{"id":26073,"date":"2026-03-17T05:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=26073"},"modified":"2026-03-17T05:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:18:13","slug":"brick-native-secures-endorsement-of-ocean-monmouth-democrats-for-congressional-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2026\/03\/brick-native-secures-endorsement-of-ocean-monmouth-democrats-for-congressional-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Native Secures Endorsement of Ocean, Monmouth Democrats for Congressional Run"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_26074\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rachel_peace.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"Rachel Peace (center) New Jersey Democratic State Chair LeRoy Jones (left) and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. (Campaign Photo)\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"Rachel Peace (center) New Jersey Democratic State Chair LeRoy Jones (left) and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. (Campaign Photo)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26074\" class=\"size-large wp-image-26074\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rachel_peace-1024x636.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel Peace (center) New Jersey Democratic State Chair LeRoy Jones (left) and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. (Campaign Photo)\" width=\"1000\" height=\"621\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rachel_peace-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rachel_peace-400x248.jpg 400w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rachel_peace-768x477.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rachel_peace-1536x954.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rachel_peace-2048x1271.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-26074\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel Peace (center) New Jersey Democratic State Chair LeRoy Jones (left) and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. (Campaign Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A Brick Township native has received two key endorsements in her bid to represent the Democratic party in next year\u2019s race against U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, the longest-serving member of the state\u2019s congressional delegation.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel Peace, 33, made significant progress toward becoming her party\u2019s candidate for the 4th Congressional District seat by earning the endorsement of Ocean County Democrats at their convention on March 15, 2026. The Ocean County nod follows a similar endorsement by the Monmouth County Democratic organization on February 7, which certifies Peace as the candidate who will enter the June 2, 2026, primary election with the widest range of support.<\/p>\n<p>Peace currently resides in Monmouth County, however she would represent her hometown should she be successful in her challenge against Smith. She graduated from Brick Memorial High School in 2010 before attending Hofstra University in New York.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a newcomer to the political scene, I\u2019m humbled to have earned the nomination of Ocean County, where I grew up, on the heels of my endorsement in Monmouth County, where I\u2019m raising my son,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m hopeful that my race is an indicator of a broader, nationwide trend of regular younger people \u2014 not corrupt career politicians \u2014 stepping up to solve problems we didn\u2019t create and change conditions we won\u2019t accept by bringing unique expertise and alternative perspectives to Congress, proving we can legislate in a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Peace has cleverly used her surname as a catchy vehicle to gain support, creating groups including \u201cGenZ4Peace\u201d and \u201cRetirees4Peace,\u201d aimed at recruiting both voters and volunteers for her campaign. She has focused much of her campaign on healthcare policy, including a push to increase funding for Medicaid.<\/p>\n<p>Peace runs a small consulting business, Hyperfocused Communications, that promotes progressive messaging.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2026\/03\/brick-native-secures-endorsement-of-ocean-monmouth-democrats-for-congressional-run\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Brick Township native has received two key endorsements in her bid to represent the Democratic party in next year\u2019s race against U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, the longest-serving member of the state\u2019s congressional delegation. Rachel Peace, 33, made significant progress toward becoming her party\u2019s candidate for the 4th Congressional District seat by earning the endorsement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[24,4244,4484,5571,5570,3976],"class_list":["post-26073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-elections","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-chris-smith","tag-featured","tag-fourth-congressional-district","tag-rachel-peace","tag-u-s-congress"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rachel_peace.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6Mx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26075,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26073\/revisions\/26075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}