Senator Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) will announce his opposition to the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran in a stinging statement on Tuesday.

“I have looked into my own soul and my devotion to principle may once again lead me to an unpopular course, but if Iran is to acquire a nuclear bomb, it will not have my name on it,” Menendez will say Tuesday afternoon, per the Washington Free Beacon. “The agreement that has been reached failed to achieve the one thing it set out to achieve — it failed to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state at a time of its choosing. In fact, it authorizes and supports the very road map Iran will need to arrive at its target.”

The remarks come one day after Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) announced his opposition to the deal, and three days after Senator Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) — whom Obama had lobbied to support the agreement — came out against it. New York senator Chuck Schumer, Senate Democrats’ leader-in-waiting, announced his opposition two weeks ago.

Menendez has long been one of the leading Democrats on foreign policy issues. He was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and helped draft the legislation establishing a process for Congress to review the deal. He stepped down from that post after being indicted on corruption charges in April. (His trial is scheduled for November.)

#related#Even without key Democrats such as Schumer and Menedez on his side, Obama may still win the fight. The review process allows the deal to be implemented unless Congress blocks it, a move that Obama can veto. It takes 67 votes to override a veto, and Republicans control 54 seats in the Senate. “I hope we can defeat it, but the procedure is obviously stacked in the president’s favor,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) conceded Monday.

Maryland senator Ben Cardin, who succeeded Menendez as the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, is regarded as an important swing vote. He plans to announce his decision after Labor Day.

— Joel Gehrke is a political reporter for National Review.