Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) says he will not run for re-election this November as a Democrat, The New York Times reports. Menendez, indicted on federal charges as a central figure in an international bribery scheme, has until early June to decide whether he will run as an independent. Until then, Menendez can continue to raise money to pay for legal services for his wife, who is also charged in the scheme, and himself.
"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," he said. Democrats running for the nomination include Rep. Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy, wife of Gov. Philip Murphy (D).
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Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has no primary challengers in his bid for a fourth term this November. But there are three Republicans vying for the nomination in Tuesday’s Ohio primary, and a Democratic Party-aligned group, Duty and Country, is pulling for the most MAGA among them, according to The New York Times.
Duty and Country has put about $2.7 million into an Ohio ad campaign calling businessman Bernie Moreno “ultraconservative” and aligned with Donald J. Trump (see “Trump’s Latest Rally” in the center column) in the hopes the new Republican core will nominate him Tuesday, only to be set up for a loss against Brown in November. It has worked before.
Moreno also has the backing of Ohio’s junior senator, Republican J.D. Vance, although another of the three, Ohio Secretary of State Franklin LaRose, also is “aligned” with Trump. Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan is considered a more “traditional” Republican, a moderate that could work with both sides of the aisle, as Brown often has done.
In addition to Ohio, primaries will be held in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Kansas Tuesday.
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