Sherrill won in the 12th District over Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber after Rep. Malinowski, a former state department official under President Barack Obama, blocked Lance from capturing a sixth term in the 7th District. Their victories mean Democrats have picked up at least two new seats in New Jersey, where other closely watched races have not yet been called. Leonard Lance, and Mikie Sherrill winning in an open GOP-held seat. New Jersey voters on Tuesday also delivered two Republican-controlled seats to Democrats, with Tom Malinowski ousting Rep. New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972. He said he would be an independent voice for the state. Hugin, who contributed to Trump's campaign and appeared at the White House for a round table talk about drug prices alongside Trump, largely tried to keep his distance. Menendez raised him as a boogeyman and said Hugin would effectively be a rubber stamp for him in Washington. President Donald Trump seemed to be a factor in the campaign. Senate Majority PAC, for example, said in the final weeks of the campaign that it was spending $3 million on TV ads. Menendez called them "lies."īut the barrage of negative ads led to outside Democratic groups pouring money into the race. Hugin ran an ad raising unsubstantiated claims stemming from 2012 that Menendez patronized underage prostitutes as part of his friendship with the co-defendant in the 2017 trial. The company didn't admit liability, and Hugin points to the life-saving drugs that the company makes for cancer patients. He also attacked Hugin over his time at Celgene, which settled for $280 million on Hugin's watch in 2017 over allegations it promoted cancer drugs that were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Menendez defended himself by pointing to votes for women's rights and on health care. The ethics panel concluded that Menendez's actions "reflected discredit upon the Senate." Hugin, though, concentrated on scandalous details in the trial, calling Menendez untrustworthy and highlighting a Senate Ethics Committee admonition letter that took him to task. The trial ended in a mistrial in 2017, and prosecutors dropped the charges in 2018. Menendez's 2015 corruption indictment in which federal prosecutors charged that he accepted lavish gifts from a Florida eye doctor who is his friend in exchange for helping him with a Medicare billing issue was a central issue in the campaign. Nearly all New Jersey's voters casting midterm election ballots said deciding who controls Congress played a role in their decision, according to a wide-ranging survey of the American electorate.ĪP VoteCast found most said that Trump was a factor in their vote, while a majority also said the country is headed in the wrong direction.ĪP VoteCast, an innovative nationwide survey of about 138,000 voters and nonvoters - including 3,800 voters and 664 nonvoters in the state of New Jersey - conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. The race was particularly significant because Democrats sought to defend 26 seats, including 10 incumbents running in states that President Donald Trump won in 2016. "At the end of the day it was a hard choice, and when the good outweighs the bad, you just have to go with it," Bohr said.īohr said she backed Menendez on the expectation that he will be a voice in the Senate to protect health care for Americans and work for immigration reform. Arroyo-Maultsby told The Record on Tuesday night that Menendez was "a great man" and repeated her contention from after the trial that he had done nothing wrong.Īnother supporter Samantha Bohr, 26, of Parsippany-Troy Hills, said she backed Menendez despite the trial. One of Menendez's supporters at his victory party was Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby, a member of the jury at his 2017 corruption trial who was excused midway through deliberations for a scheduled vacation.
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