Gov. Phil Murphy reemphasized that he would vote for the entirety of the Democratic ticket come November but again avoided endorsing Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) by name.
Kim defeated Murphy’s wife, First Lady Tammy Murphy, to win the Democratic nomination for Senate. Murphy, who has known both Kim and Republican nominee Curtis Bashaw for years, garnered some attention last week when he told Semafor there were “two very good candidates” running, before implying he planned to vote for the Democrat.
“Just because I say that somebody’s a nice person doesn’t mean that that’s where my allegiance is going to fall,” Murphy told the Globe on Friday morning.
Murphy hasn’t explicitly endorsed Kim, leading to some speculation that the governor may be discontented with the representative. Murphy, for his part, has rejected that speculation.
“A lot of the press, and I’m not accusing anybody of this, would imply that there’s sort of some middle school drama between me and Andy Kim, which is just not true,” Murphy told a press gaggle after appointing George Helmy to the Senate earlier this month.
At an annual labor breakfast Friday morning, Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) said he unequivocally endorsed Kim for Senate.
“There is no middle ground there,” Norcross said. “He is the Democratic candidate for Senate and he will be our next senator, let’s be clear about it.”
Kim is running for Menendez’s longtime Senate seat. Murphy appointed Helmy, the governor’s former chief of staff, to replace the senior senator after federal bribery and conspiracy convictions led to his resignation.