Essex County Democratic Committee Chairman Leroy Jones stands by U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who faces the possibility of a 2018 retrial in his reelection year.

“I’m all in with Menendez,” Jones told InsiderNJ. “When you have a deep conviction about someone, as I do about him, and it’s real, you stick with him.”

Menendez is running again, according to his spokesman Mike Soliman, and Jones’ support gives the senator critical cover fire if and when he returns to a federal courtroom.

Even as Republicans court pharma exec Bob Hugin and eyeball the prospect of making a senate fight competitive, other key county organizations that backed New Jersey’s senior senator before appear willing to stand with him through the prospective turbulence of a retrial.

Middlesex County Democratic Committee Chairman Kevin McCabe issued his statement of support here.

Hudson, classically Menendez’s home base, stoutly supports him.

“I believe in my friend Bob Menendez and in our system of justice,” said Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise. While acknowledging the unfortunate news of the feds’ keenness on retrying the senator, “I look forward to his acquittal and I know the people in our community who he has done so much for over the past four decades will stand with him.”