New Jersey governor to name former chief of staff to Menendez’s Senate seat

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) will appoint George Helmy, his former chief of staff, to Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D) seat to serve out the remaining five months in Menendez’s term, according to state Democratic Party Chair LeRoy Jones.

Menendez announced in July he would resign from the seat Aug. 20 after a New York jury found him guilty on 16 counts tied to allegations of receiving bribes from foreign nations. Helmy is a health care executive in one of New Jersey’s biggest hospital systems and previously worked for Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

Menendez was up for reelection during this election cycle, and Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) is running against Republican hotelier Curtis Bashaw for the seat. Kim is widely expected to win the election. 

Helmy will be the sixth Arab American and first Coptic Christian to serve in the U.S. Senate. He will also be the fifth-youngest member of the upper chamber. 

According to Jones, Murphy will officially announce the pick Friday in Newark. Helmy will take his seat when the Senate returns to session Sept. 9. 

The Jersey Globe first reported that Murphy was appointing Helmy to the seat as a caretaker. 

Helmy joined the Murphy administration in early 2019, one year into Murphy’s first term as governor. During his tenure as Murphy’s chief of staff, Helmy helped Murphy stabilize his relationship with the state Legislature. 

Helmy left the chief of staff role in 2023 to become an executive at RWJBarnabas Health, one of the state’s largest health care providers.

Helmy previously served as Booker’s state director, and Booker originally hired him as his deputy chief of staff in 2014. He also worked as an advocate in former Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D) office, Booker’s predecessor. 

Helmy is originally from Jersey City; he attended Rutgers and Harvard and worked for UPS and American Express.

The Hill has contacted Helmy and the governor’s office for comment. 

Murphy, who had been out of the state for much of August, told listeners during his radio appearance on “Ask Governor Murphy” that he was planning on making a formal decision “in a few days,” declining to comment on specific names he might appoint. 

“We’ve considered a whole range of options, and I’m proud of that fact in the sense that we didn’t narrow ourselves into a corner,” Murphy said during the radio interview. 

The appointment comes as the state’s Democratic political machine continues to deal with earthquakes like Menendez’s conviction, the indictment of south Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross, and the collapse of the line, a primary ballot layout that allowed the state’s machines to influence who won elections heavily. 

Murphy’s wife, New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, had previously sought election to Menendez’s seat. After a bitter primary fight with Kim, she withdrew from the race days before the official filing deadline to appear on the Democratic primary ballot. 

Tammy Murphy withdrew her name from consideration during the appointment process after Menendez announced his resignation. 

During the process, the governor did not consider Kim seriously, even though some Democrats in the state lobbied him to appoint Kim to give him an advantage during the election. 

Murphy’s Republican predecessors, former Govs. Chris Christie and Thomas Kean, released a statement calling on Murphy to allow voters to have a “free choice in November, unencumbered by political influence.” 

The governor also considered Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Democratic state Committee Vice Chair Marguerite Schaffer and Amy Kennedy. 

Some in the state had pressed Murphy to use the opportunity to elevate the state’s first Black or Hispanic woman to the caretaker spot, and senate candidate Patricia Campos-Medina, who won 16 percent in the primary, publicly sought the nomination.

Updated at 4:39 p.m. EDT