The senator, who is seeking his third full term, would normally skate to reelection in New Jersey, which hasn’t elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 46 years. Menendez touts immigrant heritage, targets Trump in reelection kickoff

UNION CITY — This densely packed city in the shadow of Manhattan’s skyscrapers that’s been home to waves of immigrants for centuries is where both Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his likely Republican opponent, Bob Hugin, grew up.

But Menendez laid claim to the city at his reelection campaign kickoff Wednesday, held in the local high school gymnasium that was packed with more than 1,000 students — mostly, like Menendez, of Hispanic heritage.


“I know some of you are not old enough to vote. I am not here to ask for your vote. I am here because I am your vote in the United States Senate. Every time I cast a vote, I do it for you. I carry a piece of this place in my heart,” said Menendez, whose working-class Cuban immigrant mother gave birth to him in the U.S. and raised him in a small apartment just blocks from the school. Menendez would go on to become mayor of the city before becoming a congressman and being appointed to the Senate in 2006.

The senator, who is seeking his third full term, would normally skate to reelection in New Jersey, which hasn’t elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 46 years. But there’s an element of uncertainty this year, since Menendez just survived a two-and-a-half month corruption trial in which his taste for private jet flights and luxury hotel stays provided by a wealthy friend and donor were on full display by prosecutors. Menendez was charged with doing political favors for the friend, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen — including lobbying for him with top Obama administration officials and securing visas for the married doctor’s foreign girlfriends — in exchange for the gifts and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

The jury deadlocked, with 10 of 12 members favoring acquittal on most counts. But the trial took a toll on Menendez’s popularity, with a majority of poll respondents at one point saying he didn’t deserve reelection. Melgen was convicted of Medicare fraud worth tens of millions of dollars in a separate case and sentenced to 17 years in prison.

But Menendez may get a reprieve from the deep unpopularity in New Jersey of President Donald Trump. A Quinnipiac University poll released two weeks ago — the only public poll on the race so far — showed Menendez with a 17-point lead over Hugin, a former pharmaceutical executive who is expected to spend millions from his own pocket but is still virtually unknown in New Jersey.

Menendez didn’t once mention Hugin, a major Trump donor who previously praised the president but has de-emphasized his connections to the president since he launched his Senate campaign last month. Instead, Menendez aimed his rhetoric at Trump.

“There is a president in Washington who spends his days dividing us and distracting us but never delivering for us, who believes that being wealthy is the same thing as being worthy,” Menendez said.

And while Republicans are saying there’s an ethical cloud over Menendez, the senator said the “cloud” is actually around Trump. “Our votes have never mattered more. We cannot let the dark cloud cast by the president define us as a country,” he said.

Menendez’s son, Robert Menendez Jr., spoke before the senator and said of Trump that “when he closes his eyes and sees a more perfect America, it looks like Norway.”

“Yet when I close my eyes and see a more perfect America, it looks like Union City, New Jersey,” Menendez Jr. said.

The elder Menendez spent several minutes talking about gun control and the efforts of high school students to pass new laws, saying students “like you” have stood with Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students.

“Throughout my life I’ve worked hard for good grades as I hope you’re doing here, but I am proud to have a big fat ‘F’ from the NRA,” Menendez said.

Menendez did take one apparent shot at Hugin, without mentioning him by name, calling out that while “drug companies were working to make drug prices higher for cancer patients, I was working to make medicine more affordable for families.”

Celgene, which Hugin led until this year, has been criticized for hiking prices on cancer drugs.

Hugin’s campaign focused in on Menendez’s corruption trial, saying in a statement that the campaign would be “a story of two Bobs.”

“Menendez accepted lavish gifts from a friend and wealthy campaign donor, and tried to stop a federal investigation by President [Barack] Obama's Justice Department into a Medicare fraud scheme being run by that friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen, who was later convicted and sentenced to 17 years for 67 felonies. What Senator Menendez calls an act of friendship with Melgen, we call corruption,” Hugin spokeswoman Megan Piwowar said in a statement. “New Jersey deserves a Senator as good as its people, not one trying to stay one step ahead of the law.”

The Menendez rally was also a show of political muscle. Dozens of powerful North Jersey Democratic elected officials — including Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. Cory Booker — showed up to the rally. Menendez plans a second event with South Jersey Democrats in the lower half of the state Wednesday afternoon.

Democrats who dominate his home county of Hudson are at odds, with two factions gearing up for a massive contest to determine leadership of the county’s party. Union City Mayor Brian Stack, a state senator who has ensured that Union City is a powerful voting bloc that matters in statewide elections, is set to take over the Hudson County Democratic Organization and wants to oust Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise. Nevertheless, both men were at the high school to show support for Menendez.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, whom Menendez accused without naming of “trying to dig my political grave” so he could “jump into my seat” immediately after his mistrial, also showed up.

Students told POLITICO they were missing about three periods for the event, and that attendance was mandatory. A call placed to Union City High School administrators was not immediately returned.