In new ad, Menendez invokes Delaney Hall: ‘I put it all on the line’

Almost exactly one year ago, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) and several of his Democratic colleagues made an oversight visit to the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center that resulted in the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and assault charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark). Menendez was defiant, saying the scrum had shown President Donald Trump’s true colors: “How is this acceptable to anyone in this country?” 

That’s the message Menendez is continuing to promote in the first ad of his 2026 re-election campaign, “On the Line.” Facing a Democratic primary challenge from former Jersey City school board president Mussab Ali, Menendez says in the ad that “no one is safe” under the Trump administration, but he knows how to fight for the residents of the 8th congressional district.

“That day, I put it all on the line fighting back against Trump, and I haven’t stopped – even when they threatened to punish me,” Menendez says.

The ad will run on digital and streaming platforms and is backed by a six-figure ad buy, Menendez’s campaign said.

First elected in 2022, Menendez arrived in Congress under the wing of his then-powerful father, Senator Bob Menendez. That’s an association that caused him some problems during his first campaign for reelection, when Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla made the (ultimately unsuccessful) argument that voters needed to throw out the entire family after the elder Menendez was indicted on corruption charges.

The Delaney Hall showdown, though, was Menendez’s first time making national headlines on his own terms, albeit not the terms he might have chosen. The congressman has since formed an unofficial trio with McIver and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), promoting anti-ICE legislation and encouraging their fellow Democrats to do the same; McIver and Watson Coleman are both supporting Menendez’s campaign this year, as is Baraka.

The congressman has a 10-to-1 financial advantage over Ali, who has struggled to pull in the same local and national support that Bhalla got two years ago. Leaving little to chance, though, Menendez has also embarked on some negative campaigning, launching a website called “Lying Ali” to highlight what he says are Ali’s inconsistencies and hypocrisies.

Script
Rob Menendez: “This is Trump’s America, where no one is safe. That day [at Delaney Hall], I put it all on the line fighting back against Trump, and I haven’t stopped – even when they threatened to punish me. When the fight is hard, I never back down – not from taking on Trump, and not from defending the community I love. I’ll never bend the knee. I’ll never back down, because your fight is my fight.