Vote For DA'SHONE HUGHEY

My Bio

I want to start by doing something you probably haven't seen a politician do in a while.

I want to be quiet for a second.

*(pause)*

Look around this room.

Really look.

Because these are the people I'm running for. Not a party. Not a donor. Not a machine. The people in this room — and the millions like them across New Jersey's 8th District who couldn't make it here tonight because they're working a second shift, or picking up their kids, or trying to figure out how to make rent this month.

That's who this campaign belongs to.

And I need you to know — before I say another word — that I did not wake up one morning and decide to run for Congress because I wanted power. I woke up because I had seen enough. Because I had reached a breaking point. And because somebody had to stand up and say what everyone in this district already knows but nobody in Washington is willing to admit.

The system is not broken.

The system is working exactly as it was designed — for the people who built it. And the people who built it don't live in Jersey City. They don't live in Newark. They don't live in Elizabeth or West New York or Union City.

They live in boardrooms. They live in PAC offices. They live in the kind of zip codes where the average net worth isn't $6,000.

Did you know that the average net worth of people living in America's inner cities is $6,000?

Six thousand dollars.

That's not a statistic. That's a verdict. That's what this system has decided our neighbors are worth.

I decided I wasn't going to accept that verdict anymore.

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**[THE PEOPLE — WHO TAUGHT ME WHY]**

Let me tell you about the people who made me run.

I'm talking about the man who walked through the doors of CODEIT Institute of Technology — the school I built from nothing in Newark — and told me he had been homeless. Bouncing from place to place. Didn't know if he had what it took. Didn't know if anyone was going to give him a shot.

We gave him a shot.

And that man — that same man who didn't know if he could learn to become a software developer — graduated from CIT and landed an internship at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

He told me: *"I still can't believe I went from being homeless to becoming a software developer."*

That's not a success story. That's a verdict too. A different kind. A verdict that says — given the right tools, the right access, and someone who believes in the size of their heart more than the size of their bank account — anyone in this district can win.

I built CIT because I believed that.

I'm running for Congress because Washington doesn't.

I'm talking about the mother in Union City working two jobs who asked me — not at a rally, not at a press conference, at a kitchen table — she asked me: *"Why does my son have every reason to succeed and every barrier in front of him at the same time?"*

I didn't have a political answer for her. I had a human one.

Because the people making decisions about her son's future have never sat at a kitchen table like hers. They've never had to choose between the electric bill and the school supply list. They've never built something from nothing and watched the system try to take it away.

I have.

I'm talking about the college graduates — yes, college graduates — who came to CIT because they had degrees and debt and no path to employment. Who the system told: *you did everything right* — and then left them behind anyway.

I built a school for them too.

Because I believe — I have always believed — that you cannot measure the size of a person's heart. And in this district, in these streets, in these homes — the hearts are enormous.

What's been missing is a representative who knows it.

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**[THE BREAKING POINT — WHY NOW]**

Now let me tell you about the moment I said enough.

It wasn't one moment. It was a hundred of them, stacking up over years — every time I watched Washington make a decision that hurt the people in this district while claiming to speak for them.

But there was a number that stopped me cold.

Over one million dollars.

That's how much the AI and crypto industry has poured into keeping the incumbent in his congressional seat. Over a million dollars from the same companies that are right now — today — building the technology that is going to displace the jobs that families in NJ-8 depend on.

Warehouse workers. Customer service representatives. Transportation workers. Healthcare administrators. These are real jobs. Real people. Real families.

And the man who is supposed to represent them in Washington took a million dollars from the industry replacing them.

Let me say that again so it's clear.

The congressman from New Jersey's 8th District — one of the most working-class, immigrant, diverse districts in America — accepted over a million dollars from Silicon Valley venture capitalists and AI company founders. He sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The committee that writes the rules for the industry funding his campaign.

That is not representation. That is a transaction.

And I reached my breaking point.

Because I know what AI can do. I've been teaching it. I built a lab around it. I've trained people to work with it, build with it, thrive because of it — not despite it.

The question was never whether AI is coming. It is here.

The question is whose side your representative is on when it arrives.

My opponent made his choice.

I'm making mine.

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**[THE WHY — WHO I AM AND WHAT I'VE BUILT]**

I am not a career politician.

I don't come from a famous family. I don't have a last name that opens doors in Washington. I don't have a machine behind me, a party apparatus funding me, or a super PAC telling me what to say.

What I have is a track record.

I founded CODEIT Institute of Technology in 2017 — headquartered right here in Newark. We became the first and only U.S. Department of Labor-accredited software engineering apprenticeship program in the state of New Jersey. We became an AWS Amazon Academy. We became a Grow with Google partner.

We took people that the tech industry had written off — low-income, unemployed, underemployed, women, people of color, people who had been told the door was closed — and we put them in rooms with the tools to build the future.

We didn't just code. We changed lives.

I went on to found the Blockchain Lab — a research and development facility building the next generation of technology for communities like ours. I wrote a book — *PhD Ready by 18* — because I believe that the ceiling we put on our children's ambitions is the most dangerous barrier of all.

I've been inducted into Marquis Who's Who in America. I've been recognized by U.S. Business News and New World Reports. I've been featured alongside presidents, kings, and queens — not because I sought the spotlight, but because the work spoke loudly enough to find it.

I say all of that not to impress you.

I say it so you know — when I walk into a room in Washington — I am not going in empty-handed. I am going in with a decade of proof that I do what I say. That I build what I promise. That the people I say I'm fighting for are the same people I've been fighting for my entire career.

That's the difference between me and a politician.

A politician tells you what they'll do.

I've already done it.

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**[THE CAMPAIGN — WHAT WE STAND FOR]**

This campaign is about three things. Just three.

**Workforce and education.** Because the fastest path out of poverty is a skill. Not a loan. Not a debt. A real, marketable, government-recognized skill that puts you to work the day you graduate. I've built that program. In Congress, I'll fight to fund it — nationally.

**Technology and innovation.** Because AI and blockchain and cloud computing are not the enemy — but unchecked, industry-captured AI policy is. I will be the voice in Congress who actually understands this technology, who has trained people to use it, and who will write policy that protects workers instead of protecting the companies displacing them.

**Community and people.** Because 64% of households in this district primarily speak a language other than English. Because this is one of the most diverse, most immigrant, most hardworking communities in the United States. And because a representative who doesn't reflect that — who doesn't fight for that — is not your representative. They're just holding your seat.

I am running as an Independent.

Not a Democrat. Not a Republican.

Yours.

No party boss tells me how to vote. No PAC tells me what to say. No dynasty name opens doors for me.

Only you.

The banner I'm running under is "We The People" — and I mean every word of it. We. All of us. Every language spoken in this district. Every kitchen table. Every community center. Every church and mosque and school.

This campaign doesn't belong to me.

It belongs to the people of New Jersey's 8th District.

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**[THE CLOSE — THE ASK]**

I'll leave you with the philosophy I built CIT on.

*You can measure a person's IQ. But you cannot measure the size of their heart.*

Washington has been measuring this district by the wrong metric for a long time. They look at the poverty rate. The unemployment numbers. The per capita income. And they decide what we're worth.

I look at the people in this room.

And I know exactly what we're worth.

We are worth a representative who shows up. Who listens. Who has sat at the kitchen table. Who has built something from nothing in the same communities that Washington has written off.

We are worth the fight.

I am asking you today — not just for your vote, but for your belief. Believe that this district can send a builder to Washington instead of a beneficiary. Believe that your voice matters more than a million-dollar PAC check. Believe that when We The People stand together — the machine does not win.

Join me.

Let's build what this district deserves.

Thank you.

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My Key Issues