Prominent New Jersey Democrats see Rep. Andy Kim as the obvious choice to replace Sen. Bob Menendez following his guilty verdicts Tuesday. But Gov. Phil Murphy would not say whether he would name Kim if — or when — the Senate seat opens up.

Murphy said Tuesday he’ll choose a “temporary” replacement for Menendez if he resigns or is expelled from the Senate following his conviction on all 16 counts in his corruption trial. One person close to the Murphy administration granted anonymity to speak about internal deliberations said that while it’s not impossible that Kim could be appointed, “unlikely is probably fair.” And Murphy could be sensitive to accusations of helping his own party in an election by giving Kim the advantage of incumbency.

Menendez immediately faced renewed calls to step down, but it’s unclear if he will leave office on his own or force an expulsion vote, which is rare. He has maintained his innocence and plans to appeal.

While most statewide officials stopped short of urging the governor to appoint Kim to the seat should it open up, several Democratic leaders POLITICO spoke with said it would at least be the logical thing to do since Kim won the Democratic primary in June. However, that came after a brief but intense nomination battle with the governor’s wife, first lady Tammy Murphy.

“I think that makes sense. But, that’s in the hands of the governor. He has the sole authority to do that,” said Democratic State Chair LeRoy Jones.

State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), while qualifying that it’s the governor’s decision, said Murphy “should appoint Andy Kim for seniority.”

“Andy Kim won the Democratic primary with almost 80 percent of the vote. So he’s the overwhelming choice of registered Democrats in the state,” he said.

Kim — who is in his third term in the House of Representatives — told reporters during a quickly arranged remote press conference on Tuesday that he would accept the appointment if offered by Murphy.

“If asked, I would accept,” Kim told reporters. “But that is a decision for the governor.”

Relations between Kim and the Murphys remain strained, and Kim’s lawsuit that upended the “county line” for Democrats — the ballot design used for decades in most New Jersey counties that gave party-backed candidates an advantage — still rankles some party leaders. But appointing Kim to the seat would give New Jersey’s newest senator a bump in seniority over the rest of the incoming 2025 class, should Kim win the general election in November against Republican Curtis Bashaw. (New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972).

Seniority helps determine committee assignments and chairmanships. So the state’s influence could increase significantly based on its senator having just a couple extra months in office.

Murphy in a statement Tuesday did not say who he would appoint should Menendez’s seat open up. “I reiterate my call for Senator Menendez to resign immediately after being found guilty of endangering national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system,” he said. “If he refuses to vacate his office, I call on the U.S. Senate to vote to expel him. In the event of a vacancy, I will exercise my duty to make a temporary appointment to ensure the people of New Jersey have the representation they deserve.”

Natalie Hamilton, a spokesperson for Murphy, said that Murphy’s office “does not comment on potential appointments.”

Menendez is still running for reelection to the Senate as an independent. While his odds were slim before the conviction, they are even narrower after a jury found he accepted bribes from New Jersey businesspeople and acted on behalf of the government’s of Egypt and Qatar. He has until Aug. 16 to take his name off the November ballot.

Some party leaders expressed reservations about appointing Kim, but still liked the idea of naming him to the seat.

Atlantic County Democratic Chair Michael Suleiman said Republicans might accuse Democrats of “putting the thumb on the scale for Kim to win.”

“This election is probably going to be closer than people think, and we don’t want to take Bashaw lightly,” Suleiman said. “Candidly, the fact that we haven’t elected a Republican senator in 51 years and it’s likely to be Andy Kim, why not?”

When asked whether he would be concerned about leaving a Democratic House seat vacant in the event he is appointed to the Senate, Kim said that Democrats would still have a “number of different tools” to block House Republicans, citing the Senate Democratic majority and President Joe Biden in the White House.

“I think what’s important is that New Jersey has been kind of a representation that it needs in the Senate,” Kim said. “I feel very confident no matter what happens, we’ll be able to stop a lot of the dangerous things that speaker Mike Johnson and the Republicans in the House have been pushing forward.”

Murphy has previously ruled out the possibility of appointing his wife to the Senate seat should it become vacant.

“I don’t see any scenario where that would be the case,” the governor said during a radio show last October.

Menendez and his co-defendants face sentencing on Oct. 29.

Bob Menendez is officially a convicted felon — and a U.S. senator — at the same time. If his colleagues have anything to say about it, that won’t last long.

After decades in public service, the longtime New Jersey Democrat is left with a pending sentence and a doomed reelection bid. Shortly after a jury read off the verdict that he was guilty on all counts, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ended months of resistance and called on Menendez to resign, joining more than half of Senate Democrats who have already done so. And at least one of Democratic senator is openly considering expulsion.

More than a dozen of Menendez’s Senate colleagues had resisted calling for him to step down, with many resolved to allow the New Jerseyan his due process. Now that he’s convicted, even the most reserved Senate Democrats are hardly eager to serve aside a convicted felon, even if it’s only for the remainder of the term.

In addition to Schumer, Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Arizona Senate candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) all newly called on Menendez to step down Tuesday. Fellow New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and others also repeated their calls for Menendez to resign.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who had not yet called on Menendez to resign, told reporters prior to the verdict he thought that if Menendez’s charges were proved true, they would be “fatal to his ability to serve.”

If Menendez were to refuse to step down, however, senators could choose to censure or expel him — a step vulnerable incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) called for Tuesday if Menendez wouldn’t resign. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who’s been Menendez’s most vocal antagonist in the Senate, did not directly answer a question last week on whether he would push for censure or other resolutions against the New Jersey senator if he was found guilty.

“Regardless, I’m getting his parking space,” Fetterman quipped.

Menendez, for his part, struck a defiant tone in a statement after the verdict Tuesday: “We will be successful upon appeal. … I have never violated my public oath.”

Menendez is running for reelection as an independent but was already seen as a longshot candidate prior to his conviction. Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) won the Democratic nomination in the New Jersey Senate race.

Kim in a statement after the conviction called it “a sad and somber day for New Jersey and our country.”

“Our public servants should work for the people, and today we saw the people judge Senator Menendez as guilty and unfit to serve,” Kim said, re-upping his calls for the senator to step down.

If Menendez did step down, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), whose wife also briefly ran for Menendez’s seat, would be tasked with appointing a successor. He could appoint Kim, allowing the congressman to then run as an incumbent, or he could choose another placeholder. In a statement following the verdict, Murphy said he would make “a temporary appointment” for the Senate seat if Menendez’s seat became vacant.

There are some automatic consequences for Menendez if he sticks around. He would be permanently barred from holding any leadership positions, including on committees. He’d already stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee following his indictment last year.

There would also be increased questions and scrutiny over his access to classified information. Currently, no Senate Democratic Caucus rules would prohibit him from accessing classified briefings. Fetterman has a bill that would prohibit Menendez and senators convicted of similar crimes from accessing classified information and briefings — but it has not seen movement on the floor.

Expulsion, if Senate Democrats took that step, is incredibly rare. Such a resolution would have to clear a two-thirds threshold in a full Senate vote. That means a handful of Republicans would be required to vote alongside Democrats. Currently, the only GOP senator to call on Menendez to step aside is Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).

Notably, none of the other three Democratic Latino senators — Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) — have joined calls for Menendez to step aside yet.

House Republicans are quickly ramping up their sprawling investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump — with a GOP chair scheduling a public hearing with a trio of top officials next week.

House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday invited Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify about Saturday’s shooting before his panel on July 23.

“It is imperative that we partner to understand what went wrong, and how Congress can work with the departments and agencies to ensure this never happens again. Successful oversight requires Congress to work together with these officials as they testify publicly before the House Committee on Homeland Security,” Green said in a statement Tuesday.

Cheatle is already expected to appear before the House Oversight Committee the day before, and Wray is slated to testify before the House Judiciary Committee next week, an appearance that was on the books before Saturday’s shooting.

The House Homeland Security and Oversight committees are two of several congressional panels investigating Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. A swath of lawmakers, including Democrats, have questioned how the gunman was able to get on a roof roughly 200 yards from where Trump was speaking.

As lawmakers demand public appearances, some have also received private briefings from law enforcement and departments directly involved in Trump’s security. The FBI on Monday spoke with leading members of several committees, including House Homeland Security. Cheatle also spoke with Green over the weekend.

The FBI told Green and Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the panel, during a call Monday that the bureau had at that point conducted nearly 100 interviews, and that the Secret Service was also reviewing its security protocols, a committee spokesperson told POLITICO. Green also wants to visit the scene of the shooting, if possible, after law enforcement has processed it, the spokesperson added.

Cheatle had been expected to brief Homeland Security panel Republicans on Monday, but the Secret Service asked to reschedule the briefing and a new time has not yet been set. The Secret Service was also expected to brief members of the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday.

House Republicans have sent a flurry of letters to the Biden administration on the assassination attempt with multiple requests, including a list of law enforcement personnel involved in Trump’s rally and copies of internal documents and communications. They’ve also raised public questions about Trump’s security detail, and about general Secret Service procedures for handling threats.

Speaker Mike Johnson indicated that the Republican conference is compiling a list of questions they will soon send to Mayorkas. That will be a key indicator of the scope of possible GOP investigations.

But members of Johnson’s caucus are already floating their own ideas separate from the investigating committee chairs.

Members of his right flank, for example, are already using the fallout from the shooting to ramp up their criticism of the Secret Service’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — a program that was never popular with conservatives. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) led a group of House Republicans in rolling out legislation to prevent federal funds from going toward Cheatle’s salary.

“Saturday’s assassination attempt on President Trump’s life was either intentional or the result of gross incompetence by the United States Secret Service. Under Director Cheatle’s failed leadership, the United States Secret Service has prioritized woke DEI policies over the core responsibilities of the Secret Service, including protecting our nation’s leaders,” Boebert said in a statement, indicating that she believed Cheatle should be fired.

On Tuesday, Boebert called for a select committee to investigate the shooting, while Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) is gathering support for forming an independent commission.

Congress is quickly ramping up a sprawling, multi-committee investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, with much of its early scrutiny focused on the Secret Service.

House Oversight Committee members will get a briefing with the agency on Tuesday, a committee aide told POLITICO.

In addition to the briefing, Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has invited Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify publicly before his panel on July 22. The committee aide said that “based on our conversations with the Secret Service,” they expect Cheatle will appear for the hearing and “more details will be announced soon.”

The House Oversight Committee is one of several congressional panels poised to conduct investigations into Saturday’s shooting.

House Homeland Security Republicans are set to be briefed by Cheatle on Monday. Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) spoke with Cheatle on Sunday and sent a request for records to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is also running its own probe into the shooting.

Speaker Mike Johnson, in a social media post over the weekend, vowed the House would conduct a “full investigation.”

“The American people deserve to know the truth. We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP,” he added.

FBI Director Christopher Wray was already scheduled to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee next week before Saturday’s shooting.

But most of Congress’ early questions are focused on Cheatle and the Secret Service, with lawmakers questioning publicly how the gunman was able to get on a roof roughly 200 yards from where Trump was speaking.

Cheatle, in a Monday statement, said the Secret Service would cooperate with an independent review announced by President Joe Biden, as well as working “with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.”

“The Secret Service is working with all involved Federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. We understand the importance of the independent review announced by President Biden yesterday and will participate fully,” she added.