After a whirlwind primary campaign that resolved into a sleepy final few months, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) is now officially the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, the New Jersey Globe projects.
As of 12:40 a.m., Kim has 75% of the vote, well ahead of his two opponents: labor activist Patricia Campos-Medina has 16%, and former Newark school board member Larry Hamm has 9%.
“Our win today is a stunning victory for a people-powered movement that mobilized against corruption and stood up to the machine politics of New Jersey,” Kim said in a statement on his victory. “I took the chance to run for Senate eight months ago on the belief that people are fed up with our broken politics and are ready for a new generation of leadership fighting for change. What I found is that there is a deep hunger ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM for a different kind of politics grounded in integrity and public service that aims to rebuild trust.”
At this time last year, Kim was plugging away in his third term in the House; he was first elected in 2018, narrowly defeating Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-Toms River) in one of the pivotal races that decided control of the House that year. Unlike some of his New Jersey colleagues, Kim wasn’t clearly maneuvering for any higher office, and seemed destined for a long career in the House.
But on September 22, everything changed. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges, prompting calls for his resignation from every corner of New Jersey politics; Kim entered the race for his seat the very next day, saying that New Jersey needed a candidate who would “restore faith in our democracy.”
Kim’s entrance earned him a grassroots following and a big early fundraising haul, but New Jersey’s Democratic party leaders – who commanded a huge amount of power through their endorsements – had their eyes on someone else. First Lady Tammy Murphy, the wife of Gov. Phil Murphy and a political power player in her own right, entered the race in November, and it quickly became clear that she was the preferred candidate of the state’s Democratic elite.
The four months that followed were among the most hectic in recent New Jersey history. Kim, undeterred by Murphy’s institutional support, forged ahead with his campaign and brought the fight against Murphy to each and every Democratic county convention in the state. By the end of convention season, Kim had won nine county conventions, including in some places that had seemed inhospitable to him at the beginning of the campaign.
In February, Kim also filed a lawsuit against the county line, the ballot design system that lets county party-endorsed endorsed candidates group with one another on primary ballots. Despite his many convention wins, Kim was still set to run “off-the-line” in much of the state, which he said would constitute an unfair disadvantage to his campaign despite his polling lead over Murphy.
Before the line lawsuit could be resolved, however, Murphy decided to make it moot. On March 24, having been bruised by a rough convention season and seeing that her path to victory was a bloody and expensive one, the first lady exited the race. Kim, an apparent underdog just a few months earlier, was suddenly the heavy frontrunner for the Democratic Senate nomination.
A few days after Murphy’s exit, Kim got his wish on the line lawsuit, with a federal judge striking down the county line in this year’s Democratic primary. (A broader case against the line that would apply to future years, and to Republicans, is still underway.)
Even with Murphy’s exit, Kim wasn’t left entirely uncontested; Campos-Medina and Hamm had both been running for months as more left-wing alternatives to the two mainstream Democratic frontrunners, and continued their campaigns in Murphy’s absence. Campos-Medina in particular ran a real campaign, competing at county conventions and getting a few notable endorsements.
But Kim’s advantages were far too great for them to overcome, having already raised millions of dollars and established a loyal following among New Jersey Democrats, moderate and progressive alike. The question going into today was not whether Kim would win, but by how much.
Kim now heads to the general election, where he’ll go up against one of two Republicans, Curtis Bashaw or Christine Serrano Glassner. Their primary remains too early to call, though either would start out as the substantial underdog against Kim in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican senator in 50 years.
As for Menendez, he filed more than 2,000 petition signatures yesterday to make the ballot as an independent candidate, saying that he’ll soon prove his innocence in court. Menendez still has lots of time to withdraw – that deadline isn’t until August – but if he does forge ahead with an independent campaign, it could complicate matters for Democrats, who would have to deal with the three-term senator potentially siphoning votes away from Kim.