Morning Digest: Menendez resists effort to link him to his father, who's on trial this week

_{The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.}

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● NJ-08: New Jersey Rep. Rob Menendez is pushing back on Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla's attempts to link him to his scandal-ridden father, Sen. Bob Menendez, in a new commercial ahead of their June 4 Democratic primary for the dark blue 8th District.

"My opponent wants to run against my father because he's scared to run against me," the congressman tells the audience. "That's on him."

Menendez doesn't say anything more about the senator, who is currently on trial for corruption, or Bhalla, whom he does not mention by name. The incumbent instead argues he's an ardent liberal, declaring, "I'm protecting health care coverage for pre-existing conditions, and I'm defending abortion rights from the MAGA Republicans."