With the news that Cory Booker dropped out of the U.S. presidential race, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta said the incumbent Democrat should also seriously reconsider returning to the Garden State to run for “another failed Senate term.”

“Cory Booker has been completely tone-deaf in terms of what issues are important to the nation,” said Mehta. “If he runs back to New Jersey after being absent for so many months, I’m sure he will find that the New Jersey electorate has moved on from him and his failed policies.

“Cory Booker has failed New Jersey residents on every level,” added Mehta. “From the poverty rates and unresolved lead water crisis in Newark, to public health and education which continue to suffer under him, the American public understands that Booker’s failed policies in Newark will also fail the rest of the country.”