Gloucester County Democrats tonight endorsed Tammy Murphy for U.S. Senate after a vote of the county committee ratified the recommendation of the screening committee.
Murphy won a voice vote. A Democratic leader in the room for the vote described Murphy’s margin as overwhelming, with just handful of county committee members voting against her.
This is Murphy’s eighth organization line, something that may or may not be valuable by next week, depending on how U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi rules in a lawsuit filed by Murphy’s opponent, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), that is going on right now.
The Gloucester endorsement was expected; the Democratic county chairman, Chad Bruner, had endorsed Murphy in January.
Gloucester made up 3.8% of the statewide votes cast in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
Murphy secured the organization line in Camden County on Saturday; Camden and Gloucester combined represent 10.7% of the state’s Democratic voter registration. Both counties – Camden especially – can potentially overperform their numbers due to a mature vote-by-mail program. Last year, 74% of all votes cast by Camden County in the primary election were through mail-in ballot – sixteen percentage points higher than the second-place county.
South Jersey was once of united kingdom of sorts: in the 2008 Senate primary, Rep. Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) won 71% of the vote in the seven South Jersey counties in his primary challenge to incumbent Frank Lautenberg.
But Kim, a three-term South Jersey congressman, has won organization lines in Atlantic and Burlington and wrestled Murphy to a draw in Cape May.
Kim has won secret ballot convention victories in Monmouth, Burlington, Hunterdon, Sussex, Warren, Ocean, Mercer, Atlantic, and Morris.
Murphy prevailed in a secret ballot convention in Bergen and has scored lines in Passaic, Union, Somerset, Middlesex, Hudson, and Camden. She is also expected to get Essex.
Two very small South Jersey counties, Salem and Cumberland, have not yet voted. Salem votes on Saturday, although it was one of two counties – Sussex is the other – that utilizes office block voting; Cumberland is on March 25.