Rep. LaMonica McIver reveals she is expecting her second child
New Jersey congresswoman LaMonica McIver shares she is expecting her child as she faces 17 years behind bars.
Congratulations are in order for Rep. LaMonica McIver.
The New Jersey congresswoman revealed on Friday, May 15, that after years of trying and battling through fertility complications, she is expecting her second child with her husband, Khalif Thomas, and is currently 17 weeks pregnant.
“Hey NJ-🔟! Guess what?! We’re having a baby! 👶🏽🫶🏾,” she wrote in the caption of a post on Instagram that included a photo of her posing on steps in the capital with her baby bump under a vest and white blouse on display.
While the news is celebratory, it comes at a particularly difficult time for the politician. McIver, who shares a 9-year-old daughter, Zaya, with her husband, is currently facing federal charges stemming from an alleged confrontation with officers outside a New Jersey immigration detention facility last spring. If convicted, she could face significant prison time.
It’s alleged that on May 9, 2025, during a congressional inspection at the Delaney Hall immigration facility in Newark, New Jersey, that McIver was involved in a brief confrontation with federal agents while Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was being detained. Federal prosecutors claim McIver assaulted officers during the incident, while she and her lawyers deny the allegations and say agents initiated the physical contact. She and her legal team have been trying to have the charges dismissed. Her next hearing is June 23.
“The facts are on my side…I have no doubt that I will be victorious,” McIver told theGrio earlier this year.
Those rallying around her include 12 congresswomen fighting to keep her out of prison: Nancy Pelosi, Ilhan Omar, Jasmine Crockett, Pramila Jayapal, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Yvette Clarke, Jahana Hayes, Sara Jacobs, Ayanna Pressley, Lateefah Simon, and Emilia Sykes.
Some may question why the first-term Democratic lawmaker, despite everything she’s going through with this case and what she’s facing, why she chose to still grow her family at this time.
“I always wanted to be a mother,” she told People magazine. “I have gone through many health issues over the past couple of years, with my reproductive health, and I wanted to continue to try to have a baby because it’s been a dream of mine. It’s my womb, it’s my business, and that’s why I continue to try to grow my family.”
She adds, “I don’t want to be just remembered as LaMonica McIver, the congresswoman. I want to be remembered as LaMonica McIver, the mother of two beautiful children at home … a good mother and a good wife, a good daughter and a good sister.”
“Those are things, to me, that outlive us,” she says.
That isn’t to say she’s not worried in the slightest. The expectant mother acknowledged how stress is the one thing she does not need at a time like this even going as far to highlight the Black maternal health crisis.
“There are multiple layers that I’m dealing with,” McIver explained, “to make sure that I’m taking care of myself, taking care of my baby, but also taking care of the people that I’m responsible for in the 10th congressional district.”