On Monday, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey submitted a petition to run for the United States Senate as an independent candidate in the Garden State.
Menendez stated in a statement on Monday that he submitted more than enough signatures to run and plans to continue working as an “independent Democrat.”
Related posts
His petition received 2,465 signatures, according to the New Jersey Department of State.
To be on the United States Senate general election ballot in New Jersey, independent candidates must collect 800 signatures.
The deadline for submitting signatures is 4 p.m. on Tuesday, which is also the date of New Jersey’s partisan primary.
Menendez also talked about his ongoing corruption prosecution, which accuses him of receiving cash, gold bars, ostentatious wristwatches, and other benefits from New Jersey businessmen in exchange for official favors that benefited the businessmen and the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Menendez, 70, has denied all wrongdoing and previously described the prosecution as “overzealous.”
“I am more confident than ever that New Jerseyans and the rest of the American public will see me exonerated of what I am being accused of, and I will be re-elected to the Senate once again,” Menendez stated in a letter.
Menendez declined to run in New Jersey’s Democratic Senate primary while under indictment. He said in March that he would not seek re-election as a Democrat, but he did not exclude running as an independent in November.
“I will not file for the Democratic primary this June,” he stated in a video statement at the time. “I am hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election.”
Rep. Andy Kim, who is running in the Democratic Senate primary and entered the campaign last autumn in response to Menendez’s indictment, said in a statement that “Americans are fed up with politicians putting their own personal benefit ahead of what’s best for the country.” Everyone understands that Bob Menendez is not running for the people of New Jersey, but rather for himself. It is past time for change, and I am stepping forward to restore honesty to the United States Senate.
The New Jersey Globe was the first to report Menendez’s intention to run as an independent candidate.
