Former Congressman, now Deacon Forbes, was invited to become a fellow in the Inspired Leadership Initiative at the University of Notre Dame for the 2023-2024 academic year.

He is the grandson of Carrie Bowman, a Broadway actress, and T. Harold Forbes, an actor and Vaudeville song and danceman who became a well-known newspaper publisher in New Rochelle and Long Island, New York.

Forbes got his start in politics as an assistant to New York State Assembly Speaker Perry B. Duryea Jr.[3] He was a close advisor and senior aide to U.S.

President Bush appointed Forbes to a senior post at the United States Small Business Administration in 1989.

Forbes was honored with a seat on the powerful Appropriations committee, unusual for a freshman Representative, after defeating an incumbent congressman and because of his close ties to the new GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

[7] On July 17, 1999, Forbes switched to the Democratic Party after chastising national Republicans for being "tone deaf" to the needs of average Americans.

Fireworks company executive Felix Grucci, a Republican, beat Seltzer and took Forbes's place in the Congress.

His clients included defense industry contractors, financial services, Internet payment providers, non-profit children's home, and other small businesses seeking Federal legislative relief and appropriations.

[11] In 2008, he entered five years of formation and theological study in the Diocese of Austin to become a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church.

[11] He proceeded to complete a Master in Science in Bioethics (MSBE) from the University of Mary at Bismarck, North Dakota, in 2021 to better serve his parish and diocese in critical life issues.