Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) has won a second county organizational line.
As expected, Kim defeated First Lady Tammy Murphy, his chief rival for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by indicted Senator Bob Menendez, at today’s Burlington County Democratic convention. County Democratic chair Joe Andl chose to not release the numbers publicly, but the New Jersey Globe learned that Kim won overwhelmingly: 245 votes to 21, a margin of 90%-8%.
“I’m really proud of that number,” Kim said. “For me to be able to receive over 90% of the vote in this county – that’s a big number… We’re feeling this energy in all 21 counties. I was up in Jersey City yesterday, hundreds of people showed up; hundreds of people in Bergen County the day before. We’re really excited about this all over the place.”
Murphy, meanwhile, said shortly before the results were announced that she knew today was going to be an away game for her campaign, but she was proud to have fought for support all the same.
“I’m going to show up at every convention, and I’m going to fight like heck,” Murphy said. “I just wanted to meet more people, so I’ll do anything I can to get in front of people and be able to talk to more people, hear more issues, and make sure I’ve got the right ideas in mind.”
For the last five years, Kim has represented nearly all of Burlington County in Congress, flipping a Republican-held seat in 2018 and holding it by increasing margins in the two cycles afterwards. Those races engendered tremendous loyalty for Kim among Burlington’s Democrats, hundreds of whom gathered in Mount Laurel today to decide their endorsements for Senate and House.
Prior to the convention, Kim had won endorsements from State Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Delran), probably the county’s most influential Democrat, and a bevy of local and county elected officials. His support appears to have been even higher among the party rank-and-file who made up most of today’s convention vote.
The one hope Murphy really had was convincing the Burlington Democratic organization to put both her and Kim on the county line, essentially declaring neutrality in the race between the two influential Democrats. But Kim said he’d only agree to such a deal if he and Murphy shared the line everywhere around the state, not just Burlington, and the idea went untouched at today’s convention.
Following his win in Monmouth County two weeks ago, Kim has now won the Senate primary’s first two open conventions, an encouraging start to his campaign. Murphy has officially won a county line of her own, in Passaic County, but that endorsement was determined by a closed-door screening committee rather than a proper convention.
Two other candidates running for the Democratic Senate nomination, activists Patricia Campos-Medina and Larry Hamm, did not appear at today’s convention, but were still on delegates’ ballots: Campos-Medina got three votes and Hamm got two. Menendez, too, was not present; he has not been seeking party support anywhere in the state following his explosive federal indictment (though he has not ruled out running for another term).
The convention result is another major victory, albeit a predictable one, for Kim, who launched his campaign against Menendez the day after the indictment was released. Murphy, meanwhile, is the choice of many of the state’s most powerful Democrats, including her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy, and six of the state’s nine Democratic House members.
Tomorrow, Kim will get another opportunity to prove his mettle in Hunterdon County, which is outside of his home territory but where convention delegates may be leaning in his favor anyways.
But in Kim’s ideal world, the process of wrangling over county lines wouldn’t be a part of the campaign at all. Kim, Campos-Medina, and Hamm have all called for abolishing the county line, with only Murphy speaking in support of it; surprisingly, their anti-line view was echoed today by Singleton, who said during the convention that he’d like to see the line system come to an end.