A new internal poll conducted by Andy Kim’s campaign gives the three-term congressman a 23-point lead over First Lady Tammy Murphy in the race for New Jersey’s United States Senate seat.
Kim leads Murphy, 45%-22% among likely Democratic primary voters, with the three-term incumbent, Bob Menendez, receiving just 6% of the vote in the months following his indictment on federal corruption charges. A fourth candidate, former New Newark school board Lawrence Hamm, is at 4%. An additional 6% of Democrats said they are waiting for a different candidate.
A former Obama White House staffer who ousted a two-term Republican in a 2018 South Jersey House race, Kim has statewide favorables of 42%-7%, with more than half the likely primary electorate (51%) still unfamiliar with him.
Murphy, a business owner and philanthropist who has been first lady for nearly six years – her husband is two-term Gov. Phil Murphy – has favorables of 35%-18% statewide, with 47% of Democrats not familiar enough with her to form an opinion.
The poll gives Kim a 17-point lead over Murphy among women, a 42-point lead among Democratic primary voters who self-identify as progressives, and 19 points ahead among Democrats who say they are moderates.
Kim’s lead jumps to 58%-23%, after likely Democratic primary voters receive positive information about both candidates. Kim’s pollsters, Amy Levin, and Patrick Toomey, said they pulled statements from Murphy’s campaign website and public communications.
“People are done with our corrupt broken politics and overwhelmingly want to vote for someone who will fight to restore integrity,” Kim said on social media after the release of the poll.
Menendez, who has spent 31 years in Washington and over 40 years in public office, saw his job approvals plummet to a devastating 8% in a public poll released one month after the Justice Department unsealed an indictment alleging he took bribes and conspired to deliver a lucrative Halal meat contract from the Egyptian government to a company with close ties to his wife and co-defendant, Nadine. Later, Menendez was also charged with illegally acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.
Kim entered the race on September 23, one day after Menendez was indicted. He was the first prominent New Jersey Democrat to call for Menendez’s resignation.
In an internal poll released last month on the day Murphy announced her Senate bid, Kim led by 19 points, 40%-21%, with Menendez at 5% and 34% of the Democrats still undecided.
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) has not closed the door to a U.S. Senate run. Last week, he participated in a virtual interview with Democratic municipal chairs in Union County, one of the counties he represented in Congress for four years. The group also met with Kim and Murphy.
The poll, conducted by Breakthrough Campaigns between December 7-14, had a survey size of 1,040 likely primary voters and a margin of error of +/- 3.%.
This story was updated at 12:22 PM with comment from Kim. Correction: an earlier version of this story misstated Menendez’s poll numbers. He is at 6%.