TRENTON, N.J. – Rik Mehta is officially the GOP nominee to take on Cory Booker this November. The results of this year’s close U.S. Senate primary were certified on Monday by the N.J. Secretary of State.
Mehta defeated rival perennial candidate Hirsh Singh by 8,684 votes (38% to 36%).
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Twitter activist Tricia Flanagan placed third with 18%. Natalie Rivera – also a regular candidate in state elections – grabbed 5% of the vote. Candidate Eugene Anagnos garnered 3%.
A pharamcist and attorney of Indian origin, Mehta is the first Asian Pacific major party nominee for statewide office in New Jersey.
His opponents aren’t ready to circle the wagons and focus on defeating Booker. Singh continues to allege the existence of voting improprieties, but the vanquished candidate would need to win an extremely lopsided percentage of any hypothetically discarded or miscounted ballots to prevail given Mehta’s 8,600+ margin.
“The AG’s office is completely and utterly compromised,” Singh said in a recent statement, alluding to a cease and desist letter sent by Gurbir Grewal during the primary on behalf of the Secretary of State. “Phil Murphy is hellbent on ending in-person voting and imposing vote-by-mail permanently, so the Attorney General’s Office is doing everything they can to hide how much of a failure the July 7th election has been.”
Singh demanded a recount in 21 counties but, to date, his campaign is achieving little success in getting his recount applications approved. A hearing pertaining to Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties (Singh had the county line in Cumberland) is set for August 31st.
