Perennial candidate Natalie Lynn Rivera has dropped her independent bid for the U.S. Senate after a judge invalidated enough signatures on her nominating petition to secure a place on the general election ballot.
Rivera filed with 2,012 signatures, just 12 more than she needed to qualify. After a two-hour hearing, Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Rabin tossed 16 signatures, causing Rivera to drop her campaign.
“I will not give up,” she said. “I will run again for the United States Senate.”
There was no ruling on issues related to New Jersey’s sore loser law; she had initially sought the Republican nomination before switching to independent.
Four candidates will be on the ballot for U.S. Senate in the fall: Democrat Cory Booker, the incumbent; former Tabernacle Deputy Mayor Justin Michael Murphy, the winner of the Republican primary; Socialist Workers Party candidate Joanne Kuniansky; and Veronica Fernandez.
This is Rivera’s third U.S. Senate run.
Rivera ran as an independent in 2018 and received 19,897 votes, six-tenths of one percent; she finished fifth out of nine candidates in a bid to unseat incumbent Bob Menendez.
In 2020, Rivera ran in the Republican primary to take on Booker. She finished fourth in a field of five candidates with 21,650 votes, 5.3%.
Kuniansky and Fernandez have made multiple bids for public office.