New Jersey Senate
In November 2017,Gopal was elected to the State Senate. [14] Gopal is the first Indian-American to be elected to New Jersey's State Senate, [15] and his victory was described by NJ.com as "perhaps the biggest upset of the night." [16] Gopal won by 4,158 votes –dramatically outperforming Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Phil Murphy. Gopal won numerous towns which Murphy lost,including Eatontown and Ocean Township. [17] On January 9,2018,shortly after his swearing-in,Gopal was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee as well as a member of the Economic Growth Committee and Health,Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. He is currently the youngest member of the New Jersey State Senate. [18] On April 4,2018,Gopal was named Senate Majority Conference Leader and Chairman of the Bipartisan Legislative Manufacturing Caucus. Gopal took both positions from Senator Robert M. Gordon,who resigned to accept a position with the BPU. [19] On January 1 of 2019,Gopal was appointed Chairman of the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. [20]
In the 2021 elections,Republicans outperformed expectations statewide,with Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli winning 2,500 more votes than incumbent Governor Phil Murphy in the 11th district and both Houghtaling and Downey losing re-election. Gopal nevertheless was narrowly re-elected as Senator by a margin of approximately 2,600 votes,running more than 5,000 votes ahead of Murphy;he was the only Democratic state legislator to win in a district carried by Ciattarelli. [21] As a result of Houghtaling and Downey's losses,he was also left as the only Democrat representing Monmouth County in the state legislature.
In the 2023 elections,Gopal won by 21 percentage points against Republican Steve Dnistrian,outperforming expectations in what was forecasted to be a competitive race. Gopal's Democratic running mates for seats in the General Assembly,Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul,defeated Republican incumbents Marilyn Piperno and Kimberly Eulner by smaller margins. [22] "But when results actually started coming in,it was clear that Gopal had been dramatically underestimated. The two-term Democrat beat Dnistrian by nearly 12,000 votes,33,558 to 21,866 –an astonishing 60%-39% margin. (Those numbers remain unofficial for now,with provisional ballots still to be counted.)... Gopal’s victory was easily enough to get his two running mates,Assemblywomen-elect Margie Donlon (D-Ocean Township) and Luanne Peterpaul (D-Long Branch),elected against incumbent Republicans Marilyn Piperno (R-Colts Neck) and Kim Eulner (R-Shrewsbury).... Donlon and Peterpaul currently have a combined 56.5% of the vote,an extremely robust total against two incumbents." Gopal's margin was so massive,based on town by town results,he won chunks of Republican votes in each town. For example,the small community of Deal which voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2020,voted for Gopal overwhelmingly also.
Legislative Accomplishments
[24] Gopal has championed mental health funding for New Jersey,having helped deliver tens of millions of dollars in mental health funds for New Jersey Schools. He was also a key sponsor of the 988 Help Line,to assist those in crisis. As a result,Gopal was honored nationally for his work on mental health funding and breaking the stigma around mental health.
[25] Gopal has been a long proponent and advocate for school district and government consolidation,arguing that New Jersey has too much government. He is pushing for mandated consolidation of government in order to try to lower property taxes.
[26] Gopal championed the legislation to help with New Jersey's film tax credits which helped bring Netflix to New Jersey.
[27] Gopal was a main sponsor of codifying a constitutional right to freedom of reproductive choice,making one of New Jersey one of the strongest women's healthcare protections states.
[28] Gopal sponsored the law to ban smoking in New Jersey beaches.
[29] Gopal sponsored the law to codify same-sex marriage in the statute.
[30] Gopal is considered one of New Jersey's most pro-law enforcement legislators,having advanced various laws to support police officers and first responders in New Jersey. In 2023,he was the only state legislator from New Jersey to be endorsed by the National Association of Police Association.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
