Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. stands in an elevator after leaving his office in Washington, DC. on Sept. 28, 2023.
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Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has said he plans to resign on Tuesday, just over a month after a federal jury found him guilty on charges including bribery and acting as a foreign agent.
The shocking corruption trial capped a long and storied career for Menendez, who started as the mayor of Union City, an enclave of Cuban immigrants in North Jersey, and rose to prominence as the first Latino to chair the influential United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
He is also the first sitting U.S. Senator convicted of bribery in more than 40 years.
Menendez, who was first elected to the Senate in 2006, had been nearing the end of his third term and would have been up for reelection in November.
Here’s how his conviction and resignation are shaking up New Jersey’s representation in Congress — and the race to replace him.
A longtime N.J. political staffer will temporarily fill Menendez’s seat
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy will appoint a replacement for Menendez — and the Democratic governor has already announced his pick.
Murphy’s former longtime chief of staff, George Helmy, will fill the seat being vacated by Menendez. He is tentatively scheduled to be sworn in on Sept. 9 when the Senate reconvenes, the governor said.
“George is the model of integrity we need to help restore public trust in our state’s leadership,” Murphy said in a statement.
Helmy, 44, served as Murphy’s chief of staff from 2019 to 2023, and before then he worked as state director and chief of staff to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. He’s currently the executive vice president and chief external affairs and policy officer at RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey.
Murphy said Helmy will serve as a senator until New Jersey certifies the results of the general election on Nov. 27, at which point Helmy will step down and Murphy will appoint whomever won the Senate race.
The Nov. election will determine who replaces Menendez long-term
When the New Jersey primary election was decided in June, the Democratic nominee for Senate was not Menendez.
Rep. Andy Kim won the nod for the Democratic nomination, after Menendez decided not to seek reelection as a Democrat amid public pressure over his corruption case. He said at the time that he would run for reelection as an independent.
Kim will face off against Republican Curtis Bashaw, a hotelier, in the fall. Democrats in New Jersey have a substantial voter registration advantage over Republicans in statewide elections.
Tammy Murphy, the governor’s wife, had challenged Kim for the Democratic nomination, but she faced accusations of nepotism and ultimately dropped out of the race, clearing the way for Kim to win handily in June.
What was Menendez convicted of?
Federal prosecutors argued that Menendez, 70, wielded his political power to help New Jersey businesspeople as well as the governments of Egypt and Qatar. In exchange, the senator received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold bars found in his home, the government said.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine, was accused of acting as an intermediary in the scheme. Nadine Menendez was receiving treatment for breast cancer, and her trial has been delayed indefinitely.
After the nine-week trial, jurors on the federal jury in Manhattan deliberated for less than two days before returning with their verdict, finding Menendez guilty of all 16 counts against him.
He could face a lengthy prison sentence. On Tuesday, Menendez asked the trial court judge to toss his guilty verdict, but Politico reported that the legal request is unlikely to succeed.
Menendez was tried on separate federal corruption charges in 2017, but the judge in that case declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a verdict.