NJ Democrat Campos-Medina enters primary to unseat U.S. Sen. Menendez

Patricia Campos-Medina, another major player in New Jersey politics, is entering the Democratic Party primary for the U.S. Senate seat held by Bob Menendez.

Campos-Media, 50, is the executive director of The Worker Institute at Cornell University and has a policy background in labor rights, union bargaining and economic and social justice issues. She also is the president of Latina Civic, which trains and supports Latinas to run for office. The group also has a political action committee that raises money for candidates.

The candidacy of Campos-Medina could complicate the path for two other major Democrats in the race. She could peel away progressive support for Rep. Andy Kim and feminist backing for Tammy Murphy, the governor’s wife.

Campos-Medina said she has been hearing from supporters both nationally and in New Jersey who want her to run.

“They are concerned, as I am, about the diminishing representation of Latinos in New Jersey and the impact that it has on the national stage,” she said. “And it's time for a Latina to make history and run for this position. It's a critical position not just for New Jersey. but for our community nationally.”

Her parents came to the United States to escape the civil war in El Salvador, and she was separated from them for eight years while they awaited political asylum.

“So I know the issues of immigration reform and the intractability of those issues and how it impacts people on a personal level,” Campos-Medina said. “I'm also the daughter of low wage workers, a janitor, a housekeeper, restaurant workers, who had multiple jobs and never had health insurance.”

Menendez has not announced whether he will run for reelection. He was indicted in September on allegations of bribery, corruption and for helping the government of Egypt without registering with the U.S. Department of Justice. This week, federal prosecutors added another charge, alleging he accepted gifts in return for helping Qatar.

Kim, a third-term congressman from Burlington County, was one of the first Democrats to call for Menendez to resign and quickly announced he would run for the seat.

Menendez faced bribery charges in 2015 in a federal case that ended with a hung jury. He ran for reelection in 2018 with the full support of the New Jersey Democratic establishment. But this year, on the day of his indictment in September, Gov. Phil Murphy and other major leaders of the Democratic Party called for his resignation.

In November, Tammy Murphy announced she would run, and within days, every top party leader endorsed her.

But progressive activists and good government groups in New Jersey have been critical of those endorsements, and the system that gives candidates in New Jersey an advantage on the ballot. In the primary, endorsed candidates run on the “county line” together, which gives voters the impression they are more legitimate.

The governor is the leader of the party and has the power to line-item veto bills and spending. The activists said this calls into question whether Democratic Party leaders who make endorsements are not beholden to the governor.

Campos-Medina has spoken out against the “county line”, the ballot placement that gives endorsed candidates an advantage during the primary. But her announcement to run for the Senate seat may be too late to gain support from the progressive activists who oppose the county line, and are already behind Kim.

“We think anybody has the right to run for the seat, but we are 100 percent for Andy Kim,” said Amy Higer of SOMA Action, a progressive group based in South Orange and Maplewood that has been active in flipping congressional seats since 2018.

The group is also part of a new statewide coalition that is calling on the Senate candidates to take a stand against New Jersey’s county line, the only state in the nation that allows electioneering on the ballot itself.

Higer said her group has endorsed Kim in three previous elections and they support his track record.

“He can win in a mixed district of Republicans and Democrats, he's won a Trump district twice,” she said. “This is a really, really important election. The Senate race could determine the control of the Senate, and we want not only to keep the seat, but to have somebody in there with impeccable integrity.”