A day after New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife were indicted by a grand jury on federal bribery charges, congressman Andy Kim announced he plans to challenge Menendez to represent the Garden State in the U.S. Senate.
“After calls to resign, Senator Menendez said ‘I am not going anywhere.’ As a result, I feel compelled to run against him,” Congressman Kim wrote in the statement. “This is not something I expected to do, but I believe New Jersey deserves better. We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our country’s integrity. I believe it’s time we restore faith in our democracy, and that’s why I am stepping up and running for Senate.”
Kim, a Democrat who currently lives in Moorestown, was elected to Congress in 2018. He is the first Asian American to be elected to federal office from New Jersey. He has served three terms in Congress following victories in 2018, 2020, and 2022.
Menendez, also a Democrat, was charged Friday with secretly aiding the authoritarian government of Egypt and trying to thwart the criminal prosecution of a friend in exchange for gold bars and cash under a corruption indictment that accuses him of using his foreign affairs influence for personal gain.
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Menendez was forced to relinquish his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but said he would not resign from Congress, though New Jersey’s governor, a fellow Democrat, and other Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation said he should.
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The indictment, the second in eight years against the 69-year-old senator, alleges an illegal commingling of Menendez’s obligations to advance U.S. priorities and his private interest in cultivating relationships with wealthy businessmen. It also includes charges against his wife and three New Jersey businessmen who authorities say showered the couple with money, gold and a luxury car in exchange for official favors.
