Embattled New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez will not run for re-election in November, although he still refuses to hand in his resignation, The Post has learned.

“He will not be running,” said a source close to Menendez.

The three-term federal senator, who resigned his powerful position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee following the initial indictment last year, faces an 18-count indictment — and stiff competition from a group of Democratic primary challengers.

Menendez, 70, and his wife Nadine Arslanian, 56, were charged Tuesday in a fresh indictment with lying to federal investigators and obstructing justice while Menendez was charged with acting as an unregistered agent of the government of Qatar.

That added to charges which were first brought in October accusing the couple of accepting gold bars and nearly $500,000 in cash in exchange for favors to New Jersey businessmen and the Egyptian government.

They were first charged last October and have pleaded not guilty. They are scheduled to go on trial in Manhattan in May.

Last week he suffered a further blow as one of his three co-accused, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty to seven counts of corruption and agreed to co-operate with federal prosecutors.

In an interview with Forbes Thursday Menendez said he would not resign, but when asked if he would be running for re-election, he said, “Ah, that’s another question.”

Menendez has been under pressure to resign from both fellow Democrats and Republicans. He faces tough Democratic primary challenges from progressive New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim and the state’s first lady, Tammy Murphy, among others.

A Farleigh Dickinson University poll of New Jersey Democrats in February put the senator on just 9 per cent in the primary, with Kim on 32 percent and Murphy — a political neophyte who was previously a registered Republican — on 20.

3

3

On Monday, Murphy won the endorsement of Democrats in Bergen County, the state’s largest county.

“He can’t run without creating a two-fron battle where both have his career on the line,” said Thomas Anderson, who heads up the Black DC, a good government blog. “It takes massive resources for that and he no longer has the support he once had, looking at his latest financial disclosures for his legal defense fund.”

Menendez raised just under $16,000 in the last few months of 2023 compared to Murphy who raked in $3.2 million and Kim $1.8 million, federal filings show.

Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman was the first Democrat to call for Menendez to resign. “How much more before we finally expel @SenatorMenendez?” Fetterman wrote on X in January after federal authorities announced a new indictment against Menendez, his wife and three co-conspirators.

“I’m daring Menendez to run for re-election,” Fetterman told CNN after backing Kim earlier this year.

Other Democrats, including Cory Booker, the state’s other senator, have since joined the calls but have taken no moves to expel Menendez from the chamber.

Other Democratic primary candidates include Larry Hamm, a political activist and second-time Senate candidate who leads the People’s Organization for Progress. Patricia Campos-Medina, a left-wing labor organizer who runs the Worker Institute at Cornell University also plans to enter the race, according to reports.

A spokesperson for Menendez did not return a request for comment Thursday.