From ‘a nobody’ to the Senate: George Helmy is ready to replace Bob Menendez

WEST ORANGE, New Jersey — George Helmy will soon become one of the shortest-serving senators in American history.

Helmy’s tenure in the upper chamber will last only around three months after being appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy due to the resignation of disgraced Sen. Bob Menendez , who was found guilty in his corruption trial. In a recent interview at a North Jersey diner, Helmy said he plans to advance the goals of the Democratic caucus and even introduce legislation despite such a brief stint in Washington.

And, he said, it’s OK if his bills don’t get done under his watch.

“Something with my name [on it] is not important,” he said. “It's that I use the platform I have for three months to help advance a conversation.”

Helmy is virtually unknown to the general public, but he is among New Jersey’s top political insiders. A former staffer for the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Sen. Cory Booker , he joined Murphy’s office in 2019 as his chief of staff until September 2023. Even after he departed the governor’s office to become an executive at one of the state’s largest health systems, Helmy remained one of Murphy’s top political advisers.

Helmy will be sworn in to the Senate in early September but will serve only until the November election results for the state’s Senate race are certified later that month. At that point, Helmy will resign, and Murphy will appoint the winner of that race early. Democratic Rep. Andy Kim — who ran a brief but competitive Senate primary against first lady Tammy Murphy — is strongly favored to win against GOP hotelier Curtis Bashaw.

This interview has been condensed for length and clarity.

You are going to be in the Senate for only a couple of months. What do you think that you can realistically accomplish, and do you have a legislative agenda?

First, it's sort of the stability of the office, right?

Constituents deserve a functioning office where they can go for help with the federal bureaucracy. And I will tell you, with very personal experience, that that family that's calling you because a loved one is overseas and can't come to a family function, or that family going on a long planned vacation, where their son or daughter’s passports expired — that's where, really, government comes [into] to play with them. … I bet if you ask those families what was more important — that one time you engage at the casework level with the Senate office or some piece of legislation you couldn't name and don't really understand the impact — they're going to tell you that moment where I needed help, someone picked up a phone and someone helped me.

Goal two … every vote is important. We're in a divided Senate. There's been a lot of committee agenda items that haven't been able to move because Senator Menendez either wasn't present or wasn't voting.

I would say part of my legislative agenda will just be to get the Democratic caucus to just do the work of the Democratic caucus. To be that additional vote to get stuff out of committee as we approach continuing resolution, a number of pieces of important legislation, and potentially a [National] Defense Reauthorization Act.

Do you plan to introduce any legislation?

I think the answer to that is yes.

Is the goal of introducing legislation and getting it done in three months? You know, probably not.

The introduction of legislation without understanding when you're going to get it done … it's still very important, because you have to be a creator of [a] message. You have to be a creator of opportunity, and as one of 100, I appreciate that I have a very powerful voice.

Obviously [I] need to be respectful of the other champions on the Hill who may already be leading on an issue for a decade. I'm not going to try to come in and be a new voice. I want to be an additive voice. But yes, I intend to use the platform to advance very specific things.

There are rules and regs at various federal departments that can be enhanced to the benefit of New Jersey. I want to poke at those things, and maybe those regs aren't going to be changed in three months. Actually, most likely they won't be changed in three months, but maybe some other member of the delegation will pick that up and drive it.

So the introduction and the advancement of these things is, in and of itself, important, regardless of whether it gets done with George Helmy’s name on it. Again as a staffer, something with my name [on it] is not important. It's that I use the platform I have for three months to help advance a conversation.

What issues do you plan to use the power of the bully pulpit [on] and what do you plan to advocate for?

There'll be a number of things that I worked with on the state level. We already had a crisis in youth mental health. Covid, in my opinion, exasperated it.

I think I want to help drive a conversation about federal resources to help states and localities deal with high school and college-age children who may be in crisis.

Do I think I'm going to get some robust program advanced? No, not in three months. But there's a conversation that I want to join that hopefully helps the next Congress to come, which I will not be a part of, to keep advancing that in hopes of driving either policy changes or resources that can be impactful there.

You're serving in the Senate because of Sen. Bob Menendez’s resignation. He was found guilty on all 16 counts in his corruption trial. Do you think New Jersey is better off because Menendez was in the Senate?

On the justice piece, he has been found guilty of all 16 [counts] and sentencing will occur.

But I think if you look at his legislative history, it's hard to say that that office did not advance New Jersey's priorities. … And if you look at whether it's stuff on the Gateway project, significant funding for municipalities, the things he was able to do — really across a spectrum of policy pillars — I almost think it's impossible to say that what that office did did not benefit the state of New Jersey.

How do you think that the Menendez trial and his conviction fundamentally changed New Jersey politics and New Jersey political culture?

I don't know if I have a good answer to that.

I think that Senator Menendez's issue really is the uniquely bad actions of a single individual. I don't think most elected officials in New Jersey behave that way, would ever behave that way, would ever consider behaving that way.

I think for the most part — and I would say that this is true for every elected official I've worked for and the majority of elected officials I have worked with — they pursue the greater good of the state of New Jersey.

First lady Tammy Murphy ran for the seat that you're now going to hold, albeit briefly. The Senate Democratic primary between Tammy Murphy and Rep. Andy Kim was brief but rather divisive with the first lady dropping out and Congressman Kim winning the nomination and now poised to be the next U.S. Senator.  What are your thoughts on how that primary played out?

As somebody who … has never and will never run for office, I think it takes tremendous courage to put yourself out there. And I applaud Tammy, Dr. [ Patricia] Campos-Medina and Larry [Hamm] for getting into the race, and I thought they all brought different perspectives and different issues to the forefront.

I applaud Tammy talking about disparate impacts in health care, maternal and infant health, an issue she has championed since I've known her. And I would also say that Dr. Campos-Medina and Larry — I thought they eloquently elevated the issue of economic justice. … I hope that we have not seen the last of Patricia and Larry, because I thought they brought a great deal to the conversation.

Campaigns are always hard. Especially the way this sort of came together very quickly with the indictment of Sen. Menendez, I believe in the late fall, and very quickly run up into the county conventions . Campaigns are hard, and you're going to fight hard trying to differentiate yourself and the issues you stand for.

But I've talked to Congressman Kim a handful of times, and he was very gracious in his statement towards me the other day.

What's your relationship with him like? And what do you think the dynamic will be working with him — you as an interim Senator and him as a member of the House?

I was one of the first political meetings that then-regular guy Andy Kim took when he was considering running against [incumbent GOP Rep.] Tom MacArthur in CD-3.

I met him at a coffee shop in Washington, D.C., when he was still considering running. We had a great conversation, and I've been a supporter of his ever since. [Former Booker chief of staff] Matt Klapper and Vicky Klapper and I knocked on doors when we worked for Cory for Andy.

I think the congressman appreciates my deep affinity, admiration and connectivity to the Murphys. … As he said in the statement, we both respected each other through it. And, you know, we're both professionals. We understand that campaigns take place, and we have to continue to move forward. We've spoken a number of times, and I look forward to closely working with him in an appropriate way, because he's not yet the elected senator.

I look forward to closely working with him to make sure that the office is in a stable place for whoever that senator is. And obviously, I do hope that it's him.

Right now, you hold two pretty prominent positions, as an executive at RWJBarnabas and as a commissioner on the Port Authority [of New York and New Jersey]. Do you plan to cut ties with RWJ and the Port Authority while you're serving in the Senate, and do you plan to resume your current position at those entities when you leave the Senate?

I will completely separate from RWJBarnabas Health sometime before [I am sworn in].

As it relates to the Port Authority … I don't know yet whether I'm going to come back, and I think it's just an open question. … The bylaws of the Port Authority do not require that I step off, but I will be basically — the right word really is not taking a leave — but I will not be engaging with the Port Authority or its commissioners or its staff on any Port Authority business during my very defined term in the Senate.

That sounds like you won't resign from the Port Authority.

No, I'm not required to.

So is it your complete intention to come back in both roles?

What I do for a living, I don't know. My volunteer role as a Port Authority commissioner, I would love to resume when I come back. But again, neither will they engage with me as a United States senator, or I engage with them as a senator or a commissioner for that three-month period. Frankly, just out of an abundance of caution.

I leave you with the final word. What's your message to the people of New Jersey since you're going to be their U.S. senator for a couple of months?

I consider public service a privilege. You get to roll up your sleeves and make a difference. And if you approach it in a thoughtful way, where you don't start off as a partisan, you start off as an American — you come into every conversation saying, “How can I make a little bit of progress here?” — the winners and the losers are not the people in the room. The winners and the losers are the people who you work on behalf of.

I’ve been so lucky. I was a nobody in Lautenberg’s office. I became less of a nobody in Booker's office, and then was fortunate to be on the governor's senior staff. But if you look at the things that I've been able to touch, I've had an incredible career, and I'm incredibly proud of what I've done.

There's an Arabic saying — which doesn’t translate perfectly — that says your legacies are left in the ground. It's a little bit of a play on, like the morbid piece of like you will all be in the ground at one day. But the meaning is, it's the seeds that you plant that become roots, that become trees. So literally, are you planting seeds? The buildings that we help build, the roads and infrastructure that we help do, the landscape change in environmental reforms — that is somebody's legacy. It's not your name on a building or your name on some placard that nobody remembers, right?