Mikie Sherrill
speaker
607 appearances
6 recordings
5 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 29 Jan
Mikie Sherrill’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 3.
Appearances
A lot of people said, Mikey, don't do it. You know, you can't get anything done. It's too broken. The budget's too tough. New Jersey transit's such a mess. It's just going to be bad for you. It's going to make you look bad because government can't function.
And I just looked at that and I thought, I'm not here because I don't get involved in public service because I'm thinking, oh my gosh, is this going to make me look good?
Am I going to get down to Trenton and suddenly be like, oh, wow, I'm in public service because I truly believe that well-run government can make people's lives better, that we have a duty to deliver for people, that when people are lying awake at night,
thinking of the things that are really problematic for them, that in the back of their mind, if they have a good governor of their state, they're thinking, but you know what? Mikey said she was really going to work hard on addressing this. And I'm going to go to bed now.
And I'm just going to hope that tomorrow is better than today, because I know that she's got this and she's going to take care of this. So I can take this off my plate. And here's the million other worries I have. But this one, I know we have a good leader here that's going to really focus on how she's going to make sure that my life's a little bit easier tomorrow.
Yeah. So I think unlike some other states in 2023, we actually had our population grow in New Jersey. And I know, believe me, I live in the world. I hear what people say about our beloved state, but we love it. And obviously others are moving in and want to be in the state.
Yeah.
I'm going to New Jersey. Look at that. See, this is what we're up against. This is what we're up against. But I have to say, New Jersey is a fantastic state. It's a wonderful state just because of all it offers. It's an innovative state. It's an exciting state. It's a great place to raise a family. It has some of the best food. public school systems in the nation. So people love New Jersey.
It's one of the states actually that traditionally has the most intergenerational families of any state in the nation, meaning that people who are born in the state and raise a family in the state want to retire in the state. Some of that is being broken though, just for the very reasons you're pointing out, a lot of it's cost of living.
And so we're seeing the cautionary tales of other blue states. We're not going to be able to continue to run the great economy that we've been successful at running, whether it's in some of our healthcare sectors, our pharmaceutical sectors, our medical device sector, our defense space sector, our space sector.
I mean, these are all growing places and they run in New Jersey because we have one of the most talented workforces in the nation. And that is a gift. I mean, that is great that we have that. But if we don't address affordability, if we don't address cost of living, we are going to very quickly see the problems that we're seeing in other blue states.
And we've already seen those problems in the electorate as they're weighing in and saying, you know. it's just getting too hard here. And how is it that in the richest country in the world and one of the richest states in the nation, I'm having such a hard time getting by? And so that is what we need to address. And that's what I've constantly been focused on in Congress.
So whether it's housing affordability, the legislation I have around grocery store prices, childcare costs, all of this is directed at lowering costs for everyday families. And that is what we have to really truly address, or we are going to see pretty quickly a lot of the problems you just discussed in other blue states.
Exactly. How dare they? How dare they?
I mean, build more is the start, right? So New Jersey has some legislation and court decisions around affordable housing. And so there's building requirements for affordable housing. But generally in our state, how developers do that is they build luxury apartment buildings. And then they have several affordable housing units within that.
But what we have in the state largely is this missing middle. So when I look at my town, I'm in Montclair. When I look at my town and try to think of when in my naval career I could have afforded anything in Montclair, New Jersey, it wasn't when I was an ensign. It wasn't when I was a Lieutenant JG. It wasn't when I was Lieutenant, right?
I'm not sure if there was a time while I was in the Navy that I could have afforded to live in my town. If my kids want to move back after their careers or after they get out of college, I don't know where they're going to live other than my home. Which I'm sure you're thrilled about. I'm sad my daughter's gone, but a lot of people might want some independence and have their own place.
I'm not sure my kids would be thrilled with moving back home as much as I'd like it. So where are people going to afford? And then if you're a senior... You're trying to figure out, I'd love to sell this home I'm in, but where are you going to move? Where are that kind of missing middle homes? How are we going to keep families there? How are we going to keep the workforce going?
How are kids going to move off their parents' couches? That is all really too hard. What that does, too, is then that puts higher pressure on the rental market.
And so we're seeing people, you know, I heard of a woman who was telling me that someone in her office who she employs, who makes a really good salary and just had to move to a different town because the rents got too high and she had two dot school age kids. So that's like pulling them out of their school system and moving to another one. So I say you start moving.
Showing 541–560 of 607 · page 28 of 31
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