New Jersey mayor launches primary bid against son of indicted senator

Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla announced on Tuesday that he would challenge freshman Rep. Rob Menendez, the son of indicted Sen. Bob Menendez, in the June 4 Democratic primary. New Jersey's 8th District, which is a majority-Latino district based in the Jersey City area, favored Joe Biden by an overwhelming 72-27 margin in 2020.

Bhalla's launch video mostly focuses on the mayor's biography, including how his parents immigrated from India "to practice our Sikh faith in a country where it is self-evident that all of us are created equal." (Bhalla would be the second Sikh to ever serve in Congress; the first was Democrat Dalip Singh Saund, a three-term California representative who became the first Asian American ever elected to Congress in 1956.)

"When my baseball helmet wouldn’t slide over my patka," the candidate says of his religious head covering, "my coach modified one that would fit me on the field. He knew our team was stronger when each of us could play." Bhalla also highlights the racism he's faced, including a mailer from his 2017 contest for mayor reading, "Don’t let TERRORISM take over our Town!" Bhalla ended up narrowly winning that race before securing a second four-year term without opposition. "[M]y first act as mayor," he tells viewers, "was to declare Hoboken a welcome city for all."