[1] He attended the University of Notre Dame with punk musician Ted Leo, where it is claimed that he adhered to more left-leaning politics, voiced in the song "The Anointed One" off the album Hearts of Oak.

In 1999, Ferguson moved to the more Republican 7th district, where incumbent Bob Franks was retiring to run for the United States Senate.

Ferguson defeated Thomas Kean Jr. and future West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in the primary.

He faced a difficult general election campaign against the Democratic candidate, former Fanwood mayor Maryanne Connelly but narrowly won, receiving 50% of the vote.

Early in his career he played an active role in committee hearings on corporate accounting scandals at Enron and Worldcom,[4][5][6] and cosponsored the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

During his time on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Ferguson became a key Republican Member on health care issues broadly and a champion for the life sciences industry which employed large numbers of his constituents.

Stender attempted to portray him as too conservative for the district and tie him with President Bush, who was extremely unpopular at the time in New Jersey.

The 7th district had a slight Republican lean, and Stender won the more liberal suburban counties of Middlesex and Union.