Ambrogino was born on May 9, 1972 to second-generation Sicilian immigrants in Hanover Township, New Jersey. His upbringing was shaped by the hardships of being apart of a low-income, working-class family. Ambrogino’s father operated a small family farm, volunteered for janitorial services at the local high school, and participated in other professions to provide simple sums of food and money, which Ambrogino and his two brothers also worked on. Ambrogino also cared for his elderly Sicilian grandparents, developing an intrigue and satisfaction with caring for others that would grow rapidly in following years. He enthusiastically took charge of the medical care of his grandparents when he was fourteen.
Ambrogino was influenced by fiscally conservative and laissez-faire capitalist economic ideqals, as his family sought to make ends meet for the seven members of their household; Catholic conservative and Great Commandment—altruistic social ideals came from his family’s frequent churchgoing and traditional family dynamics; and conservative libertarian political ideals sprouted from his interest in Reagan’s conservative presidency and Catholic upbringing. Although political since youth, Ambrogino was deterred from politics - especially due to the left-dominated, rigid Jersey political climate - and pursued medical sciences as a career and primary interest when he was able to go to school. Ambrogino employed himself in multiple professions by age 16 in order to provide himself and his family money; these jobs ranged from a cashier, to an auto mechanic, to a summertime busboy. The job experience from these three jobs provided Ambrogino with the info necessary for a satisfactory college application when the time came. Ambrogino and his family were able to, painstakingly, amass enough money from his triple employment and family incomes to help fund his enrollment in Rutgers Medical School. However, the unforeseen death of his grandparents and the age of his parents lead to Ambrogino having to put off college for three years to make sure his home and family were left in the best condition. Finally, when Ambrogino was 20, he felt comfortable in leaving his home for Rutgers.
Over the course of the next four years Ambrogino worked tirelessly towards his degree; he studied long and hard, using his hardened work ethics from his farmwork and teenage jobs to properly schedule sizeable periods of study, but also working in things such as rest time and social activities. During his first year at Rutgers he met an Attending Physician who worked at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital, Doctor Ken Ayden. Seeing opportunity in Ambrogino, Doctor Ayden began tutoring Ambrogino and teaching him about various hospital procedures, machinery, and diagnostic and medical methodologies. Doctor Ayden’s tutelage was a successful endeavor, with Ambrogino absorbing and relaying his lessons efficiently, and he also performed well in his college medical classes. In Feburary of ‘96, Doctor Ayden presented Ambrogino with a medical internship at Bristol-Myers. Ambrogino began officially working for Doctor Ayden as an apprentice and started assisting him in daily hospital duties. By springtime, Ambrogino’s four-year college term drew to an end. Ambrogino took his final college exams, and he then too his MCAT, and on November 16, 1997 he received his medical degree and license.
Ambrogino moved back to Hanover with his new degree. After helping move his parents into a more modern home, Ambrogino focused on being hired by Morris County’s most prestigious medical facilities, the Morristown Medical Center. With a reference letter from Doctor Ayden, his teenage job experience, collegiate academic performance, and industrious personality, Ambrogino was accepted as an Attending Physician specializing in diagnostic medicine and hematology. He held this position for several years, becoming a well-known medical professional, and became respected by the hundreds of patients he dealt with and by his various colleagues in Morristown for his caring and altruistic bedside manner. He joined the New Jersey Hospital Association in 2000, with the intention of promoting the economization of hospital services; the implementation of modern medical equipment and treatments; and the overall reformation of the New Jersey hospital financial system (i.e. taxes, budgets, bills, etc.)
In 2004, having rose the ranks of the NJHA and becoming a respected member, he became a member of the NJHA’s Council on Hospital Governance, which gave him a much more influential medium for presenting his thoughts/ideas regarding hospital administration/finance/etc. He became a respected man for his policies, and even met with state legislators a few times at NJHA-hosted events. Years passed, and in 2006 he was approached by an old friend from Hanover Township, Donatto Lorenzo, who had become an Assemblyman for the 25th General Assembly district. Donatto told him that his popularity and clout could be better used in politics, and to consider campaigning for the upcoming 2007 General Assembly election. Ambrogino pondered the idea, and in November he set up a campaign team and began holding town hall meetings and digital Q&As to promote himself, two methods of campaigning he used because “it shows [sic] I [he] am aware of how to access both generations and their varying degrees of tech-savviness.”
He was respected by the district’s constituents for his policies regarding healthcare; his down-to-earth, transparent attitude; his anti-tax, fiscally conservative financial positions; and his ability to work with and compromise with other politicians, whether they were Republican too or Democrats. When the 2007 election came around, Ambrogino was up against a moderate Democrat, Conan Porterson, and a newbie Progressive, Quincy DeShawne. Despite his freshness in the political scene, Ambrogino had campaigned diligently, and so when the election ended he won, taking 62.7% of the vote. Ambrogino made use of his new seat, and focused on the slashing of medical fees, improving of healthcare accessibility; and the modernizing of healthcare and medical equipment throughout the state. Towards the end of 2007, he met with the President of the NJHA who presented him with the position of Vice President of Government Relations & Policy, and he accepted the appointment. By the speedy arrival of his second year he had drafted and sponsored several bills in the legislature and Morris County government, which multiple sources reported as having brought down healthcare costs in his district boundaries by around 15%.
The 2009 Assembly election, especially due to stability of the NJGOP and Hotchkiss at this time, was easy for Ambrogino, who won 72.3% of the vote in this election. Ambrogino continued working off of the platform and goals of his first term. After the beginning of his second term, he directly met with the Speaker of the Assembly and convinced him to appoint him as Chairman of the Assembly’s health committee. Ambrogino’s collection of high-ranking and prestigious positions within the New Jersey Legislature and medical community were great sources of political capital, and the capital amassed by Ambrogino in the early-2010’s had caused a sort of political machine to form in his name. He used this to his favor, especially to seek greater out-of-state name recognition, and - of course - to bolster his local public image and recognition. However, he was met with a series of mishaps simultaneously, such as the general decline of the NJGOP following the failures of the Hotchkiss administration regarding the Trenton police brutality scandal; uncovering of controversial statements made in Ambrogino’s past involving nationalist rhetoric; several legislative defeats involving key legislation; and Ambrogino’s unseating as Health Committee Chairman in the 2011 legislative session. Ambrogino was able to pull through this dry spell (indicated in the 2015 elections, when he was elected by 68.3%, up 9.8% from the 2013 elections), and even scavenged enough capital that the NJGOP elected him as the County Committeeman for Morris County in 2013, then as Treasurer in 2015 till 2017 (his only defeat in the 2017 electoral season).
In June of 2017, Ambrogino underwent the Republican primaries for his district, but - obviously - won with a 73.5% supermajority. He has frequently appeared publicly in Hanover and Morristown, in order to appear as an involved and active politician in the eyes of his constituent, preparing for the general election in four months. Ambrogino’s 2017 goals include diversifying his political connections, putting together a campaign for Assembly Minority Leadership, and laying the path to a hypothetical 2021 gubernatorial election. He has also been planning an appearance on some major local or - more ambitiously - national media platform as part of a publicity stunt.