Seth Wenig/AP/File
Representative Andy Kim addresses delegates in Paramus, New Jersey, March 4, 2024.
CNN
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Rep. Andy Kim will win the Democratic nomination for the New Jersey Senate, according to CNN, placing him as the favorite to succeed the indicted senator. Bob Menendez in this deep blue state.
Kim, a three-term congressman from South Jersey, entered the race in September, the day after Menendez was indicted on bribery and corruption charges. He quickly became the frontrunner, even when New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy launched her campaign later that fall. But in the face of growing accusations of nepotism and a grassroots progressive backlash, Murphy dropped out of the race in March.
With Murphy gone, Kim appeared poised to advance to the Senate, in a state where a Republican was last elected in 1972. Menendez, who is on trial in New York, announced in March that he would not would not show up. the Democratic primary. But on Monday, he filed as an independent — a move that could make the race more unpredictable with control of the Senate at stake. Democrats hold a slim majority in the House but face a tough landscape this fall .
A 41-year-old former diplomat and son of Korean immigrants, Kim was the first Asian American elected to Congress from New Jersey.
His anti-corruption message and the success of his high-profile legal challenge to New Jersey Democrats’ lopsided voting design — which favored candidates backed by the party machine — quickly made the congressman a hero to progressives.