1. George Samir Helmy was born on October 27,1979 and is an American politician who served as a United States senator from New Jersey from August to December 2024.
16 Facts About George Helmy
1. 2.
George Helmy served as Murphy's chief of staff from 2019 to 2023.
3.
George Helmy was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to two Egyptian-born immigrants, and grew up in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
4.
George Helmy played on the basketball and football teams at Glen Ridge High School.
5.
George Helmy worked for UPS as a business operations manager from 2001 to 2013, and as staff assistant and constituent advocate for Senator Frank Lautenberg from 2012 to 2013.
6.
George Helmy then served as deputy and later state director for Senator Cory Booker before being hired as Governor Phil Murphy's chief of staff in January 2019.
7.
George Helmy resigned in October 2021 to join Murphy's reelection campaign before returning to the role 18 days later, after the election.
8.
George Helmy left the governor's office at the end of September 2023 and was succeeded by NJDOT commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti.
9.
George Helmy was a registered Republican until 2011, when he became an unaffiliated voter.
10.
George Helmy briefly registered as a Democrat in 2018, to vote in the party's primary that year for US representative in New Jersey's 11th congressional district, but left the party at the end of the year, and remained an independent until March 2024, when he affiliated as a Democrat again.
11.
The New Jersey Globe reported on August 13,2024, that George Helmy would be appointed to the United States Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Bob Menendez.
12.
George Helmy was assigned as a caretaker and was not a candidate in the November 2024 election.
13.
Murphy announced that George Helmy would resign after the 2024 election was certified, to be replaced by the election's winner, to give New Jersey's new senator an advantage in seniority over the other newly elected senators, who take office on January 3,2025.
14.
George Helmy resigned on December 8,2024, with Kim taking office the next day.
15.
On September 10,2024, George Helmy introduced his first sponsored bill, which would rename facilities at the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park in honor of Congressman Bill Pascrell, who died in August.
16.
In February, 2025, Governor Phil Murphy appointed George Helmy to serve on the Rutgers University Board of Governors, effective until June 30,2030.