Menendez has nearly $5.9 million banked in advance of 2024 U.S. Senate bid

Approaching his re-election year, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez had a mammoth fundraising haul of $1,132,26 6in the first three months of 2023 and now has $5,867,648 in his warchest.

While Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has not formally announced his candidacy, he told the New Jersey Globe in 2020 that he intended to seek a fourth full term. 

That puts Menendez far ahead of the $2.75 million he had in the bank at the same point six years ago.  He raised $9.6 million for his 2018 re-election bid, and won by eleven percentage points against Republican Bob Hugin.  Hugin put over $36 million of his own money into the race and outspent Menendez by a 4-1 margin. 

Roselle Park Mayor Joseph Signorello, who is challenging Menendez in the Democratic primary, has raised $42,615 and has $35,470 in the bank since filing his candidacy in February.   Another Democrat, newcomer Christina Khalil, hasn’t reported any fundraising since entering the race last October.

Signorello has loaned $5,000 to his own campaign, and has received contributions from Sheet Metal Workers Local 22 union, the Tile, Marble and Terrazzo PAC, and Christina Foglio, the former executive director of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker, who is not up for re-election until 2026, raised $1,763,509 so far this year and has $9,193,621 in his warchest. 

Menendez set the record in 2018 for the most number of votes for a statewide candidate in a New Jersey midterm election. 

Republicans have not yet figured out who they will run against Menendez in 2024. 

A political unknown, immigration consultant Shirley Maia-Cusick, raised $78,426 since entering the race for the GOP nomination — $38,800 of it from a personal loan — but she’s already burned through most of it and has just $11,179 left. 

Two other Republican candidates have reported raising nothing:  Dan Cruz, a former Andover Regional School and Newton school board member; and Greg Mele, the 2021 Libertarian candidate for governor

Cruz challenged State Sen. Steve Oroho in the 2021 Republican primary and won just 17%.  Mele ran as an independent for Congress in 2018 and Bridgewater mayor in 2019.  He sought the Republican nomination for Congress in the 6th district last year, but failed to get enough signatures to get on the ballot.