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CHC Roundup: Rep. Rob Menendez (NJ-08) - Stepping Out of the Shadow [1]
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Date: 2025-05-24
Rep. Rob Menendez was at the ICE facility in Newark where the mayor Ras Baraka was arrested and Rep. LaMonica McIver was charged.
Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Sunday went after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) over recent events at an ICE detention center in Newark, N.J. “There were so many instances where this could’ve all been de-escalated, but it was squarely in HSI, ICE’s court, they chose not to,” Menendez told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “They made this a violent scene that we were unfortunately all a part of.” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D), Menendez and Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) visited the ICE detention center on Friday and attempted to get access to the facility. However, Baraka was arrested for trespassing amid the visit, sparking widespread outrage. “The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody,” Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, said Friday in a post on the social platform X. Following the visit, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the arrest of the three New Jersey House members was “definitely on the table.”
The trio were there (Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman too) to conduct an oversight investigation into the ICE facility. This is part of the job of Congress to oversee the executive branch. Things got well out of hand as this statement from Menendez shows.
The press conference right after the incident makes very clear what happened.
x What I saw today in Newark is a scene I never imagined experiencing in my lifetime. But I refuse to believe today reflects who we are as a country. We must all commit to correcting the course our country is on. Standing side by side, I know we can achieve those better tomorrows - together.
[image or embed] — Rep. Rob Menendez (@menendez.house.gov) May 9, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Menendez hit the talk show circuit after this as well — something that isn’t very common for the two-term legislator.
x ICE and HSI had several chances to deescalate, but chose intimidation — sending 20+ masked, armed officers to confront the Mayor of Newark and Members of Congress. They made this a violent scene — and it should shock all Americans.
[image or embed] — Rep. Rob Menendez (@menendez.house.gov) May 11, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Despite threats from the Department of Homeland Security, Rep. Rob Menendez has not been charged with any crimes for doing his job. He supports Rep. LaMonica McIver in fighting off her obviously bogus charges from this incident as well.
Most people associate Rep. Rob Menendez with his father who was convicted in an astounding corruption case last year. There is no doubt that being the son of the former Senator gave his career a leg up in 2022 when he was first elected to Congress with a thin political resume. What has he done to step out of the shadow of his father? What legislation has he promoted? These are all questions I hope to answer below the fold.
Personal History
Rep. Rob Menendez attending a protest for asylum rights with his father. He’s finally coming out of the shadow of his father.
Rep. Rob Menendez was born in Union City, NJ on July 12, 1985. His father is from a family that fled the Batista regime who was in charge of Cuba in 1953. That is why his family have remained staunch Democrats while so many Cubans have been members of the GOP (due to Castro).
It seems inevitable, then, that the senator’s son would now stake his claim to the soon-to-be vacated seat. But Menendez Jr., a practicing attorney who goes by Rob, insists that such aspirations had, at least until recently, never held particular favor over a competing interest in carrying on as a private citizen. “The truth of it is that I could have seen a life where I never ran for public office and a life, now, where I am,” Menendez told Jewish Insider in a recent interview. “The ultimate question was: Are we on a good trajectory or are we not, and if we’re not, are there things that I can do, bring to the table, advocate for that would correct a lot of the struggles and issues that we’re facing?” “The answer,” he declared, “is yes.” Menendez said he jumped into the race motivated by a personal conviction that it is time to “turn the page” on an era of increasing polarization that has come largely at the expense of everyday voters. “We can’t wait any longer for people to do the work for us,” he told JI. “If we want to see a different course, a different trajectory, we have to do the work ourselves.” Menendez, a moderate Democrat who speaks positively of the Biden administration’s domestic agenda, described an urgent need to address the “pain and frustration” of “working families” in the majority-Hispanic district, which sits mostly within Hudson County and is home to a sizable immigrant population. Menendez, whose father is the son of Cuban immigrants, said the “disruption” of the pandemic had left voters “looking for their leaders to provide a clear vision” for the future.
The younger Menendez would attend the prestigious Hudson School in Hoboken. He would also receive a political science degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and a law degree from Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, he had a distinguished record.
At Rutgers Law School — where dad also earned his law degree — Menendez received the Alumni Senior Prize, awarded to the student who “has the greatest promise as a future member of the legal profession. He was also president of the Student Bar Association. Daniel Faltas, an editor along with Menendez at the law school’s Race and the Law Review from 2010-2011, recalled him as “engaging, gregarious, (and) popular.” “(Menendez is) going to be a great politician,” Faltas said with a laugh. “He’s got that quality.” Bernard Bell, a Rutgers Law professor who taught Menendez constitutional law and employed him as a research assistant, called him a “fabulous” student, “just a delightful person to interact with in class and as a research assistant.”
After school, the younger Menendez joined one of the largest New Jersey law firms in Lowenstein Sandler LLP. This continued until 2021 when he received his first political office. He was nominated and confirmed for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Gov. Phil Murphy nominated the son of Democratic U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, a Hudson County official and a Cliffside Park councilwoman to the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls an annual budget larger than some states. Murphy announced the nominations Thursday morning, confirming an NJ Advance Media article that Rob Menendez Jr., Michelle Richardson, executive director for the Hudson County Economic Development Corporation, and Cliffside Park Councilwoman Dana Martinotti would be nominated to the bi-state agency. Murphy said he intends to re-nominate Commissioner Kevin McCabe to the board. McCabe joined the board in 2017 and is also chairman of the Middlesex County Democratic Organization. The nominations require state Senate approval.
Some additional information was also gleaned from the piece above:
Rob Menendez Jr., is a counsel at the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler LLP. Before joining the firm, he was an Eagleton Executive Fellow in the Port Commerce Department, and worked on various port initiatives and legal matters. He began his career as a judicial intern for U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martini, and received his law degree from the Rutgers University School of Law.
How has Rep. Rob Menendez tried to step out of the shadow of his father? He didn’t at first, embracing the titan of New Jersey machine politics.
Looming large over his campaign is his father’s legacy. For most of his life, Rob Menendez appears to have embraced, rather than distanced himself from, that legacy. He played an active role in each of his father’s statewide campaigns and took a semester off from college in 2006 to work on dad’s first U.S. Senate campaign. He even took center stage at one event when Bob Menendez was unable to attend. Menendez recalled his early life as different than most, but in a way that deepened his understanding of politics. His father was elected mayor of Union City in 1986, the same year Rob was born. “Not many kids are going to Schuetzen Park in North Bergen for political events when they were children,” he said. “It was an added lens into what it means to be an elected officeholder, to be a public servant.” Father and son have called on each other in ways beyond campaigning. Faltas remembered a time when Menendez got his father to address their law review at a symposium.
It is natural as a member of the family to be one of the last supporters of a beleaguered family member. Menendez talked about the awkward position his father put him in in a hotly contested primary election in 2024.
Rep. Rob Menendez was never implicated in the scandal of his father in the slightest. However, he had to wade off charges of being too close to his father and also nepotism in that 2024 primary election. He was able to overcome these accusations and win the primary election. He addressed the voters shortly after winning the primary, which was the real contest in a blue district.
That began his second term in office in 2025 and brought us to the opening, which is where he showed he is becoming his own man.
Issue Positions and Work in Congress
Rep. Rob Menendez in thought while posing for a portrait. He sits on two critical committees for New Jersey.
Despite calling himself a moderate above, his record is much more liberal than moderate. He is loyal to the Democratic Party which helps him in scoring on DW Nominate — accruing a score of -0.503. That puts him as more liberal than 92% of the House of Representatives and 84% of his Democratic colleagues. Progressive Punch averages him out to a 94% A rating which means he is solid but not spectacular on the issues. Probably his most confounding vote was to protect former Rep. “George Santos” from expulsion although he did change his vote in the end long after the recorded one took place.
I also chronicled Rep. Robert Menendez early in his first term. It is a nice supplement to this section although it was written early on in the New Faces in Congress series making it not as powerful as it could have been. I was also disinclined to support him at that time and even wanted his primary rival to win over him. He has really grown as his own person in his second term.
Just like many newer Democratic members of Congress, Menendez has yet to be the primary sponsor of any legislation that has become law. However, he does have a record of writing legislation and sponsoring it. He is the primary sponsor of 3 pieces of legislation so far in the 119th Congress and there were an additional 14 pieces in the 118th Congress. He has additionally co-sponsored 83 pieces of legislation in the 119th Congress. Hopefully, the Democratic Party can regain power so that some of these pieces of legislation can become laws.
Rep. Rob Menendez sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Homeland Security Committee. These aren’t committees that dominate the headlines but are critical for the NYC metro area that he represents. It was his capacity as a member of the Homeland Security Committee and as a representative of portions of Newark that led him to be at the ICE facility a couple of weeks ago.
Here he is defending former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in committee from impeachment over a year ago.
He also ripped the GOP a new one when they were obsessed with trans children in sports instead of actually doing their jobs.
x YouTube Video
Rep. Robert Menendez is working on creating a legacy different from that of his discredited father. He isn’t going to be at the forefront of any progressive revolution and instead is a solid representative for his constituents in New Jersey’s 8th district. After the 2024 contested primary, I can no longer say that he doesn’t have the political skills to keep control of this district nor can I say he is a political novice. Hopefully we hear more from Rep. Rob Menendez in the future.
Congressional Chronicle: Week of May 19, 2025
The latest on Capitol Hill when it comes to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Sunday, May 18
x NEW: Key House committee advances Trump agenda bill after appeasing conservatives The vote is 17-16, with the four GOP hardliners who voted "no" switching their votes to "present." NORMAN said they were promised "changes" but wouldn't say what they are. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
[image or embed] — Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur.bsky.social) May 18, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Monday, May 19
The Senate voted to invoke cloture on the nomination of Charles Kushner to be the Ambassador of France. Cloture was invoked (52/46/2) with all 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
The Senate voted to confirm the nomination of Charles Kushner for the Ambassador of France. The nomination was confirmed (51/45/4) with all 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
The Senate voted to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed on S.1582 — a bill to regulate stablecoins. Cloture was invoked (66/32/2) with all 4 members of the CHC voting AYE.
Tuesday, May 20
The House voted to confirm the rules package for the week (except for H.R.1). H. Res 426 was confirmed (210/208/15) with the entire CHC voting NAY.
The House voted for S.J. Res 13 — rejecting regulations made under the Bank Merger Act. The resolution was passed (220/207/6) with the the vast majority of the CHC voting NAY. Rep. Cuellar voted AYE.
Wednesday, May 21
At 1AM, the House Rules Committee met for twenty hours straight to consider H.R. 1 — the Budget of Abominations. The Democrats fought back every way they could by offering over 500 amendments and delaying the proceedings for as long as possible. All amendments failed to pass.
x YouTube Video
x YouTube Video
The House Democrats tried to adjourn the chamber before the Budget of Abominations could be voted on. This vote failed (211/213/8) with the entire CHC voting AYE.
The Senate voted for a motion to proceed on S.1582 — a bill to regulate stablecoins. The motion to proceed passed (69/31) with the 4 members of the CHC voting AYE.
After that, there was great drama in the Senate (relatively speaking) over S.J. Res 55. From what I can tell, the Senate Republicans changed the rules to allow for disapproval of regulations to not be subject to a 60-vote threshold on cloture. There were many votes on this subject and I am not going to link to them all.
The Senate voted for a motion to proceed on S.J. Res 55 — disapproving of regulations from the NHTSA for hydrogen vehicle safety. The motion to proceed passed (53/46/1) with the 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
The Senate voted to pass S.J. Res 55 — disapproving of regulations from the NHTSA for hydrogen vehicle safety. The resolution was passed (51/46/3) with the 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
The Senate voted for a motion to proceed on H.J. Res 88 — rejecting a waiver for California and its tougher pollution control standards. The motion to proceed passed (51/46/3) with the 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
Thursday. May 22
There were four votes on the special reconciliation instructions required by the House Rules. H. Res 436 ultimately passed (217/212/3) with the entire CHC voting NAY.
The House voted to pass S.J. Res 31 — rejecting regulations from the EPA under the Clean Air Act. The resolution was passed (216/212/4) with the entire CHC voting NAY.
The House voted to reject a motion to recommit on H.R. 1 — the Budget of Abominations. The motion to recommit was rejected (212/216/4) with the entire CHC voting AYE.
The House voted to pass H.R. 1 — the Budget of Abominations. The bill was passed (215/214/1/2) with the entire CHC voting NAY.
Except for pro forma sessions, the House is adjourned until Monday, June 2nd.
The Senate voted to pass H.J. Res 88 — rejecting a waiver for California and its tougher pollution control standards. The resolution was passed (51/44/5) with the 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
The Senate voted for the motion to proceed on H.J. Res 87 — rejecting a waiver for California and its tougher pollution control standards. The motion to proceed passed (51/46/3) with the 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
The Senate voted to pass H.J. Res 87 — rejecting a waiver for California and its tougher pollution control standards. The resolution passed (51/45/4) with the 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
The Senate voted for the motion to proceed on H.J. Res 89 — rejecting a waiver for California and its tougher pollution control standards. The motion to proceed passed (51/46/3) with the 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
The Senate voted to pass H.J. Res 89 — rejecting a waiver for California and its tougher pollution control standards. The resolution passed (49/46/5) with the 4 members of the CHC voting NAY.
Except for pro forma sessions, the Senate is adjourned until Monday, June 2nd.
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