David Richter, the former CEO of global construction management firm Hill International, hopes to secure the Republican nomination for New Jersey’s second congressional district, but his criticism of President Donald Trump, donations to Democrats, and ties to the Biden family may jeopardize his chances of getting the GOP nomination.
In a video announcing his campaign, Richter said, “I’ll stand with President Trump to put America First and deliver for south Jersey.”
“And I won’t back down to the liberal Democrats in Congress who are fighting to undermine the president’s agenda. We’ve seen the radical left’s failed ideas of the past and we are never going back,” Richter added in the video.
However, despite Richter’s claim to back President Trump’s America First platform and combat the “radical left,” Richter has both criticized Trump and donated to Democrats.
Richter said in an interview with Entrepreneur Magazine in June 2015, right after Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency:
I think what you are seeing in the very large number of Republican presidential candidates and the very small field of Democratic candidates within both parties that 2016 is shaping up to be a very good election year for the GOP. I also think there a very good number of highly credible and capable Republican candidates for the presidency. Donald Trump is not one of them. [Emphasis added.]
Richter also has a history of donating to Democrats throughout his professional career.
Here are some Democrats that Richter donated to, including:
- Former Rep. Dick Swett (D-NH) $2,000 in 1995
- Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) $2,000 in March 1998
- Democrat New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Rob Andrews $2,100 in 1997
Adding to his criticism of Donald Trump, Richter did not donate to Trump during the 2016 campaign, even when he became the Republican nominee for president. The former construction executive gave to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in 2015 during the 2016 election.
Richter has yet to respond to a request for comment from Breitbart News regarding his donations to Democrats as well as his criticism of then-candidate Trump.
Richter also has strong business ties to James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother. In late 2010, HillStone International, a subsidiary of Hill International, hired James Biden as its executive vice president.
Half a year later, Hill International won a coveted $1.5 billion government contract to build roughly 100,000 affordable houses in Iraq.
When asked how Hill International, a relative newcomer in home construction, landed the lucrative contract, David Richter reportedly said it really helps to have “the brother of the vice president as a partner.”
“When asked about these topics, David Richter has said that the company has access to senior levels of government,” one analyst said at the time.
As New Jersey Republicans consider whom to vote for in the Republican primary for the state’s second congressional district, Republicans can choose between the more establishment-minded Richter and the more populist Bob Patterson.
The eventual Republican nominee will hope to unseat Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ), one of the more vulnerable swing district Democrats in the 2020 congressional elections.
Patterson, who has served in the Trump administration, charged in an op-ed for the Press of Atlantic City, that President Trump’s America First agenda could revitalize depressed areas of southern New Jersey.
Patterson echoed President Trump’s populist rhetoric, railing against bad trade policies that have hollowed out America’s manufacturing base to the benefit of the country’s ruling class.
Patterson explained on Breitbart News Saturday with Matthew Boyle:
Like Trump districts that voted for him in ‘16, economically, we could be doing a lot better. The region has been ignored for 30 years, there’s been no new major transportation improvements. We’ve had factories close, we’ve had a lower level of unemployment relative to other areas of New Jersey and relative to southeastern Pennsylvania, but it is a ripe district for President Trump.
…
You might call it the Acela corridor, the Wall Street/Washington axis of power that has also benefitted Silicon Valley. So you have very narrow sectors of the country that have benefitted tremendously. So the political class, and even the corporate class. The corporate class has even moved jobs overseas. They’ve benefitted, but the rest of the country and especially the middle class has been decimated, and this is why the president was elected in ‘16.
“We need to support him [Trump] in reelection next year, and places like south Jersey can once again be the power center it used to be,” Patterson added.
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