Andy Kim will officially kick off his Senate campaign Friday. Can he beat the machine?
Rep. Andy Kim is running to replace Sen. Bob Menendez and will likely face competition from New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, along with other potential candidates.
U.S. Rep. Andy Kim officially launched his campaign to replace scandal-plagued Sen. Bob Menendez at a rally in South Jersey on Friday night.
Kim (D., Burlington) first announced his run the day after Menendez, a Democrat, was indicted on corruption charges in September. Menendez has maintained his innocence, and was again indicted in October over accusations that he used his powerful role as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee to aid Egypt.
The congressman was the first to jump into the race but Tammy Murphy, the wife of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, is expected to announce a run soon.
Kim said Thursday that Menendez’s refusal to step down pushed him to run.
“I felt like there needed to be a very quick, and immediate and strong response to his very quick, immediate and strong response that he’s not going anywhere,” said Kim.
Kim’s team touted raising nearly $1 million within a week of his campaign .
Kim celebrated his campaign launch at Double Nickel Brewing Co. It’s the same place he launched his first congressional campaign in 2017 for the 2018 election, when he expected a handful of people to show up but was faced with hundreds, he said. That event gave him the first sense he may “actually be able to win” that race, he said.
“It’s really exciting to come back to that with new stakes and to understand, look, I could very well pull this off and have the great honor of being able to represent my entire home state in the United States Senate,” he said.
Who is Andy Kim?
An image of Kim cleaning up the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot went viral in 2021, and the blue J. Crew suit he wore is now part of the Smithsonian’s collection. But he wasn’t always so recognizable.
A Rhodes scholar who served as a national security officer under former President Barack Obama, “no one” knew who he was when he first ran, he said.
He ended up flipping the South Jersey seat that was held by former U.S. Rep. Tom MacArthur, a two-term Republican, in a district that former President Donald Trump won by six points in 2016.
Kim would be the first Asian American U.S. Senator from New Jersey, and he has a lot of support with the state’s growing AAPI community.
In terms of his political profile, Kim is known to be a left-of-center, likable politician with credentials in D.C. as a strong policy maker.
The race could be a test of the New Jersey Democratic power center
The way the race looks now, Kim will be the candidate running outside of the traditional Democratic machine support that has elected state-wide politicians in New Jersey before.
In New Jersey, Democratic county chair endorsements, and those of the committees they run, hold significant power and Kim’s candidacy could be a test of that system.
Traditionally — though with some exceptions — the candidate who has the backing of the most powerful county chairs goes on to win committee support at conventions and benefits from support those committees generate at the polls on primary day.
When Murphy ran for governor he carried “the county line,” with support from all 21 county Democratic committees. County chairs in six North and Central Jersey counties — all outside of Kim’s territory — tend to hold most political power in the state.
When he entered the Senate race, Kim said he thought New Jerseyans would welcome a change from the way things have worked politically in the state. He is branding himself as being able to bring that change along with the experience of three terms in Congress.
But perhaps most importantly, he is hoping to sell himself as someone voters can trust, especially after Menendez’s indictment. A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll conducted earlier this year found that most residents believe their politicians are corrupt and support for Menendez has hit single digits, with the majority of New Jersey voters saying he should resign in an October poll.
Some progressive Democrats, who have long fought against the line, have already rallied behind Kim, like the influential South Orange and Maplewood-based SOMA Action group.
“This is the real test of the New Jersey line that progressives have been fighting for years and years and years,” Democratic political strategist Bill Caruso, who is neutral in the race, said.
Tammy Murphy’s expected run — and support from ‘the line’
Kim isn’t the only one throwing his hat into the ring for the chance to replace Menendez. That being said, he made clear on Thursday that he is committed to running in the May primary, “regardless of who comes in.”
Tammy Murphy is preparing to launch a bid for the same seat. Though she has not publicly commented on the run yet, she has registered a campaign website url and Facebook candidate page, according to New Jersey Globe.
Murphy, a Democrat with a business background who left the Republican Party less than 10 years ago, has never run for office. But she has the benefit of six years playing an active role her husband’s administration, working in communities across the state.
It’s early, but several political observers in New Jersey predict she will get county line support across the state. Though it will be particularly interesting what Democratic chairs in Kim’s South Jersey district do.
Gov. Murphy is the most powerful Democrat in the state — and a popular one — which could boost her campaign. But she’ll also likely face criticisms associated with her husband. One political insider conversely described Kim’s record as “squeaky clean.”
Murphy and her team declined to comment on Thursday.
What do the polls say?
An October poll showed a similar starting position for both Murphy and Kim.
Kim was slightly better known but 43% of Democrats and independents said they needed more information to form an opinion of him, 52% said they viewed him favorably and 5% unfavorably.
Asked about Murphy, 66% of Democrats and independent voters said they couldn’t say, 29% had a favorable opinion, and 5% an unfavorable opinion.
Who else is running?
Menendez has not officially said whether or not he plans to run for reelection, though he cryptically told reporters last month: “When I make that decision I will announce it. I will announce it when it comes time.”
Kyle Jasey, a real estate lender who also hasn’t run for office before, is also campaigning for the seat. Jasey also has familial ties to Garden State politics as the son of North Jersey Assemblywoman Mila Jasey.
Lawrence Hamm, a progressive activist and Newark school board member who challenged Sen. Corey Booker in the 2020 primaries, will also be running.
While Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D., Essex) was mentioned as a potential candidate, she told New Jersey Globe that she will not be running.
Reps. Donald Norcross (D., Camden), Josh Gottheimer (D., Bergen), and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D., Long Branch) have also been floated as contenders, though their campaigns didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The field won’t be set in stone until April, the deadline to launch a run, and the Democratic primary will be held in June.