ABOUT RAJ
A champion of the middle class and working families, Senator Raj Mukherji proudly represents the 32nd District (Hudson County) in the New Jersey Legislature. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee and as a member of the Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee and the Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee. In 2013, he won a six-way primary election to the State Assembly at the age of 28 and went on to serve five terms, including in leadership as Majority Whip and Deputy Speaker of the General Assembly. In the Assembly, he served as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
A lawyer and serial entrepreneur with healthcare, real estate, technology, and regulated cannabis holdings, he was previously an information technology CEO, Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, local prosecutor, and a Sergeant in the U.S. Marines. Senator Mukherji has achieved a half billion dollars in aggregated enterprise value across companies he founded and led as CEO or co-owner, while creating hundreds of jobs along the way.
In the State Legislature, Raj has earned a statewide reputation as a prolific, effective lawmaker. His bills and appropriations priorities have focused on economic development and job creation; infrastructure and mass transit; expanding access to healthcare and mandating insurance coverage of certain healthcare services and prescription benefits; sustainability and environmental protection; college affordability; veterans’ welfare; public safety; social justice and civil liberties; addiction prevention and treatment; animal welfare; helping small businesses thrive and grow; and myriad other issues of importance to his constituents. Senator Mukherji was named the “Humane Legislator of the Year” recipient for 2014 by the Humane Society. He was the 2017 recipient of the Mortar & Pestle Award from the NJ Pharmacists Association, awarded annually to a non-pharmacist with the greatest contributions to the profession of pharmacy and the public. He was named the 2022 Legislator of the Year by the NJ Psychological Association for successful efforts to expand and destigmatize access to mental health services. Senator Mukherji was also named a 2015 honoree of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hudson County for championing the expansion of teens’ access to mental health services, and he received the 2015 Legislator Award from the NAACP for his civil rights advocacy. In 2022, he was named “Legislator of the Year” by the State Troopers Fraternal Association (STFA), after having been named 2015 Legislator of the Year by the NJ Law Enforcement Police Officers Brotherhood. He received the 2015 Compadre Award from Latina Civic PAC. For his stewardship on natural resource protection and climate change, he was a 2021 Sierra Club Award recipient, 2023 Emerald Award recipient from the League of Conservation Voters, and recipient of the annual Legislative Leadership Award from NY/NJ Baykeeper in 2018 and 2022 (making him the only two-time awardee in the organization’s history).
The son of immigrants, Senator Mukherji supported himself through high school, college, and grad school as an emancipated minor when economic circumstances forced his parents to return to their native India. After suffering a pituitary tumor, stroke, and other ailments, Raj's father – the late Asim Mukherji, an accountant and musician – could no longer work as a result of his health but could not afford health coverage without employment. This experience shaped Raj's perspective and interest in healthcare access and policy and inspired much of his subsequent advocacy in that area. After founding an Internet consulting and software development company while in middle school, Raj grew the business and later sold it to a larger technology company to enlist in the Marines two weeks after the attacks of September 11th at age 17, where he served in military intelligence as a reservist. The young entrepreneur withdrew from high school after completing ninth grade to focus on his business endeavors and support himself after his parents were forced to move to India. At 15, he enrolled in an early college program at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts from Thomas Edison State University, an individualized Master of Liberal Arts focused on national security from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in the State of New Jersey; the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey; the U.S. District Court, Western District of New York; the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois; the United States Tax Court; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Holding a firm view that housing and healthcare are fundamental human rights, Senator Mukherji volunteered for over 15 years as Chairman of the Jersey City Housing Authority, where he was first appointed the youngest Commissioner and Chairman in city history at the age of 24. From 2008-2024, he earned acclaim for his oversight and various reforms at the state’s second largest housing authority.
Senator Mukherji is presently the only former Marine in the New Jersey Legislature. He was the first Indian-Bengali state legislator elected in American history and the second South Asian American to be elected in state history.