ANDREI CHERNY
Candidate for Congress, Arizona’s 1st District
Service: Navy Reserve
The grandchild of four Holocaust survivors and son of refugees from communism, Andrei grew up in a small upstairs apartment where his family used food stamps and struggled to make ends meet. But because America welcomed immigrants with open arms and invested in Andrei with public schools and Pell Grants, he went from being a kid whose parents didn’t speak much English to working in the White House and building a business that created thousands of jobs.
After the attacks on 9/11, Andrei enlisted to serve in uniform. As a Navy reserve intelligence officer, Andrei saw up-close the service and sacrifice of so many Arizonans in uniform, while working to keep our country safe from foreign threats.
Andrei continued that mission serving as an Arizona Assistant Attorney General focused on financial fraud and public corruption. He put human traffickers, drug smugglers, and criminal fraud artists targeting military families and older Arizonans where they belong – behind bars.
Andrei has served on the board of the Arizona League of Conservation Voters, and on the City of Phoenix’s Neighborhood Block Watch Fund Oversight Committee, the Industrial Development Authority, and Commission on Housing and Neighborhoods.
Working his way through college with three jobs (including as the world’s worst bartender) – along with the help of federal student aid – Andrei graduated with honors from Harvard College and went to earn his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Andrei and his wife, Stephanie, and their two kids, Ben and Belle (who are fifth generation Arizonans), have lived in Arizona’s First Congressional district for over a decade.