George Helmy

George Samir Helmy (born October 27, 1979) is an American politician who served as a United States senator from New Jersey from August to December 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed by governor Phil Murphy after Senator Bob Menendez resigned. He served as Murphy's chief of staff from 2019 to 2023. Helmy is the first Coptic American U.S. senator. As of 2025, Helmy serves on the Rutgers University Board of Governors.

Early life and education

Helmy was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to two Egyptian-born immigrants, and grew up in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. He played on the basketball and football teams at Glen Ridge High School. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Rutgers University–Newark and a master's degree in finance and management from Harvard University's Extension School. Helmy is Egyptian American.

Career

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. He 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. He resigned in October 2021 to join Murphy's reelection campaign before returning to the role 18 days later, after the election. Helmy left the governor's office at the end of September 2023 and was succeeded by NJDOT commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. After departing the governor's office, he served as executive vice president and chief external affairs and policy officer at RWJBarnabas Health and as a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

On June 6, 2020, former Department of Health Assistant Commissioner Christopher Neuwirth sued the State of New Jersey, including Governor Murphy, Chief of Staff George Helmy, and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin for firing him over whistleblowing that State Police Superintendent Patrick J. Callahan tried pressuring him into testing Helmy's relatives for COVID-19 in April 2020. At that time, the state Department of Health was experiencing a shortage of COVID-19 tests, so Neuwirth declined the request and reported the incident as an ethics violation.

Helmy was a registered Republican until 2011, when he became an unaffiliated voter. He briefly registered as a Democrat in 2018, to vote in the party's primary that year for U.S. 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.

U.S. Senate

The New Jersey Globe reported on August 13, 2024, that Helmy would be appointed to the United States Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Bob Menendez. Murphy announced Helmy's appointment on August 16. On September 9, he was sworn in by Senate President pro tempore Patty Murray. He was assigned as a caretaker and was not a candidate in the November 2024 election. Murphy announced that 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. Andy Kim won that election. Helmy resigned on December 8, 2024, with Kim taking office the next day.

On September 10, 2024, 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.