Assemblywoman Shama Haider: LD 37 General Assembly Candidate Profile

Assemblywoman Shama Haider (D-LD 37) is seeking re-election, campaigning on a platform driven by her life experience as an immigrant and her long history of local advocacy. Haider’s policy agenda balances specific, targeted legislative wins with a commitment to tackling New Jersey’s deepest systemic crises: housing and healthcare affordability. This profile, based on an exclusive interview with TownSquare, outlines the core of her platform.

From Local Roots to State Assembly: The Immigrant Experience as a Policy Driver

Haider, who was born and raised in Pakistan before moving to Tenafly, began her political engagement with a personal mission: to ensure her family and other Desi/Brown families felt rooted and included in the community. She emphasizes that her immigrant experience remains a "front and center" force in her work. Her ascent to the State Assembly, where she was sworn in in 2022, followed extensive service in Bergen County. This included chairing the local Parents Association and holding positions on the Planning Board, Environmental Commission, and Business Development Committee. Prior to her state role, she also served two terms on the Tenafly Council.

Legislative Wins and Wellness Priorities

As Chair of the Assembly Children, Families, and Food Security Committee, Haider’s recent legislative focus has been on specific issues affecting the health and welfare of vulnerable residents.

Protecting Public Health and the Environment

This focus includes environmental legislation like Tackling "Forever Chemicals" (PFAS). Haider successfully sponsored legislation to provide grant funding to municipalities, helping first responders replace traditional firefighting foam—known to contain cancerous PFAS—with safer, non-PFAS alternatives. She views this as a crucial step toward a broader ban on the substances. She is also working on a bill aimed at banning Food Additives from children's foods, specifically calling out Red Dye Number Three for its lack of nutritional value and noting that it has been banned in Europe for years.

Family Support and Cultural Appropriateness

Haider’s committee work also centers on family support. Driven by personal experience with a grandson who has disabilities, she is focused on improving the state subsidy and regulations for Respite Care to ensure the policy is friendly and accessible so caregivers can get a much-needed break. On Food Security, Haider is advancing a resolution to establish a framework for the Right to Adequate Food, stressing that assistance must be not only nutritious but also culturally appropriate for New Jersey’s diverse communities. Finally, Haider is working with colleagues to address concerns over federal cuts impacting child care access and advocates for animal rights, focusing on eliminating the few remaining puppy, cat, and rabbit mills in the state that overbreed sick animals.

Incumbent assemblywoman Shama Haider. Source: AssemblyDems

The Core Policy Battles: Housing and Healthcare Affordability

Haider identifies the high cost of living as the biggest obstacle facing New Jersey families, seeing challenges in housing and healthcare as systemic and deeply interconnected.

The Housing Crisis: The Root of Insecurity

Housing affordability is characterized by Haider as her "biggest beef," arguing it is the fundamental driver of other insecurity problems (food, medicine) because families will give up everything else to keep a roof over their heads. She notes the district’s location near the New York City bridge creates massive demand, leading to the construction of mostly luxury housing, which leaves insufficient affordable housing for local professionals like nurses, teachers, and police officers. The solution path, she suggests, involves supporting zoning reform—noting many laws are over a century old and restrict necessary density—and securing a major influx of federal grants and funds dedicated to rapidly expanding affordable housing units across the state.

Reforming a "Broken" Healthcare System

Acknowledging the state's healthcare system is "broken" and "astronomically expensive," Haider stresses that it needs a "total review" done "bit by bit" rather than a singular legislative fix. Her top priority is targeting Primary Care Access by reducing the use of costly Emergency Rooms for non-emergency primary care. She advocates for significantly increasing the number of subsidized community health clinics in local neighborhoods and ensuring insurance covers them, arguing that preventive care is the "cheapest and best" healthcare. To address the Personnel Shortage, citing five-month waiting periods for routine checkups, she advocates for making medical and nursing school more financially accessible to offset the high student debts that deter new professionals from entering the field. Haider also raised concerns about Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), large corporate entities that complicate drug pricing and procurement.

Governance in a Time of Federal Cuts

Regarding impending federal cuts to social programs like SNAP (food stamps) and Medicaid, Haider stresses that this issue transcends party lines, calling it a "New Jersey issue." Her strategy for addressing the financial holes is to ensure the Assembly and the Executive Branch "come together" in a bipartisan manner immediately following the election to develop real, statewide solutions.

Voter takeaway: Assemblywoman Haider’s campaign is defined by a commitment to legislative detail and a comprehensive vision for tackling New Jersey's cost-of-living crisis. Her platform promises a focus on immediate relief through environmental and family support programs, while simultaneously engaging in the complex, long-term battles for housing affordability and healthcare system reform.