Early career Malinowski worked as a special assistant to U.S. Senator
Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1988. He worked for the
Institute for Human Sciences in
Vienna,
Austria, and in 1993 as a
research assistant for the
Ford Foundation. From 1998 to 2001, he served as senior director on the
National Security Council at the
White House. He campaigned for
democratic reforms in
Myanmar and financial sanctions on its leadership. Malinowski argued for the recognition of
women's rights as a precondition to any peace talks with the
Taliban. He also pushed for a
no-fly zone in
Syria during the ongoing
civil war.
Assistant Secretary of State Some saw Malinowski as a likely nominee for
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, but his previous registration as a lobbyist at HRW necessitated a waiver from the president. On July 8, 2013, during Obama's second term, Malinowski was nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. He testified before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 24, 2013, and was confirmed by the
U.S. Senate on April 2, 2014. According to columnist
Jennifer Rubin, leaders from both parties praised Malinowski in 2014 for his defense of human rights and his work toward ending torture. In 2016, Malinowski said the State Department planned to release a list of
North Korean human rights abusers. He backed the
United Nations' efforts to investigate possible
war crimes committed during the
Sri Lankan Civil War. He assisted with sanctioning Russian officials under the
Magnitsky Act for human rights abuses. In July 2014,
Bahrain's
government expelled Malinowski after he met with members of a
Bahraini opposition group during a scheduled visit. Bahrain's foreign ministry asserted that his meeting was an improper intervention in the country's affairs but said the incident would not affect
Bahrain–U.S. relations. Malinowski returned to Bahrain in December 2014 with the
assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. After his tenure at the State Department, Malinowski joined fellow former Obama officials to lobby Congress to prevent the
Trump administration from lifting the
sanctions on
Russia after it
annexed Crimea. He criticized
Donald Trump for having an "obscene fondness" for the world's tyrants and instituting a "complete departure from decades of American tradition".
U.S. House of Representatives Elections 2018 On October 2, 2017, Malinowski announced his candidacy for
New Jersey's 7th congressional district in the
2018 midterm elections. He decided to run for Congress after the
2016 election of Donald Trump, which he saw as an indication that America was in "deep trouble". Malinowski cited health care, immigration, diplomacy, environmental policy, and infrastructure as areas of focus. Malinowski supports the
Affordable Care Act and criticized the Republican Party's attempts to dismantle it. He supports a public health insurance option, but opposes Medicare for all. He supports raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour as well as stronger collective bargaining rights and protections for workers. In the June 5 Democratic
primary election, Malinowski defeated social worker Peter Jacob and lawyer Goutam Jois with 66.8% of the vote, winning all counties in the district. Malinowski won the November 6 general election with 51.7% of the vote. He and Lance each carried three of the district's six counties; Malinowski won Essex, Somerset, and Union, while Lance carried Morris, Warren, and his native Hunterdon. But Malinowski won the district's shares of Somerset and Union counties, the two most populous counties in the district, by 22,300 votes, which exceeded the overall margin of 16,200 votes.
2020 During his reelection campaign, Malinowski faced death threats after introducing a bill condemning the conspiratorial group
QAnon. The
National Republican Congressional Committee then aired ads falsely accusing him of lobbying to protect sexual predators when he worked for Human Rights Watch. Malinowski was reelected, defeating New Jersey Senate Republican leader
Tom Kean Jr. by 1.2%. Due to the very close margin, the election remained unresolved for weeks. In terms of both absolute numbers and vote percentage, Malinowski's race was the closest House race in the country won by a Democrat.
2022 In a
2022 rematch with redrawn congressional maps favoring Republicans in the district, Kean defeated Malinowski by nearly two points. On May 23, 2023, Malinowski announced that he would not run against Kean in 2024.
Tenure When he took office in January 2019, Malinowski became the first Democrat since 1956 to represent New Jersey's 7th district. In May 2019, Malinowski was the first member of the New Jersey House delegation to call to begin the
impeachment inquiry against Trump. He endorsed Democratic presidential nominee
Joe Biden in January 2020. During his first term, Malinowski advocated for efforts to prohibit weapons sales to Saudi Arabia for use in the
Yemen conflict. He also advocated for accountability related to Saudi Arabia's role in the murder of
Jamal Khashoggi. His work contributed to the release of the Khashoggi Report and the subsequent
Khashoggi ban. American video game company
Activision Blizzard punished a
Hong Kong-based professional gamer for supporting pro-democracy
Hong Kong protests. Malinowski accused Blizzard and
Apple of
censorship. He co-signed a letter to Activision Blizzard CEO
Bobby Kotick that read, "As China amplifies its campaign of intimidation, you and your company must decide whether to look beyond the bottom line and promote American values—like freedom of speech and thought—or to give in to Beijing's demands in order to preserve market access." The
America COMPETES Act legislation, passed by the House in February 2022, included provisions Malinowski wrote. He was later appointed to the conference committee that finalized the bill.
Controversy In April 2021, the
Associated Press reported that Malinowski had traded approximately $1 million of stock in medical and tech companies involved in the
COVID-19 pandemic response. Malinowski failed to disclose the trades within the period of time required by federal law; he said the failure to disclose the trades was an error. Two complaints against him were filed with the
Office of Congressional Ethics, which announced in October 2021 that it found "substantial reason to believe" that Malinowski had violated federal laws designed to defend against conflicts of interest. The office formally referred the investigation to the House Committee on Ethics, which continued its own investigation. The House Ethics Committee's investigation into Malinowski's stock trading proceeded, and ended in August 2022, after the death of
Jackie Walorski, ranking Republican on the House Ethics Committee. Walorski could not be replaced on the Ethics Committee before the November 2022 election, which Malinowski lost, ending the investigation.
Voting record As of June 2022, Malinowski had voted in line with
Joe Biden's stated position 98.2% of the time.
Committee assignments •
Committee on Foreign Affairs (vice chair) •
Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism •
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations •
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure •
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit •
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials •
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment •
Committee on Homeland Security •
Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism Caucus memberships • Caucus Against Foreign Corruption and Kleptocracy (co-chair) • Egypt Human Rights Caucus (co-chair) • COVID-19 Global Vaccination Caucus (co-chair) • Protection of Civilians in Conflict Caucus (co-chair) • SALT Caucus (founding member) •
New Democrat Coalition • End Corruption Caucus •
Problem Solvers Caucus (second term only) • House Pro-Choice Caucus ==Post-congressional career==