Steve Gray (New Jersey)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Steve Gray

Republican Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

June 7, 2022

Education

Associate

Atlantic Community College, 1993

Bachelor's

Stockton University, 1996

Personal

Birthplace

Somers Point, N.J.

Religion

Presbyterian

Profession

FBI agent

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign Instagram

Steve Gray (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent New Jersey's 4th Congressional District. He lost in the Republican primary on June 7, 2022.

Gray completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Steve Gray was born in Somers Point, New Jersey. He earned an associate degree from Atlantic Community College in 1993 and a bachelor's degree from Stockton University in 1996. His career experience includes working as an FBI agent for 23 years. He was also a police officer and sergeant for the Somers Point Police Department from 1990 to 1999.

Elections

2022

See also: New Jersey's 4th Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House New Jersey District 4

The following candidates ran in the general election for U.S. House New Jersey District 4 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Chris Smith (R)	66.9	173,288
		Matthew Jenkins (D)	31.4	81,233
		Jason Cullen (L)	0.7	1,902
		David Schmidt (We the People)	0.5	1,197
		Hank Schroeder (Independent)	0.3	905
		Pam Daniels (Progress with Pam)	0.2	437

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 258,962
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 4

Matthew Jenkins advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 4 on June 7, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Matthew Jenkins	100.0	20,655

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 20,655
= 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.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 4

Incumbent Chris Smith defeated Mike Crispi, Steve Gray, and Mike Blasi (Unofficially withdrew) in the Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 4 on June 7, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Chris Smith	57.8	33,136
		Mike Crispi	36.8	21,115
		Steve Gray	4.0	2,305
		Mike Blasi (Unofficially withdrew)	1.3	751

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 57,307
= 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

• Robert Shapiro (R)
• David Burg (R)
• Tricia Flanagan (R)
• Daniel Francisco (R)

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Steve Gray completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gray's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I have lived in the great State of New Jersey my entire life. I was fully educated here, I married here, and raised my children in Monmouth County for the last 21 years. I am a former New Jersey Police Sergeant with the Somers Point Police Department (PKWY Exit 30), and a 23 year veteran of the FBI where I was a firearms and SWAT team instructor, Supervisory Special Agent in Chinese Counterintelligence and Team Leader of the ERT Team.

Towards the end of my career I saw firsthand the politicization of the FBI and realized the Bureau was quickly becoming the political law enforcement arm of the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party. Dissatisfied with the track the new “woke” liberal FBI was heading down; I decided to retire from the Bureau and continue to serve our nation in another way, by running for Congress. In Congress, I plan to be a rock-ribbed conservative and fight for our shared values while returning America to the base principles that made our nation great. I believe in the America First policies set forth by the Trump Administration and I plan to fight for America First in the halls of Congress.

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?

• Crime and Support of our brave Law Enforcement, Firefighters, and Rescue Squad Personnel
• Stop the flow of Illegal Immigration and return those who crossed our border illegally
• Election Integrity by supporting voter ID and stopping ballot harvesting and mail-in-ballots

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am an America First Republican candidate and staunch supporter of President Donald J. Trump’s policies. I am pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-term limits, and fully back and support our military troops, our police officers, firefighters, and rescue squads. As a father, I understand the need for better education in our public schools and a need to fix the student loan crises. I want only the best access to health care, cheaper pharmaceuticals, and I want those medications made in America with American ingredients. I will not tolerate election fraud or men competing in women’s sports. On the world stage, I will not permit China to continue their aggression nor will I permit our border to be a sieve. I will work to send illegal immigrants back to their home countries the very day I am sworn into office.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to my parents and I attempt to follow their example everyday. I learned my core conservative values and love of America from my mother, a homemaker and my father, a Navy veteran who served in the Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crisis. My father, who worked two full-time jobs for 38 years, instilled in me a strong work ethic and an appreciation for American exceptionalism.

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

Our elected officials must understand they work on behalf of the people they serve. They are not beholden to anyone but the people. Elected officials must possess integrity, honesty, and compassion and ensure that the people of their district come first.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

As an FBI Agent we were taught to have Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity. I have kept those crucial and decisive qualities intact along with the strong work ethic I inherited from my father.

What legacy would you like to leave?

The legacy I hope to leave behind is for our children to have the passion to follow their dreams no matter the obstacles.

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

Like many other Americans, I remembers the horror our nation went through on September 11th, 2001. I was an FBI Agent working near the World Trade Center the morning of 9/11 and aided in evacuation of civilians, almost losing his life when the South Tower collapsed. In the days, weeks, and months following the attack by Islamic terrorists on 9/11, I worked 16 hour days investigating leads and interviewing witnesses. I was eventually selected to oversee the central command post’s investigation of thousands of leads pouring into the FBI tip lines.

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

I was 11 years old and I was a paperboy for the Philadelphia Bulletin. I delivered papers all over my home town of Somers Point, NJ. At age 13, I continued to deliver papers for the Atlantic City Press and on the weekends I worked for ChiChi's Italian Restaurant (not the Mexican food chain) as a porter, cleaning the floors and dishes. I worked my way up to sandwich maker and then eventually to busboy. I worked at ChiChi's 3-5 nights a week until I turned 18.

What is your favorite book? Why?

I like to read mostly non-fiction books. I just finished Red Handed by Peter Schweizer which examines how American Elites get even richer through their connections with Chinese Communist Party and China.

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

Chinese Aggression: The Chinese want to be the world dominant power and I understands that the Chinese Communist Party is the single biggest threat to the United States. China is hell bent on being the dominant global power and replacing America as the world leader. China’s global economic rise directly challenges American interests. We need Congressmen in office who aren’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with Xi Jinping to maintain American economic superiority. Through my FBI career I have seen how the Chinese “compete” on the world stage; they undercut American businesses by stealing trade secrets, committing corporate espionage, cyber warfare and regularly infringe on American patents in nearly every sphere of business. Our country can’t stand for this any longer. Just like President Trump was tough on China, I vow to take on the Chinese head-on.

Moreover, China has committed unprecedented human rights violations for decades and is only ramping up their subjugation of political and ethnic minorities in recent years. We have seen firsthand China’s policies crush Hong Kong and it’s clear Taiwan next on their list. China has committed human rights violations against the Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. China also is the largest producer of fentanyl which they are purposefully and cheaply supplying to cartels at our southern border in an attempt to exacerbate the opioid crisis in the United States. We can’t allow Washington weaklings to bend the knee to China any longer. My work in the FBI will bring valuable experience to Washington and a renewed resolve to curb China’s attacks on our way of life.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

Our founding fathers never intended to have career politicians who stayed in office for decades, focused more on filling their own pockets and making lucrative deals with lobbyists. I fully supports Congressional term limits, because we need citizen-servants in office, not corrupt career politicians.

My opponent, Chris Smith, was sworn in to Congress in 1981, a full 41 years ago. Smith is a Democrat who changed his party affiliation to Republican for the purpose of winning the District 4 election in 1980. Over the last 41 years, Smith has voted against President Trump and GOP policies at least 50 percent of the time and he is more likely to vote with the Democrats than Republicans. He voted with the Democrats on the massive 1.2 trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. The voting public knew the bulk of this bill was loaded with socialist spending programs that have little to do with infrastructure, but instead was just a boated “green new deal” style catastrophe. Smith has been sitting on the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee for years while he permits illegal aliens to cross our borders from almost every country in the world. He has let us down on foreign policy in Afghanistan, China, Russia and Iran. Smith is a Republican in Name Only (RINO) Congressman and needs to go.

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

I do believe that compromise is necessary for policymaking. Our founding fathers devised Congress specifically for compromise because they knew no one was going to be of the same opinion. However, the socialist left and Democrats have hijacked the compromise process by ramming bills down the throats of honest hard working Americans through their polarizing partisan politics. Whenever the Democrats sense compromise drifting in from the right they immediately attempt to take advantage of the Republican goodwill or they demonize the process with stunts like attempting to take away the filibuster.

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.

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Candidate

U.S. House New Jersey District 4

Website

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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)