The Second Congressional District is the largest in area of all New Jersey districts. It wraps around the southernmost portions of New Jersey, proceeding from the coast north of Atlantic City, continuing south along the beaches of Cape May and up the Delaware Bay and River to a point in Camden County just south of the City of Camden. Its northern border proceeds irregularly to extend into parts of Burlington and Gloucester counties. In the 2000 US Census, Vineland was the district's largest municipality with 56,271 residents followed by Atlantic City (40,517), Galloway Township (31,209) and Egg Harbor Township (30,726).

Voter registration in the District is predominantly Republican, with the GOP also controlling most county and local elected offices. District voters have demonstrated, however, occasional departures from the Republican tickets in races where Democrats have put up strong candidates. In its prior configurations before the reapportionment after the 2000 Census, the District was represented from 1975 to 1995 by Democrat William J. Hughes, who was first elected in the backlash against the Watergate scandal but quickly solidified his position through strong constituent service and a voting record consistent with the moderate views of most of the District's voters. More recently, Democrats have shown surprising strength in elections for the State Legislature, overcoming strong Republican margins in voter registration.

Much of the interior of the District is sparsely settled forest and wetlands areas under State ownership or subject to strict growth management restraints of the Pinelands Protection Act. The well-known shore resorts include Atlantic City, Cape May, Ocean City and Wildwood, which share interests in maintaining the quality of their beaches and ocean waters but differ in their respective approaches to growth and development. The casino-hotel industry is the largest economic force in the region, accounting for over 40,000 direct jobs and generating substantial indirect impacts for employees and suppliers who serve the industry. Gaming issues affecting Atlantic City accordingly are important concerns, particularly federal policy relating to the expansion of gambling through the Internet and the establishment of Native American casinos. Some municipalities that have attracted housing and commercial development associated with the casino-hotel industry rank among the fastest-growing in the State, such as Egg Harbor Township, Galloway Township and Pleasantville, while wealthier resorts, such as Margate and Longport, have attempted to curtail growth threatening the traditional ambiance of their communities and neighborhoods. Senior citizens also make up a high proportion of the population in several municipalities; Cape May Point, Stone Harbor and Longport all rank among the top ten municipalities in the State in the percentage of population 65 years or older and Ocean City has been dubbed "God's waiting room" for its high numbers of seniors, many of whom have experienced financial stress from rising property taxes and home values in the booming market for shore real estate.

Cumberland and Salem counties have been among the slowest-growing counties in New Jersey, and also rank among the lowest in per capita income. In the geographic center of the district, the Cumberland County municipalities of Vineland, Bridgeton and Millville each have sought, with varying success, to pursue new economic strategies to counter the long-term decline of their industrial base. Glass manufacturing, a historic foundation of the industrial economy that took advantage of the high-quality sand found in the region, has been in long-term decline, although production continues at lower levels by such global producers as Geresheimer Glas AG of Germany and J.G. Durand Industries of France, which over the last decade acquired, respectively, the former independent family-owned firms founded in the 19th century of Wheaton Glass and Durand Glass. Other large employers include the South Jersey Hospital System, Mannington Mills floor coverings, Pillsbury/Progresso foods, T-Fal cookware manufacturing and Viking Yachts, a leading luxury pleasure and fishing boat builder.

Commercial fishing and shellfishing, which also were historically important to the region, also continue at more modest levels, although recreational sport fishing now is a more valuable economic contributor.

In the nineteenth century, the oyster industry was extremely important and profitable along the Delaware and Maurice Rivers; by 1886, over 80 train cars of oysters were shipped every day from Bivalve, the center of the New Jersey oyster industry, and new towns grew up around the oyster industry such as Port Norris, Bivalve, Shellpile, and Maurice River. In 1957, however, the Delaware Bay oyster industry collapsed, largely due to an oyster parasitic disease called MSX (multinucleated sphere unknown), which resulted in oyster harvests plummeting from 711,000 bushels in 1956 to 49,000 bushels in 1960. Despite intensive research supported by the federal and state governments to combat the disease, the oyster harvest has only partly recovered to reach approximately 100,000 bushels in recent years. See Oyster History, Robert D. Owens.

Agricultural production features extensive cranberry bogs supported by the pure water of the Pinelands aquifer. The region also ranks high in blueberry and vegetable production, again aided by the sandy soil. Seabrook Farms, one of the nation's pioneering producers of frozen produce, now grows, processes, and freezes 150 million pounds of frozen vegetables sold throughout the world. During World War II, the Seabrook farms also utilized hundreds of Japanese-American internees who were arrested as security risks and relocated to the East from their West Coast homes to work as laborers; after the end of the wartime security measures, some of the workers and their families remained at Seabrook or took other jobs in the area.

Federal facilities in the region include the Federal Aviation Administration's William J. Hughes Technical Center (named after the former Congressman), the nation’s premier aviation research and development, testing and evaluation facility located 10 miles northwest of Atlantic City. The 5,000-acre Technical Center serves as the national scientific test base for the FAA in air traffic control, communications, navigation, airports, aircraft safety, and security, including developing and testing improved systems to combat air terrorism. Other federal facilities include the Cape May Coast Guard Training Center that is the Coast Guard's sole national entry facility for training of new recruits. Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base, while physically located in the adjacent Third District, also provide substantial employment and procurement for residents and businesses in the Second District.

The District has been represented in the Congress since 1995 by Republican Frank LoBiondo. After losing in 1992 by a 56%-42% margin to then incumbent Congressman Hughes, Mr. LoBiondo won election in 1994 when Congressman Hughes announced he would retire; Mr. LoBiondo won the Republican nomination by first defeating State Senator William Gormley with the aid of support from the National Rifle Association and other conservative interests who had bitterly opposed Senator Gormley's critical vote to pass Governor James Florio's legislation to bar the sale of assault weapons in New Jersey. In subsequent races, Congressman LoBiondo has usually increased his margins over his Democratic opponents. In July 2004, he announced that he would also seek a seventh term in 2006, breaking a pledge to serve only six terms made during his 1994 campaign. In the 2006 general election, he defeated Democrat Viola Thomas-Hughes, a committeewoman and former mayor of Fairfield in Cumberland County. He won re-election to his eighth term in 2008 over Cape May Democrat David Kurkowski.

The Congressman is a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, serving on its Subcommittee on Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation, the Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment, and the Subcommittee on Aviation. Congressman LoBiondo also has served on the House Armed Services Committee since January 2003.

He also is a founder and past chair of the Congressional Gaming Caucus, and has sponsored bills to restrict gambling over the Internet and the expansion of lotteries. He has been viewed as a conservative on fiscal, tax and social issues, including consistent votes against partial-birth abortion, but has split with his Republican Party leaders on such issues of special importance to the District as funding for shore protection, strengthening environmental regulations and opposing cutbacks in Medicare. Prior to his election to Congress, the Congressman served as a Cumberland County freeholder and Assemblyman who also worked for 26 years at his family owned and operated trucking company.