BREAKING: Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez Eyeing Independent Run That Could Jeopardize Democrat Senate Chances

On Thursday, NBC News Congressional Correspondent Julie Tsirkin revealed that embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is looking into running an independent campaign to win reelection in his Senate seat despite facing a number of indictments for corruption and several lawmakers calling for his resignation.

Menendez, who would be facing Rep, Andy Kim (D-NJ) and New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy in the Democrat primary, could pursue an independent run which would allow him to get on the ballot as an independent by June 4 with only 800 signatures. The independent run would also allow him to fundraise for his campaign and use those funds for his legal bills that are mounting amid the plethora of charges against him.

A potential independent run from Menendez could pull enough votes away from the Democrat candidate to allow for a competitive Republican candidate to potentially flip the seat. In the 2018 race, Menedez won 54.01 percent of the vote compared to Republican Bob Hugin's 42.83 percent support. If Menedez were to pull even a fraction of that support from the Democrat candidate, then the seat could be more of a challenge to hold onto for the Democrat Party. 

"Slightly hurting their chances to hold a senate seat may finally be what causes Schumer to call on Menendez to resign," Greg Kelly observed on X. "Not the whole being a foreign agent of Egypt and Qatar or anything."

As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, an indictment against Sen. Menendez was brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York last year and alleged that the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accepted over $700,000 in bribes from businessmen in exchange for aiding the government of Egypt via his powerful chairmanship. As the head of the Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez had significant power in determining whether or not Egypt received foreign aid.

The three men who bribed Menendez include Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes, who paid off the senator in order to enrich themselves and aid Egypt. The indictment alleges that $480,000 in cash was found at Menendez's residence last year in envelopes throughout the house. The senator's wife, Nadine Menendez, who was also indicted, had around $70,000 in a safe deposit box. In addition to the mountains of cash, the Democrat accepted a luxury Mercedez Benz car and gold bars valued at over $100,000 from the men. Menendez claims that the cash found in his home was from previous withdrawals made over 30 years.

"The indictment alleges that Senator Menendez used his power and influence, including his leadership role on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to benefit the government of Egypt in various ways," U.S. Attorney for the South District of New York Damian Williams said. "Among other actions, Senator Menendez allegedly provided sensitive, nonpublic U.S. government information to Egyptian officials and otherwise took steps to secretly aid the government of Egypt."

"We also allege that Senator Menendez improperly pressured a senior official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect a lucrative monopoly that the government of Egypt had awarded to Hana, a lucrative monopoly that Hana then used to fund certain bribe payments," he added. 

Watch the NBC News report on a potential independent Menedez run below:

Our breaking report on Sen Menendez's future plans for @MSNBC @NBCNews: pic.twitter.com/KnT3rOcwsP

— Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) March 14, 2024

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