Election time is here, and that means we have some big decisions to make. We need to understand all the issues that can affect our family, our liberties and life itself. Please visit our Elections page to learn which candidates have earned our support!

As there are many practical ways to fulfill the Great Commission, there are various opinions on how to best uplift those born in poverty, care for our environment, and protect our national security. There are, however, four major policy issues that should be a priority for Christians because they directly support or oppose the Biblical family as designed by God in his creative order.

These unifying issues for Christians include the sanctity of life, the definition of family, the right to believe and serve God according to your conscience, and the role of God in our society.

The Bible clearly teaches it is the goodness of God in creation that every child has the right to live and experience the love of a father and a mother. This sounds very basic to our understanding of the human experience. Yet, there are laws introduced or passed each year at both the state and federal level that oppose this Biblical definition of the family structure. The people you elect will either uphold these Biblical values or actively work against them. Your choice will help determine whether the family unit as described by God is dismantled or defended.

Politics is just the art and science of winning an election. Policy is what matters. Presidents, governors, and members of Congress come and go, but the laws they create will impact your family and our nation for decades to come.

In closing, I receive questions each week regarding the best way to vote in New Jersey since Governor Murphy has single-handedly forced everyone to vote by mail. The best option is to complete your ballot and either bring it to your county Board of Elections or drop in one of the designated safe drop boxes around your county. You can find your nearest drop box here.  Mailing your ballot is acceptable but is not the safest and securest method. Please be aware, you cannot vote in person in New Jersey. If you show up to a polling place, you will be handed a paper provisional ballot to be counted later. No one except those with disabilities will be allowed to vote by machine.

Let’s win back New Jersey!

Shawn Hyland
Director of Advocacy

Paid for by Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. www.familypolicyalliance.com/newjersey

The assisted suicide bills (S1072/A1504) will have a vote in both the Senate and Assembly on Monday, March 25^th!

We need your help to encourage your legislators in the General Assembly and the Senate to vote NO on these assisted suicide bills and send the message that in New Jersey every life is worth fighting for.

These assisted suicide bills will allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to anyone who has been “qualified” to end their own life. The so-called “protections” in these bills are weak, leaving our most vulnerable people – the disabled, the mentally ill and our teens – at higher risk for abuse.

Sadly, suicide tends to generate copycats among the emotionally vulnerable via a phenomenon called suicide contagion, where one suicide leads to many. Suicide is already the second leading cause of death for teens and we lose more veterans to suicide than we do to active military casualties.

These bills send to our most vulnerable teens and veterans a very bad message – that suicide is okay in some instances.

It is very important that you contact your legislators today! Click here and urge your representatives to Vote No on S1072 and A1504.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll receive a confirmation email with your legislators’ phone numbers. Please call them and leave a follow up message, again encouraging them to Vote NO on the Assisted Suicide bills.

The Family Policy Alliance Team

P.S. Please spread the word and forward this information to family and friends in New Jersey so they can make their voice heard, too!

Assisted suicide is already a major threat to pass the New Jersey Assembly this month.  Now, a State Senate committee is about consider the bill. Your help is urgently needed to stop this attack on our elderly and on the sanctity of life!

On Thursday, the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee will hold a public hearing on S1072. The bill would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to anyone who has been “qualified” to end their own life.

There is nothing in this measure that would prevent abuses from taking place. That puts the disabled and the elderly particularly at risk.
Here’s what you can do:

1. Please make your voice heard to the members of the committee! We’ve made it easy on our Action Center, where you can send a message to all of them in just moments.
2. If you’re able, please attend the committee hearing. It will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 7, in Committee Room 6 on the first floor of the State House Annex in Trenton.
3. Please multiply your impact by passing this message along to others and by sharing the link to our Action Center message.

Let’s let our senators know that we believe every life is worth fighting for!

The Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey Team

We just got word that the New Jersey legislature could be voting on Monday on a bill that would legalize assisted suicide. Please take action today – even if you’ve contacted your legislators before!

The bill (A1504) would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to anyone who has been “qualified” to end their own life.

There is nothing in this measure that would prevent abuses from taking place. That puts the disabled and the elderly particularly at risk.

Please contact your Assembly member and state senator today and ask them to oppose assisted suicide (A1504). We’ve made it easy through our Action Center.  You can make your voice heard in seconds, even if you don’t know your district or the name of your legislators.

Let them know that you believe every life is worth fighting for!

The Family Policy Alliance Team (in alliance with New Jersey Family Policy Council)

P.S. Please forward this email to family and friends so they can make their voice heard, too!

Your state Assembly member needs to hear from you!  That’s because the New Jersey Assembly could be voting as soon as tomorrow on a bill that would legalize assisted suicide.

The bill (A1504) would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to anyone who has been “qualified” to end their own life.

There is nothing in this measure that would prevent abuses from taking place. That puts the disabled and the elderly particularly at risk.

Please contact your Assembly member today and ask him or her to oppose assisted suicide (A1504). We’ve made it easy through our Action Center.  You can make your voice heard in seconds, even if you don’t know your district or the name of your Assembly member.

Let them know that you believe every life is worth fighting for!

The Family Policy Alliance Team (in alliance with New Jersey Family Policy Council)

P.S. Please forward this message to family and friends so they can make their voice heard, too!

 

 

For values voters to succeed in a Blue State, they must have patience, persistence and the ability to find agreement on specific issues with lawmakers who may disagree with them on most everything else.

Len Deo, president of New Jersey Family Policy Council, shares how Christian conservatives in his state stay motivated, and what issues they’ll focus on in the coming year.

Stuart Shepard spoke with him on Nov. 8. It was right after Election Day and just before an event where hundreds of New Jerseyans gathered.

Learn more about New Jersey Family Policy Council.

Find our ally in your state.

by Paul Weber, President & CEO

What last week’s elections tell us about what’s ahead for 2018

Full disclosure: I grew up in Jersey.

And while it breaks my heart to see the Garden State continue its liberal slide, it’s not surprising that the Left ran the table last week. Outgoing Governor Chris Christie has only a 14-percent approval rating — proof that political scandal (Bridgegate), constant cross-party fighting, and undermining your voter base has consequences.

But the election outcomes in Virginia, Georgia and Washington should cause Christians alarm.

Here’s why:

• Virginia: The liberal candidate won the open governorship, winning with higher than expected margins. But the real surprise was that liberals appear to have picked up at least 15 seats in the state House. And this is not just a partisan change. Several defeated conservative legislators were strong family advocates, while the liberals who won ran in the opposite direction – including the nation’s first openly transgender lawmaker.
• Washington: Liberals also won a special election giving them control of the state Senate. Now, the House, Senate and Governor’s office are controlled by the Left.
• Georgia: In special elections, liberals won three state legislative seats that were previously held by conservatives.

Nationwide in 2017, Democrats have now won 30 legislative seats that had been held by the GOP.

Is this a preamble to what will happen in 2018? To listen to the media, it certainly is! But it doesn’t have to be that way if you — and friends like you — determine to take a stand and generously support Family Policy Alliance, today!

 Yes, we could try to justify that these gains are explained by the natural pendulum swings following presidential elections. Or — as the establishment media would have you believe — that this is a referendum on President Trump’s policies.

But remember, conservatives added more than 900 state legislative seats during the Obama era. That demonstrates that when we stay engaged and activate voters to the polls, we can impact the leadership of our nation.

Still, Tuesday’s elections should set off alarm bells for those who care about life and religious freedom.

• A deeper dive in Virginia shows that, although conservative areas of the state voted just as conservatively as usual, or even more so, turnout in those areas was down. That reveals a lack of engagement is a significant problem. This will continue in 2018, unless we get engaged, today.
• On the other hand, the widely reported voter enthusiasm on the Left was evidenced by Democrats’ claim that they doubled the number of voter contacts in Virginia compared with four years ago. That only happens as a result of two things: more donations and more volunteers.
• The results of the last three mid-term elections illustrate how voter engagement makes a difference. In 2006, Democrats took control of the U.S. House, gaining 31 seats. In 2010, Republicans reclaimed control of the U.S. House, with a net gain of 63 seats. And in 2014, Republicans took control of the U.S. Senate by adding 9 seats, the largest gain in the Senate in decades.

You and I can help shape what happens in 2018.  Your support of Family Policy Alliance will motivate pro-family voters to be engaged in key races throughout the nation.

Since 2009, our targeted and strategic election work has provided a measurable and significant lift to pro-family voter turnout.  That will be more important than ever in 2018. Can I count on your support today?

True — I grew up in Jersey. But I – and our alliance of state organizations – will never give up on serving and protecting the family and the values we hold dear nationwide.  Won’t you stand together with us today with your financial support?

Yes, it’s the first Tuesday of November in an odd-numbered year.  That means, for the most part, elections that are dominated by local bond measures, county commissioner contests and other lower-profile races.  All are good reasons to get out and vote—and these races, especially for school board, can make the most difference right in your area for your family—but most are not headline grabbers beyond their local area.

Still, Election Day 2017 does offer some nationally impactful races to keep an eye on as election results roll in on Tuesday evening.

Most of the national limelight is on Virginia, where voters will choose a new governor.  With liberal Gov. Terry McAuliffe on his way out, voters will choose between Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie.  Northam fashions himself as a moderate, though his record as Terry McAuliffe’s Lieutenant Governor would say otherwise.  And, in the final days of the campaign, Gillespie has closed within striking distance by pointing that out.

Virginia is also home to a high-profile Attorney General race that has attracted major outside spending.  In the final weeks, Family Policy Alliance’s allied organization in Virginia, The Family Foundation Action, has focused voters’ attention on the scandalously pro-abortion record of the Democrat incumbent, Mark Herring.

Herring stunned many observers by issuing an opinion that set aside Virginia’s statutory rape and mandatory reporting laws when it came to abortion clinics. That allowed Virginia abortion centers to avoid reporting many likely statutory rapes of 13- and 14-year-old girls.  Even worse, the abortion center that precipitated the opinion is located in an area that has major problems with sex trafficking – meaning that, in many cases, sexual predators are the ultimate beneficiary of Herring’s pro-abortion ruling.

Elsewhere, voters in New Jersey will elect a new governor to replace outgoing Gov. Chris Christie.  And voters in Utah’s Third Congressional District will choose a replacement for the retiring Jason Chaffetz.

Among the most important local races is the school board election in Douglas County, Colorado, which has become ground zero in the nationwide fight for parental choice in education.

A six-year effort to enact a modest voucher program has been stuck in the courts, but a U.S. Supreme Court directive this year gave new hope that the program will survive the legal challenge.  Yet even with a favorable legal outcome, the survival of the school choice program is likely to be determined by the results of Tuesday’s school board elections.

So what’s the point? The point is..during an election year where there’s not a big, showy presidential race driving everyone to the polls, these local elections give voters who care about the value of life, family, and religious freedom an opportunity to shape what their school, city, state and ultimately country look like for their families!

Please join our team in wearing your “I voted” sticker proudly today!