former United Nations Global Compact staffer and corporate sustainability leader, a Leadership Coach and entrepreneur, and an integrative health advocate for my mother's cancer treatment-- I care deeply about HEALTH as a human right, and the intersection between humanity's environmental crisis and our systemic social and economic injustices. Beyond my diverse national and global leadership experience, I am driven by my deep roots in CD-4. I was raised in Monmouth County and graduated Holmdel High School in 2006. I have a large Italian family and friendships with local business owners and community leaders throughout the three counties of this district. Thanks to this authentic connection to local people and towns, I have the unique ability to build a deep sense of trust with voters across the political spectrum, at a time when confidence in the integrity of Congress is at a historic low. With grassroots dollars and meaningful conversations with local leaders, I am co-creating this campaign with my CD-4 community.
- Proactive Health: HEALTH is a human right. Medicare for All is the baseline. Cultivating health is where we need to grow. This means fiercely regulating our chemical, fossil fuel and agribusiness industries to legally ban the toxins and carcinogens that are making us sick.
- Local Wealth: A living wage for all is the baseline. Meaningful work that sustains a healthy lifestyle and sustainable communities is where we need to grow. We can achieve this with a federal jobs guarantee, coupled with entrepreneurship education and funding for local main street business and social businesses designed to solve social and environmental problems.
- Sustainable Living: Mitigating climate change is the baseline. Building a fully sustainable economy is where we need to grow. We can achieve this by funding community and residential solar energy and EV charging stations , sustainable flood protection systems (Rain Gardens and natural coastal barriers), subsidizing sustainable fishing and regenerative farming practices, and funding composting infrastructure that uses organic waste for energy.
I feel most passionate about creating public policy that gives rise to a fully sustainable economy, while simultaneously reversing disease and optimizing the health and wellbeing of our people and our planet. Sustainability is an upgrade to our health, our relationships, our communities, and our livelihoods. To achieve this, we must solve the root cause of environmental destruction, poverty and racial injustice-- a corrupt campaign finance and lobbying system that prioritizes profits for corporations over people and the planet. We must reverse this formula and take the influence of money out of politics by publicly funding political campaigns. This one piece of legislation would require elected officials to be accountable to everyday people, not for-profit corporations.
I look up to spiritual leaders and activists who are guided by an understanding of universal love, and our oneness with each other and nature. We desperately need to bring humanity back into politics. This is labor of love, empathy, mindful leadership, and uncomfortable conversations.
Yes, there are several! On Fire by Naomi Klein. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Healing the Soul of America by Marianne Williamson. The Left Hand of God by Rabbi Michael Lerner. Also, the mission and philosophy of the Network for Spiritual Progressives (https://spiritualprogressives.org/)
Integrity, authenticity, mindfulness, deep listening.
I am mindful, creative, empathetic and entrepreneurial. I am trained in deep listening and taking courageous action.
To be a voice for her local community. To consistently invite the personal stories, feedback and ideas of constituents to inform and shape policy proposals and voting decisions. To positively influence the mindset and actions of sitting representatives towards prioritizing people and the planet over corporate profits.
Bringing humanity back into politics by being authentic and honest at every step of the process.. Demonstrating that a grassroots campaign powered by local dollars and passionate people is the new measurement of "viability". Being the change we wish to see in campaign finance by leading a savvy and resourceful campaign that proves money is not the most important metric. I intend to teach this model and lessons and coaching other authentic leaders into elected office.
I remember being bused home early from school on September 11, 2001. I was 13 years old sitting in math class in the 7th grade. I recall seeing black smoke in the sky, watching the horrifying news with my mother on our tiny white kitchen TV, while anxiously waiting for my father to commute home from New York City.
Teach for America Miami-Dade Corp Member, 2010-2012. I was a middle-school math teacher at Brownsville Middle School, and simultaneously a graduate student of the program"Education and Social Change" at the University of Miami.
The 5 Minute Journal. It keeps me grounded in gratitude and sense of purpose each morning.
Viola by Remember Jones.
I struggle with existential depression: the deep sense of grief that come with being aware of the daily-- and unnecessary-- hate between people and destruction of our health and our environment. I manage this grief by doing meaningful work with a mission to bring love and insight to people I meet, fueled by a daily meditation practice and conscious consumption of the food I eat, the information I take in, the material goods I buy (and boycott), and the positive relationships I surround myself with.
Using data scientists and technology to intelligently create districts based on demographic data. Human bias and political strategy should be excluded in this process.
It has the power to protect we the people from known toxins and carcinogens that are currently legally our food, water, air and consumer products. This is the only level of leadership that can determine the health and safety standards of what we allow to be bought and sold in our economy. Reversing both cancer and climate change can be achieved only with federal food, chemical, energy and healthcare policies that optimizes the health and wellbeing of people (not profits).
No, I believe we live in a time where this experience is neutral at best and counter-productive at worse. Given the state of corruption between corporate lobbyists, corporate PACS and career politicians, I believe we need a brand new Congress of diverse "outsiders" with unique skill-sets and experiences that challenge the thinking of Congress from the inside out. We everyday working people in these positions of power who are in touch with the everyday challenges of our local communities.
Cultivating health as a human right is the greatest challenge of our generation. Starting with affordable healthcare, a Medicare For All single-payer healthcare system would provide employment freedom & local business growth, comprehensive care including dental, vision and mental health; and access to integrative health therapies that include foods and supplements clinically researched to prevent and reverse disease- in many cases replacing the need for lifelong pharmaceuticals drugs.
However, we must go beyond access to care when we care sick, and investigate why we are so sick in the first place. Our "sickcare system" is multi-dimensional, rooted in a for-profit healthcare system incentivized to make money over curing chronic illness and keeping people healthy. The sick-care system depends on industrialized agri-business that legally pumps chemicals, hormones and GMOs in our food, soil and water supply. And finally, it depends on the chemical industry legally adding known carcinogens to our skin-care products, our cleaning products, and our consumer products. The fundamental responsibility of our government is to protect the public good from harm, not to subsidize it.
However, we must go beyond access to care when we care sick, and investigate why we are so sick in the first place. Our "sickcare system" is multi-dimensional, rooted in a for-profit healthcare system incentivized to make money over curing chronic illness and keeping people healthy. The sick-care system depends on industrialized agri-business that legally pumps chemicals, hormones and GMOs in our food, soil and water supply. And finally, it depends on the chemical industry legally adding known carcinogens to our skin-care products, our cleaning products, and our consumer products. The fundamental responsibility of our government is to protect the public good from harm, not to subsidize it.
Small Business, Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, Agriculture, and Ethics committee.
I'm concerned that a 2-year Congressional term lends itself to being a Candidate in "campaign mode"every other year, and takes away attention, energy and financial resources from actually solving problems as an elected official. I would support extending the term to 3-4 years and/or shortening the campaign season to 2-3 months while publically financing campaigns.
I believe in term limits: 6 terms of 2 years for the House, and 2 terms of 6 years for the Senate. Career politicians are killing people and the planet. We can fix this by changing the incentive and accountability structure.
In my first term, I'm interested in learning and leading from behind by building relationships, listening deeply, and coaching my colleagues through deep and meaningful conversations.
No, I am a unique blend of social justice and public service experience and spiritual wisdom and awareness. I want to stay authentic and true to what I feel is just and needs to be said and changed to meet the present moment and circumstance.
I recently learned that the Bromley section of Hamilton Township has never had busing to its Nottingham high school. Students- mostly of color- have had to walk 1.5-2 miles each way to and from school. I was struck by the disadvantage of never having the option to catch a bus if one is running late in the morning, perhaps due to family needs, over-sleeping, feeling ill, et. As a former teacher, I thought about how being late to school is often interconnected with disciplinary action, teacher biases, false judgements of who is a "good" vs. "bad" student. I'm currently in the process of understanding the root cause of this seemingly unjust busing issues, and at what level of government it can be changed. In the same day, I heard stories about the social and economic need to have black-owned business in predominantly black neighborhoods, and that black dollars should be cycled back into the community by paying black wages and supporting. black entrepreneurs. That seeing one of your elders as your teacher, and owner of your grocery store, and owner of your barbershop matters greatly to the positive development of worth and confidence in young black children. I agree wholeheartedly and and doing my best to help local community leaders make connections with elected officials who currently have the power and resources to create change.
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.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 29, 2020
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)
