George Helmy was sworn in Monday as the 76th person to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate.

Helmy, 44, was escorted into the Senate by his one-time boss, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). Helmy, who previously worked as state director for Booker, also served as Gov. Phil Murphy’s chief of staff for four years.

Last month, Murphy appointed Helmy as interim senator following the resignation of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who stepped down after being convicted on 16 counts of bribery and corruption. Helmy will take over Menendez’s positions on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Helmy will serve in the Senate until the outcome of the November general election is decided, after which Murphy said he will appoint the winner of that race to complete Menendez’s term, which runs through January. U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-3rd) and Republican challenger Curtis Bashaw are contesting the seat.

Before he was sworn in, Helmy entered the Senate chamber side by side with Booker, drawing applause from family and friends in the gallery, an outburst that drew a reprimand from the presiding officer.

For a moment, Helmy and Booker waited, arms crossed in front of them, at back of the end of the center aisle in the chamber, before proceeding to the well of the Senate for Helmy to be sworn in.

While the vice president would typically swear in new members of the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris was preparing for her debate Tuesday against Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, so Sen. Patty Murray, the highest-ranking Democrat, did the honors.

Booker bear-hugged Helmy, who turned to his guests in the gallery and new-found colleagues, faces smiling and handshakes ready.

A first

“He’s going to be a great addition, and it’s another ceiling being broken,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said. “He is the first member of the Coptic church to become a senator in the United States of America.”

Members of Congress can choose what book they want to use for their swearing-in. Helmy picked a Bible specific to Coptic Christianity, a sect of the religion that dates to Egypt in the 7th century.

“This has been a bible that has been with me probably since my early undergrad years,” Helmy said. “It’s been a source of inspiration and peace.”

After the official swearing-in, Helmy and his guests walked to the Old Senate Chamber, where senators met in the 1800s and where lawmakers, new and old, take their photos with friends and family when they join or re-join the Senate.

Helmy said he’d been talking with Democratic colleagues in the days prior to sort out how he could be of most use.

Asked what he hoped to accomplish during his time in the Senate, Helmy said he was in contact with the White House Monday about how to “help them advance nominations and judges, which I know have been backlogged.”

Other top issues, he said, are maintaining New Jersey’s share of federal funding and figuring out how to pass legislation to fund the government before a funding shutdown begins Sept. 30.

“I’m going to immerse myself in the work and figure out what’s left, but that’s already quite a start,” Helmy said, adding that he would introduce legislation this week that would “be his own.”

Asked how being a senator felt different from working in the chamber as a staffer, Helmy said he went to the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday and read its inscriptions. “It feels different when you’re coming to do this kind of work.”