California congressional candidate, former Brooklyn prosecutor on mission to ‘defend the American Dream’

California congressional candidate and former prosecutor Matt Jacobs is on a mission to defend the American Dream. 

Jacobs, who’s working to characterize California’s twenty sixth District in Ventura County and components of northern Los Angeles, believes the idea of the American Dream has been handed down by way of generations in his household, touching his father and uncle and finally himself. 

Jacobs’ grandparents, who have been born in Poland, survived World Struggle II and the Holocaust earlier than immigrating to New York with “no cash, no household” and no data of the English language. His grandfather labored as a tailor for many years earlier than finally opening up his personal tailor store. His grandmother was a laundrywoman and a seamstress.

After learning worldwide relations and safety regulation at Princeton College and regulation at New York College, he realized the easiest way to make use of “that skillset and repair within the nation was as a prosecutor within the counterterrorism area.”

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Jacobs, now a father of three, started his profession as a prosecutor in Brooklyn working crimes-against-children and youngster trafficking instances. He recalled one defendant — a baby trafficker — who branded 12 and 13-year-old ladies with gun tattoos on their faces. He then moved to the Organized Crime Unit, the place he targeted on Russian organized crime, earlier than finally being promoted to the Nationwide Safety Unit, the place his job was to “examine and prosecute high-level terrorists that our army or allied militaries captured after 2008.”

Certainly one of his most high-profile counterterrorism instances was that of Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, an Al-Qaeda operative from Niger who killed two U.S. troopers in Afghanistan and conspired to assault a U.S. embassy in Nigeria within the early 2000s.

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“I spent my profession prosecuting a few of our nation’s worst enemies and most harmful criminals, and … I liked each second of that job, I by no means needed to go away it. However the actuality is, whereas I used to be spending the 16, 18-hour days targeted on particular person unhealthy actors, it felt just like the far left was taking this nation in a really harmful path,” Jacobs mentioned. “And so I made a decision to go away that job and run for Congress in my hometown right here in Ventura County, California. And my mission writ giant is simply to defend the American dream.”

Jacobs additionally believes the American Dream remains to be alive and effectively in the present day, regardless of the insistence from some pundits and politicians that the dream is dying or now not achievable for sure individuals.

Courtroom sketch of me delivering the opening assertion on the 2017 trial of Adnan Ibrahim Harun. (Credit score: Matt Jacobs)

“[I]t drives me loopy once I hear the far left saying that the American dream is useless or not accessible to sure individuals as a result of I do know it is alive and effectively My household’s proof of it. … That is how I grew up — very proud and grateful to be an American wanting to present again.”

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Ventura County, dwelling of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, has been represented by Democratic incumbent Julia Brownley since 2013. However Jacobs believes it is time for change, notably as voters categorical issues about training within the wake of COVID-19 college shutdowns; the economic system and record-high costs on the fuel pump and in grocery shops; and rising violent crime in historically secure neighborhoods. 

Jacobs criticized Los Angeles District Legal professional George Gascon for “successfully legalizing crime” in LA County, the place about 7% of the twenty sixth District is situated. 

Matt Jacobs (Credit score: Matt Jacobs)
(Matt Jacobs)

“He is placing the pursuits of criminals earlier than the well-being of victims, law-abiding residents and society typically,” Jacobs mentioned. “And the tragedy is that criminals have acquired that message. And so they do not respect invisible county strains. So what we’re seeing listed below are skyrocketing crime charges, smash and seize lootings, dwelling invasions, burglaries, follow-home [robberies], murders even. There was a carjacking and pistol-whipping in a pleasant a part of our district — a spot the place you’d exit on a date along with your partner. And these are crimes that we simply have not seen earlier than.”

The portion of LA County within the twenty sixth District is “very secure, traditionally,” however is at the moment seeing “an uptick in these scary, violent crimes are making it such that crime just isn’t an summary concern anymore to lots of people in middle-class communities on this district,” Jacobs mentioned.

Jacobs argued that the answer to crime in LA County and elsewhere in California is to “cease demonizing police” and implement packages just like the Justice Division-backed “Challenge Protected Neighborhoods,” which brings native regulation enforcement, prosecutors and neighborhood leaders collectively to focus on native crime.

The Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs’ Affiliation, Ventura County Skilled Peace Officers’ Affiliation  and Nationwide Latino Peace Officers Affiliation have endorsed Jacobs’ candidacy. The candidate raised $850,000 in 2021, making him the Republican fundraising chief in his district.