Christian Smith
TRENTON, NJ (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who is on trial on federal bribery charges in New York, has filed to run independently for re-election.
Menéndez, 70, had said this year that he would not seek the Democratic nomination to seek a fourth term, and on Monday he filed documents with the state to launch an independent bid on the ballot. He had previously said that an independent candidacy for the position was possible.
Asked on his way to court on Monday whether he is changing political parties, Menendez said in Spanish: “no, independent does not mean I am changing.”
Later on Monday, Menendez told reporters who asked him about his race that he had done a lot for the state of New Jersey, especially during the pandemic and after Superstorm Sandy.
Menendez listed his party on documents filed with the state as “Menendez for Senate.”
The political risks are high given Democrats’ narrow control of the Senate, where New Jersey is normally safely in Democratic hands. It’s unclear how much support Menendez could get from U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, who is in a strong position to win the Democratic primary, which ends Tuesday. The Republican Party has not won a U.S. Senate election in the state since 1972.
Kim, a three-term congressman from the 3rd District, said Menendez was running for himself, not the public.
“Americans are fed up with politicians putting their personal benefit ahead of what’s right for the country,” Kim said.
Menendez, his wife, Nadine, and three business associates were charged last year by federal prosecutors in New York with running a scheme in which Menendez promised to use his office to help businesspeople in exchange for gold bars, cash, payment of a mortgage on his wife’s house and a luxury car. The Menedezes and two of their partners pleaded not guilty. A third pleaded guilty and agreed to testify.
In court, prosecutors argued that Menendez tried to sell his position to enrich himself by helping business partner Wael Hana obtain a lucrative monopoly on certifying meat exports to Egypt as meeting Islamic guidelines and assisting Fred Daibes with investments linked to a member from Qatar. real family.
Menendez denied that there was any corrupt scheme. His lawyers said his conduct consisted of exercising diplomacy and working on behalf of voters. The gold bars belonged to his wife, and the money he had in his house was an old habit, resulting from his parents’ flight from communist Cuba, according to his lawyer.
Daibes and Hana are being tried alongside Menéndez. Nadine Menendez is being treated for breast cancer, the senator said, and is expected to stand trial this summer.
Menendez has held elected office for most of his life, joining the Union City, New Jersey, school board just two years after graduating from high school. Since then, he has been elected to positions in the Legislature, as a U.S. representative and in 2006 as a U.S. senator.
He survived politically after another federal trial – this time in New Jersey, on charges that he used his office to help a friend defraud Medicare – in 2017. The trial ended in a deadlocked jury and prosecutors refused to hold another trial. In 2018, with the support of the state’s Democratic establishment, Menéndez was reelected.
But his political fortunes changed after the September 2023 indictment, when allies across the state, including Gov. Phil Murphy, and in the Senate called for his resignation.
Menéndez promised to beat the charges against him and, like last time, he promised to stick around. But Menéndez did not appear at the polls for Tuesday’s primary. By presenting himself as an independent, he aims for November.
Two Republican candidates, Curtis Bashaw and Christine Serrano Glassner, attracted the most attention. Bashaw, a hotel developer in southern New Jersey, has won significant support from the county party, while Serrano Glassner has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
Sen. Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Menendez’s decision “makes this race a little more interesting.”
Democrats said they are confident their party will maintain control of the seat.
Senator Gary Peters, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, had not heard of Menendez’s decision when a reporter asked him about the impact it would have on the race: “We are going to win. A Democrat will win.”
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Associated Press writers Larry Neumeister in New York and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.
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