Jerry McNerney

In April 2018, McNerney, together with Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, and Dan Kildee, launched the Congressional Freethought Caucus. Its stated goals include "pushing public policy formed on the basis of reason, science, and moral values", promoting the "separation of church and state," opposing discrimination against "atheists, agnostics, humanists, seekers, religious and nonreligious persons", among others. Huffman and Raskin will act as co-chairs.

McNerney won re-election 48–47%, defeating Republican nominee David Harmer.

For his first three terms, McNerney represented a district that encompassed eastern Alameda County, most of San Joaquin County–including all of Stockton–and a small portion of Santa Clara County. After redistricting, his district was renumbered as the 9th District. It lost its portion of Alameda County, including McNerney's home in Pleasanton, while picking up part of Sacramento County. After the new map was announced, McNerney announced he would move to San Joaquin County in the new 9th. While the old 11th was a hybrid Bay Area/Central Valley district, the new 9th was more of a Central Valley district. It is, however, slightly more Democratic than its predecessor. He eventually bought a home in Stockton. He won re-election 56–44%, defeating Republican nominee Ricky Gill.

In 2013, McNerney introduced the Methamphetamine Education, Treatment and Hope (METH) Act to modernize and expand programs that combat methamphetamine abuse by expanding treatment for addicts, particularly mothers or pregnant women, and provide grants to provide substance abuse and mental health services in rural areas.

In 2010, President Obama signed into law a bill written by McNerney which improves care of returning service members with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) by establishing an evaluation panel to assess the Veteran's Administration treatments for TBI and recommend improvements. He also wrote a bill in 2013 that allowed veterans to keep receiving their benefits during the government shutdown.

McNerney voted in favor of legislation allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation. In 2009, McNerney voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He has opposed free trade agreements, voting against CAFTA, GATT, and the U.S.-Peru free trade agreement.

In 2007, McNerney voted against legislation that would have prevented the DEA from enforcing prohibition in the twelve states (including California) which allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

McNerney launched his 2006 campaign early in the fall of 2005. In June 2006 he won the Democratic primary with 52.8% of the vote, defeating Steve Filson, who had been endorsed by the DCCC, and Stevan Thomas.

In late July, Republicans Pete McCloskey and Tom Benigno (both of whom ran in the Republican primary against Pombo) endorsed McNerney. In September, analysis of the campaign was changed from "Republican safe" to "Republican favored" due to the emergence of McNerney's campaign. The report noted "a [GOP] party spokesman says it's because they want to win decisively but others speculate that internal polling has delivered bad news for the incumbent." On October 3, 2006, a poll commissioned by Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund was released with McNerney leading Pombo 48 percent to 46 percent. Based on these events, in early October, CQPolitics.com changed their rating of this race from Republican Favored to Leans Republican

On November 7, 2006, McNerney defeated Pombo 53–47%.

McNerney first ran for Congress against Richard Pombo in California's 11th congressional district in the 2004 House elections. He entered the race two weeks before the primary election as a write-in candidate. He qualified to be a write-in candidate for the March 2004 primary by one signature. Having no primary opponent, he won the primary and qualified for the November general election ballot as the Democratic nominee. He lost the general election, 61%-39%.

McNerney served several years as a contractor to Sandia National Laboratories at Kirtland Air Force Base on national security programs. In 1985, he accepted a senior engineering position with U.S. Windpower (Kenetech). In 1994, he began working as an energy consultant for PG&E, FloWind, The Electric Power Research Institute, and other utility companies. Before being elected to Congress, Jerry served as the CEO of a 2004 start-up company manufacturing wind turbines, named HAWT Power (Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Power). A 1992 article that he co-authored in an IEEE journal is a good example of his writings during this period.

McNerney was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the son of Rosemary (née Tischhauser) and Col. John E. McNerney. He is of Swiss and Irish descent. He attended St. Joseph's Military Academy in Hays, Kansas, and, for two years, the United States Military Academy at West Point. After leaving West Point in 1971 in protest of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, he enrolled at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees and, in 1981, a Ph.D. in Mathematics, with a doctoral dissertation in differential geometry focusing on a generalization of the Laplace–Beltrami operator.

Gerald Mark McNerney /m ə k ˈ n ɜːr n i / (born June 18, 1951) is an American businessman, politician, and the U.S. Representative for California's 9th congressional district , serving in Congress since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 11th District until 2013, is based in Stockton and includes parts of San Joaquin County, East Contra Costa County, and southern Sacramento County. McNerney holds a Ph.D in mathematics.