Bob Menendez Ends NJ Senate Reelection Bid

Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) second term will be his last, as he has officially withdrawn from his bid for re-election.

In a letter addressed to Donna Barber, New Jersey’s acting director of the Division of Elections, Menendez made it official, writing, “Please be advised that as an Independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in this November’s election I am advising you that I wish to have my name withdrawn from the ballot.”

Sen. Bob Menendez ends independent run days before he's set to resign https://t.co/GPoYgVl8PZ

— POLITICO (@politico) August 16, 2024

The decision, which followed intense backlash from his corruption scandal and his conviction in July, brings an abrupt end to Menendez’s 31-year career in Congress.

Menendez was convicted on 16 criminal counts, including charges of taking bribes and acting as an agent for Egypt.

Despite his best efforts to appeal the conviction, he had not mounted a campaign even though he said that he would be running as an independent candidate after Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) won the Democratic primary in the state with 75% of the vote.

This move was widely expected, especially since his support within the Democratic Party had all but vanished after the conviction. Menendez had already resigned from his Senate seat, effective August 20th, and faced a Friday deadline to make a decision on moving forward with his reelection bid or dropping out.

Before his decision to step aside, Menendez was set to face off against Kim and Republican hotelier Curtis Bashaw in the general election. While Kim was favored to win, there had been speculation that Menendez, running as an Independent, might siphon off enough votes to give Bashaw a fighting chance.

Now, with Menendez out of the picture, Kim has a clearer path to consolidating Democratic support. Before his departure from the race, Kim was seemingly unshaken by the idea that the independent candidate posed a threat to his chances of winning the election in November.

“I’m not particularly concerned. It’s not keeping me up at night,” Kim remarked during a recent campaign stop in Maywood, NJ, just before Menendez’s withdrawal was made public.

Meanwhile, Bashaw sees this as an opportunity to refocus the race on the issues that matter to New Jersey voters. For him, it is “time to move on with this election and make it a clean, straightforward race focusing on the issues facing our state.”