My name is Katie Bansil. I’m an immigrant, a negotiator, and a fighter. I’ve sat across the table from powerful people, and I know how to make them pay their fair share so working families can have a shot at a decent life.
My father immigrated from the Philippines to Woodbridge when I was eight years old, hoping to make a better life for our family. But when my mom and I followed in the mid-2000s, we found ourselves in the middle of a recession. I’ll never forget watching them work multiple jobs and switch careers just to make ends meet. When I got to Rutgers at 15, I used that world-class public education to study how markets work—and learn how to give the working class a bigger slice of the pie. I built a career in corporate finance and was proud to provide stability for my family while working on the cutting edge of energy and AI. It seemed like our American dream was coming true. But when I got into positions of leadership, I saw levels of greed and corruption that no sane person could ignore. For millions of Americans, the dream of a decent life that my family chased has become an inescapable nightmare of constant struggle. In the richest nation in the history of the world, it doesn’t have to be this way.
These companies and their billionaire CEOs love to boast about record-high stock prices and revenues. But when they’re asked to cover high quality healthcare, pay their workers a living wage, or mitigate their carbon emissions, they act like they’re on the brink of bankruptcy. I’ve dealt with oligarchs directly. I’m not afraid to force them to pay up. And I believe we have a moral obligation to do so. At a time when young people are struggling to find good jobs and affordable homes, when it costs more for parents to send a child to daycare than it will cost to send that same child to Rutgers, and when our seniors are watching the Social Security and Medicare they worked so hard for in their careers continue to shrink, we need leaders who are prepared to fight.
New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District spans Middlesex and Monmouth counties, from Edison and New Brunswick to Neptune and Asbury Park. This district is home to over 780,000 working people, many of them new Americans like my family, who deserve better representation. I’ll make sure each of our voices is heard in Washington.
