Ocean’s 6: Indian American Republican Hirsh Singh Set to Launch Sixth Campaign in Five Years in New Jersey
- The 37-year-old is seeking a seat on Condo Board in Atlantic City. He previously ran unsuccessfully for the state’s gubernatorial run in 2017 and 2021, as well as for the U.S. Senate in 2017 and 2018.
Hirsh Singh is running for office once again. This will be his “sixth campaign for office in five years,” as reported by New Jersey Globe. The 37-year-old Indian American Republican is reportedly seeking a seat on the condo board for the Ocean Club in Atlantic City. He previously ran unsuccessfully for the state’s gubernatorial run in 2017 and 2021, as well as for the U.S. Senate in 2017 and 2018.
“To the amazing residents of the Ocean Club, I’m running for the board,” Singh said in a post on the condo’s Facebook page. “I was born in Atlantic City and have represented South Jersey in the political environment.” An engineer, he told his prospective constituents that he is looking forward to meeting them and earning their support for the Aug. 21 election.
The New Jersey Globe speculates that “the race won’t be easy for Singh,” who is “taking on three incumbents in a six-candidate race for three seats.” He seems to expect a negative campaign against him, the Globe adds.“You will find 100’s of articles about me across the web,” the report quoted me as saying. “Some are hilarious, some are true, and some are completely untrue.”
Last year, Singh lost to former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who won a four-way primary for the Republican nomination. In 2020, he was one of five Republican candidates who challenged Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey but lost in the primaries to another Indian American – pharmacist and lawyer Rik Mehta.
Earlier last year, Mehta had filed a defamation lawsuit against Singh. Local news reports including northjersey.com, New Jersey Globe and Insider NJ said at the time that in the lawsuit, Mehta accused Singh of spending more than $300,000 on a “smear campaign to flout the truth and create a series of repeated lies” through press releases, digital advertising and mailers. It alleges that Sing’s campaign targeted Mehta’s background as a pharmaceutical executive, accusing him of promoting dangerous opioids for Big Pharma and labeling him a “baby-killer” for selling “abortion pills.”
In 2017, Singh made a gubernatorial bid, claiming to have raised $900,000 that would have qualified him for the GOP primary debates, but the New Jersey Election Enforcement Commission (ELEC) refused to permit him to participate, saying it had no records of his fund-raising. In 2018, he wanted to challenge Sen. Bob Menendez but opted instead to run for Congress in the 2nd District, but lost in the primary where he was pilloried by one opponent questioning loans Singh took out to finance his campaign.