Andy Kim has named his new campaign manager

Andy Kim has tapped a veteran political operative who worked for Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg to manage his U.S. Senate campaign.

Noah Dion spent the 2022 cycle running the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign.  On his watch, Josh Shapiro was elected governor by a 15-point margin, and John Fetterman won a U.S. Senate seat by five points; both defeated New Jersey men, Doug Mastriano of Hightstown and Mehmet Oz of Cliffside Park, respectively.

He was the deputy national vote-by-mail director for Biden during the 2020 general election.  In the Democratic presidential primaries, Dion was Buttigieg’s New Hampshire Organizing Director and Ohio State Director.   Kim has close ties to Buttigieg: they were Rhodes Scholars together, and following Cory Booker’s withdrawal, he endorsed the former South Bend, Indiana mayor for president.

Dion has run multiple campaigns in Ohio, and worked for the American Federation of Teachers and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“I’m excited to get to work on the ground in New Jersey to get Andy elected to the U.S. Senate,” Dion said in a fundraising email.  “As Andy is talking to folks in every corner of the state, I’m seeing with my own eyes what he’s been saying for a month: New Jerseyans are ready for a change.”

Kim, a former Obama White House staffer, narrowly ousted a two-term Republican incumbent in 2018 and was re-elected in 2020 and 2022.  He won a district that Donald Trump carried twice and has beaten self-funding Republicans three times.

He entered the Senate race on September 23, one day after the Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging three-term incumbent Bob Menendez with corruption.

Menendez has not said if he will seek re-election – a recent poll put his job approval rating at just 8%, with 71% of New Jerseyans saying he should resign.

First Lady Tammy Murphy is expected to join the race, which already includes former Newark school board member Lawrence Hamm, the founder of the People’s Organization for Progress, and newcomer Kyle Jasey, the son of Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-South Orange).