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Menendez re-elected to Senate beats out Hugin for 3rd consecutive term

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez won his bid for re-election last night, defeating Republican challenger Bob Hugin in the process.  – Photo by Rutgers.edu

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) won re-election last night, defeating Republican candidate Bob Hugin (N.J.). His win gives him another six-year term in the U.S Senate which extends until 2024. 

Menendez has represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate since 2006. With his win last night, he secured his third term as senator of New Jersey.

Polls were closer than some expected in recent weeks, as Menendez continued to face criticism from his opponent over corruption charges, as reported by The Daily Targum. Near the end of October, the Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics released a poll showing Menendez’s support at 51 percent compared to Hugin’s at 46 percent. 

Menendez ran a progressive campaign focusing on issues such as education, healthcare and the environment, according to his campaign’s website.

Menendez is a product of public education and federal loans and understands how important it is to give every child a top education, according to his website. He said he knows that every child can only have access to top-quality education if he supports the schools, teachers and parents who encourage students to succeed. 

Along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), he has introduced the Bank on Students Emergency Loans Refinancing Act, which allows student loan-borrowers to refinance high-interest debt, as reported by the Targum last month. 

He supports the America’s College Promise Act, which ensures free tuition for two-year colleges, according to the website. 

As a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, which sets national healthcare policy, he has supported legislation that he says lowers health insurance premiums and ensures certain healthcare benefits, according to the website. He wants to defend and improve the Affordable Care Act, building on its success to reach across the aisle so that millions of Americans can receive affordable health insurance.

Protecting New Jersey’s beaches, coastal communities and green spaces from the effects of climate change has been a priority of his in the Senate, according to the website. He has voted to extend tax credits that support New Jersey’s clean energy economy and blocked a plan to drill for oil 100 miles off the coast of Cape May. 

He has introduced environmental legislation that would permanently ban drilling and exploration in the Atlantic Ocean and another that would cut $22 billion in tax subsidies given to oil companies, according to the website.

The Targum reported that Menendez spoke at Rutgers on Oct. 22, and discussed some of his concerns.

"Right now there’s no check and balance on the president,” Menendez said to the Targum at the time. “He has a Republican House of Representatives, he has a Republican Senate. He’s doing anything he wants, and even those who may disagree with him in his own party are unwilling to speak up and oppose him. So we need a check and balance in order to create a stop on some of the worst policies of the president.” 

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