U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 2014 On February 4, 2014, South Jersey Congressman
Rob Andrews announced he would resign from Congress by the end of the month, and he did so on February 18. Norcross announced his candidacy on February 5, and within a week he was endorsed by every New Jersey congressional Democrat, State Senate President
Stephen Sweeney, General Assembly Majority Leader
Louis Greenwald,
Mayor of Camden Dana Redd, U.S. Senator
Cory Booker, and former Governor
Jim Florio (who represented the 1st from 1975 to 1990).
Tenure in
Trenton, New Jersey Norcross won the Democratic primary—the
real contest in what has long been the only safe Democratic district in South Jersey—with 72% of the vote. He ran in two elections on November 4: a special election for the balance of Andrews's term, and a regular election for a full two-year term. He easily won both over Republican challenger
Garry Cobb. He was sworn in on November 12 by
House Speaker John Boehner. Since he was added to the House roll on that date, he gained more seniority than other members of the House freshman class of 2014. Soon after his election, Norcross was appointed assistant whip, a role he reprised after his 2016 reelection. He serves in a number of leadership roles in the Democratic Caucus, including co-chair of the Rebuilding America Task Force, member of the Steering and Policy Committee, and member of the Communications Committee. He is the co-founder of the Bipartisan Building Trades Caucus and vice chair of the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic, and was appointed to the Joint Select Committee on Pension Security. In 2020, Norcross was mentioned as being a possible candidate for
secretary of labor under
President Joe Biden. On June 12, 2025, Norcross was one of the four Democrats who did not vote on the $9 billion spending cuts put forward by the
Department of Government Efficiency; house Republicans passed the rescission package by 2 votes.
Hot mic incident On June 24, 2021, during a remote
United States House Committee on Education and Labor meeting over
Zoom with
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Representative
Bob Good was questioning Cardona when someone interrupted by shouting "racist!", while Norcross's name flashed on the screen, leading participants to believe that Norcross made the remark; a later report from
Fox News explicitly attributed the outburst to Norcross. A letter signed by every Republican member of the committee demanded an apology from Committee Chairman
Bobby Scott for what they considered a "slander" and a "smear" against Good. Scott responded by calling the outburst "inappropriate" and "out of order". Norcross did not publicly address the incident.
Committee assignments For the
119th Congress: •
Committee on Armed Services •
Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces •
Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces (Ranking Member) •
Committee on Education and Workforce •
Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions •
Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development Caucus memberships • Founding member of the Bipartisan Building Trades Caucus • Co-Chair of the
Congressional Motorcycle Caucus •
Blue Collar Caucus •
Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment •
Congressional Progressive Caucus •
Congressional Solar Caucus •
Congressional Equality Caucus •
New Democrat Coalition •
Problem Solvers Caucus •
Rare Disease Caucus •
Veterinary Medicine Caucus •
Labor Caucus == Personal life ==