Kim has over $500k banked for ’24 re-election

Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) raised a solid $469,303 during the first quarter of 2023 and has $515,567 cash-on-hand as he prepares to seek re-election to a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 3rd district next year.

Kim’s fundraising numbers remain robust, and he faces considerably less pressure to raise money in a district that became substantially more Democratic under a new map adopted after the 2020 U.S. Census.

So far, no Republicans have forward to challenge Kim in a district that the 40-year-old former Obama White House staffer appears to have made safe until the next decade.

Last year, Kim was re-elected by twelve percentage points against Republican Bob Healey, a businessman who spent nearly $4.3 million.  A super PAC, Garden State Advance, spent roughly $2.3 million more; most of that came from Healey’s mother.

Congressional redistricting removed staunchly Republican Ocean County from the 3rd district, which Kim lost by almost fifteen points in 2020, and instead added more of Burlington County, along with parts of western Monmouth, and Hamilton, Lawrence, East Windsor, and Hightstown in Mercer.   Donald Trump won the old 3rd district twice.

Healey was Kim’s third self-funding opponent.

In 2018, Kim ousted two-term Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-Toms River) by 3,973 votes, 50%-49%; MacArthur had won the seat in 2014 after self-funding his own primary.   He defeated former Hill International CEO David Richter by eight percentage points in 2020.

None of Kim’s money comes from corporate PACs.

Kim grew up in Evesham as the son of Korean immigrants.  He graduated from the University of Chicago and was a Rhodes Scholar.  He served in the Obama White House on the National Security staff after working at the U.S. Department of State and served in Afghanistan as a civilian advisor to two U.S. Army generals, David Petraeus and John Allen.

He gained national attention when he was photographed picking up garbage in the U.S. Capitol after the events of January 6, 2021, and for speaking out after acts of violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

In his third term, Kim has become the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, which impacts the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the state’s second-largest employer.  He also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.