Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), who faced a heated primary battle in 2024, is facing the prospect of another primary challenge in 2026, this time from an outspoken anti-Israel activist.

In 2024, Menendez successfully fended off a bitter primary challenge in the 8th Congressional District from Ravi Bhallah, the then-mayor of Hoboken, 52%-38%. Now, Mussab Ali, also a former mayoral candidate, is reportedly considering a run.

Ali, who previously served as president of the Jersey City school board, finished fourth in the Jersey City mayoral primary last year with 18% of the vote. His unsuccessful campaign drew comparisons to that of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, which Ali himself leaned into.

As early as Oct. 17, 2023 — before Israel’s full ground invasion of Gaza began — Ali accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and genocide, and demanded that American Jews denounce Israel’s actions. He posted on X demanding a ceasefire two days later.

“As Muslims we are always somehow responsible for the actions of any brown person around the world. As a proud Muslim myself I had several friends ask me about the attacks by Hamas and I unequivocally denounce the killing of innocent civilians,” Ali said. “Yet today as Israel marches towards an ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians, as the government murders innocent children in the name of Judaism, I wonder where are my Jewish friends condemning this murder taking place in your name.”

Ali has called for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, arguing, “There are too many problems right here in Jersey City for us to be spending billions aboard supporting a war criminal,” ostensibly referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As a mayoral candidate, he also said he would champion a measure to support recognizing Palestinian statehood if elected mayor.

Ali also said he supports a one-state solution, and described Israel as an apartheid state.

“If you asked me a couple years ago, I would have said two-state, because I think that there was still some way to reconcile and make it so that there were two states that sort of worked together. I think today, you have to find a one-state solution,” Ali said. “I don’t see this process working. … I think you need to have [a] one-state solution eventually. I think that is where everything is leading towards. It’s got to be a one-state with equal rights for everybody.”

He also claimed, falsely, that there are unequal “tiers of citizenship” for Jewish and non-Jewish Israeli citizens.

He emceed an anti-Israel rally in Jersey City on Oct. 30, 2023, and was removed from a meeting of the Jersey City Council debating a ceasefire resolution in November 2023 for disorderly conduct.

He criticized Menendez and other New Jersey lawmakers for their calls to disband the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University, and himself joined an encampment at George Washington University, defending the encampments as “extremely peaceful” expressions of free speech.”

“Extremely disappointed in [Menendez] who is aligning himself against the young people in our country trying to bring awareness to the pain of those in Gaza,” Ali said. “I’m sad how quickly these reps act against students occupying a college campus but are silent on settlers occupying land in Palestine.”

During his mayoral campaign, Ali mocked U.S. officials for visiting Israel, saying that they are only doing so because they are “funded by AIPAC.”

He also described himself as tied closely to many prominent anti-Israel organizers and campus anti-Israel groups from his time at Harvard Law School.

Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, told Jewish Insider that he believes Menendez is better-positioned to fend off a primary challenge now than he was in 2024.

“One of the biggest factors in challenging an incumbent is how much you can catch them off guard. How much can you surprise them? How much can you catch them unaware, unprepared?” Rasmussen said. “And it’s pretty clear at this point that you’re not going to get that advantage with Menendez.”

He said Menendez can expect greater support from the state Democratic organization this year, and that he will likely have a “prohibitive financial advantage” over any potential challenger, with nearly $600,000 on hand as of the end of September 2025.

“He’s got to definitely approach it as he did the last time, in terms of not taking anything for granted. But if he does that, he should be in pretty healthy shape,” Rasmussen continued. 

He said Menendez has also “successfully shown that he is his own person” — separating himself sufficiently in the minds of voters from the scandals of his now-imprisoned father, former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), which were a major vulnerability in the last election. “I think it only gets easier from here … each time he runs.”

Rasmussen said Menendez will need to “make his peace” with progressives and the anti-machine, anti-incumbent movement in New Jersey Democratic politics, a process that will take time.

Menendez scored a major victory in that effort on Wednesday, landing an endorsement from Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), whose Senate candidacy helped catalyze the anti-machine movement in the state. 

“We talked about what drives us in politics and came to agree on the need to build a different kind of politics that is focused on delivering for people,” Kim said in his endorsement. “I’ve really appreciated his partnership and strongly support his re-election to continue to serve the people of New Jersey.”

Rasmussen said that progressive voters in Jersey City and Hoboken would be “theoretically up for grabs” for Ali — but it’s an open question if he’d be more successful in consolidating the progressive vote behind him in a challenge to Menendez than he was in his mayoral campaign.

“Time is not on Ali’s side … in terms of fundraising,” Rasmussen added. “If you’re going to come out of the woodwork and mount a challenge that’s credible, you are running behind. You are running to play catch-up, and there’s not a lot of time between now and June. … He’s going to have to get ramped up in pretty short order.”