TRENTON, N.J. – The state Assembly Republican Office today released its next biography series video featuring Assemblyman Chris DePhillips.
DePhillips, an assemblyman since 2018, has public service in his DNA – even if the family’s political affiliations have evolved over the generations.
His paternal grandmother was a revered New York City Democrat back in the 1940s. All eight of her children, including DePhillips’ father Fred, were proud Democrats. But something shifted in his father with John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
WATCH: God, family, country: Meet Chris DePhillips
“He switched parties. He didn’t think the other leaders in the Democratic party spoke to the values that he had, and he became a Republican and was a Republican councilman,” DePhillips (R-Bergen) shared. “What I learned from that family was, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, most people who are attracted to public policy want to serve others, want to give back to those most in need, and those were the principles they brought to us.”
Those principles – God, family, country – were instilled in him around the family dinner table and through his rigorous education, first at Bergen Catholic High School, then in the Jesuit tradition at Georgetown University, and finally at Seton Hall University, where he earned his law degree. DePhillips entered public service in 2010 as a committeeman and then mayor of Wyckoff Township before becoming assemblyman of the 40th District.