Andy Kim wins Democratic Senate primary

U.S. Congressman Andy Kim won New Jersey’s Democratic Senate primary Tuesday, easily securing a nomination that puts him on a pathway to make history in the U.S. Senate.

“It is a really humbling experience to see my name on the ballot to be the next U.S. Senator from New Jersey,” Kim said Tuesday after casting his vote. “It’s something I never imagined as a public school kid, a son of immigrants, but I’m ready to step up for my state.”

Kim cleared the field of his biggest challenger, the state’s first lady Tammy Murphy, when she dropped out of the race in March, bringing a sleepy end to a once-heated campaign for the seat held by Sen. Bob Menendez.

Menendez, who is on trial facing federal fraud and bribery charges, filed paperwork on Monday to run for reelection as an independent.

Kim would be the first Asian American to represent the state in the Senate and one of the chamber’s youngest members. He campaigned as a reform candidate and sued to change the state’s balloting system, which has for years benefitted county chairs who determined the layout of the ballots, affording their preferential candidates prime placement.

Kim beat two less-known Democrats in Tuesday’s primary, Patricia Campos-Medina, a labor leader and progressive activist, and Lawrence Hamm, a community activist who also ran for Senate in 2020.

Kim will face the Republican primary winner, Cape May County hotelier and developer Curtis Bashaw, 62, and possibly Menendez, in November.

New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate in more than 50 years. While Kim is favored to win in November due to the state’s majority Democratic electorate, Menendez’s presence on the ballot could act as a spoiler for Kim and put the Senate seat in play for the first time in years. That would, however, require Menendez to perform extremely well as a third-party candidate.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy narrowly won reelection in 2021, surprising political observers in the blue state. But turnout was extremely low in that race, and it’s expected to be far higher during a presidential election.

Kim ran a reform campaign but he’s no outsider to politics. He was elected to Congress in 2018, flipping a seat held by a Republican in a district that former President Donald Trump won in 2016. Before that, he had a career in public service working at the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House National Security Council, and in Afghanistan as an adviser to General David Petraeus.

Kim grew up in Moorestown, raised by parents who emigrated from South Korea. He still lives in the town today with his wife, Kammy, and their two sons, 6 and 8.

Kim announced he would run shortly after Menendez was indicted, jumping into a race in a state where the political power brokers would line up behind Tammy Murphy. The underdog early on, Kim galvanized support among progressive groups, grassroots voters, and eventually, establishment Democrats who had initially backed Murphy.

His successful lawsuit to abolish the state’s county-line ballot system for this Democratic primary represents one of the biggest shake-ups in New Jersey’s political history, and related litigation could end the system for future elections.

“People thought it was just part of New Jersey,” Kim said at his polling place on Tuesday, where he voted with his wife and kids. “But to actually have a ballot — probably the first time in a century that we haven’t had a county line system on our ballot — I think it is a start of a new era of great democracy in New Jersey.”

Voters at the polls responded to Kim’s reform message.

Inell Sutton, a 48-year-old caseworker, was much more interested in talking about voting for Kim than who he backed for president at the polls on Tuesday.

“I think he understands the struggles of the underprivileged and he’ll use his facilities to work for the people,” said Sutton, who later added he’d probably back Trump in the general election.

Dave Fleischer, an 83-year-old from Cherry Hill, voted for Kim on Tuesday. ”I like Andy Kim, I don’t know why but I just do,” he said. “I think he’s trustworthy.”

It was the first primary day in years that Menendez’s name did not appear on the ballot. Several voters said they would not consider voting for Menendez, who has represented the state in the Senate since 2006, in November.

“He blames his wife for his troubles,” George Murphy, 68, said after voting in Gloucester County, “just like that [Supreme Court Justice] Samuel Alito.” (Menendez’s wife Nadine is also charged in the fraud scheme.)

Ross Baker, a Senate historian and Rutgers University professor called it a historic primary day for the state.

“The Menendez indictment was just one step too far in the direction of cronyism that has categorized the state,” he said. “It was a stench in the nostrils of New Jersey voters and … accelerant to the feeling that it was really time for a very serious change in New Jersey politics.”

Staff writer Katie Bernard contributed to this report.