Democratic Party chairman in New Jersey has announced that the state’s governor, Phil Murphy, will appoint his former chief of staff, George Helmy, to fill the position of Bob Menendez in the United States Senate. Menendez, a Democratic senator who resigned after a conviction, has a remaining term of over four months.
According to the Congressional Hill newspaper, LeRoy Jones, the chairman of the New Jersey Democratic Party, revealed this news on Thursday, August 15th. He stated that Murphy will officially announce this decision on Friday. When the U.S. Senate reconvenes on September 9th, Helmy will assume Menendez’s seat.
Menendez announced in July that he would resign from his position as a federal senator on August 20th after a jury in New York found him guilty on 16 counts related to accepting foreign bribes.
At 44 years old, Helmy is a seasoned figure in New Jersey politics. He previously served as an aide to the late Senator Frank Lautenberg and later as a senior aide to the current New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
Helmy joined the Murphy administration at the beginning of 2019 and served as chief of staff to the governor for over four years. He then resigned last year to become the executive vice president and chief external affairs and policy officer at the RWJBarnabas Health, a large healthcare system in the state.
Growing up in Jersey City, Helmy earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and a master’s degree from Harvard University.
Helmy will become the sixth Arab-American and the first Coptic Christian to serve in the U.S. Senate. He will also be one of the youngest federal senators.
During this election cycle, Menendez campaigned for re-election but faced challenges to his Senate seat from within the New Jersey Democratic Party after being indicted. The first lady of New Jersey, Tammy Murphy, and progressive Democratic Representative Andy Kim joined the competition. Under party pressure, Menendez announced in March that he would run for re-election as an independent.
Kim won the Democratic primary in June, and Menendez ultimately resigned in July after being convicted by the jury.
First lady Tammy withdrew from the Senate race before the primary vote, and her husband, the governor, did not consider her in the process of appointing a temporary senator.
Some Democrats in the state had urged Murphy to appoint Kim in order to give the party’s candidate an advantage in the November elections. However, Murphy apparently did not take these suggestions.
Kim will face off against his Republican opponent, hotel operator Curtis Bashaw, in November in a competition for a full six-year term.