Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) won the Democratic New Jersey Senate Primary Tuesday and will move on to the general election, where he will vie to unseat indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) in November.
Kim crushed the Democratic slate of opponents, cruising to victory with 82% support.
“Just saw the news,” Kim wrote on X after the Associated Press projected as the winner with less than 30% of the vote in. “Thank you for this incredible win!”
Rep. Andy Kim claimed the New Jersey Democratic Senate primary Tuesday. AP
Kim now moves on to face embattled Sen. Bob Menendez. New York Post“What we achieved over the last 8 months is remarkable,” he added. “We built a stunningly powerful grassroots movement that took down the unfair ballot line and changed NJ politics forever. Now we are ready to take our movement for change to the US Senate!”
The 41-year-old Garden State 3rd District representative and former Obama administration State Department official launched his bid for the Senate last November, just weeks after Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges.
He was all but assured victory after previously staving off a challenge for the seat from Tammy Murphy, the wife of Gov. Phil Murphy.
Menendez, 70, announced Monday that he would compete to keep his seat as an independent.
In the Republican Senate primary, hotel entrepreneur Curtis Bashaw defeated his Trump-backed opponent, Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, by a 46% to 38.7% margin.
“They said we couldn’t win this primary against the odds, against a very powerful endorsement, but we did it, and we did it together!” Bashaw told his supporters Tuesday, calling himself “a political outsider who can deliver results” and decrying the state’s “one-party Democratic monopoly.”
“Oh, and in case you didn’t hear, I’m running not against not one, but two machine Democrats this November,” he added, referring to Kim and Menendez.
Polls have shown that if Menendez’s independent bid is approved by state elections officials, his support would cut into Kim’s margin over the Republican nominee in a three-way race.
The 64-year-old Bashaw, however, still faces long odds.
New Jersey voters haven’t elected a Republican to the Senate in 52 years, and Democrats hold a nearly 1 million person registration advantage in the state over the GOP.
Former President Donald Trump lost the Garden State to President Biden by a 16-point margin in 2020.
