NJ Senate race: Andy Kim easily beats Tammy Murphy for Democratic nod on his home turf

MOUNT LAUREL — U.S. Rep. Andy Kim routed first lady Tammy Murphy, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, on his home turf Saturday at the Burlington County Democratic Convention.

According to unofficial tallies, Kim grabbed 245 votes to Murphy's 21. Other candidates — Patricia Campos-Medina, a Latina activist and union organizer, and Lawrence Hamm, a social justice advocate from Newark — also received votes, but those numbers were not immediately available.

The candidates are vying for the party's nod in the June 4 primary to succeed U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, the Democrat who was accused by federal prosecutors of accepting bribes while acting as a foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar.

Menendez denies the charges and has not ruled out the possibility of running for reelection this year, although he did not compete in the Burlington convention Saturday and the prospects of his running again appear to be unlikely.

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The outcome was widely expected. Kim, who was raised in Evesham Township and has represented most of Burlington County since entering Congress in 2019, is a popular figure here. Leading up to Saturday's event, Kim snapped up a slew of endorsements from prominent Democratic county officials, including state Sen. Troy Singleton, who has emerged in recent years as perhaps the county's most powerful Democrat.

The win confers on Kim the valuable endorsement of the Burlington County machine. In practical terms, that means he will be bracketed on the June 4 primary ballot on the same "line" or column led by President Joe Biden and with other endorsed candidates for Congress and local offices. Organizational line candidates almost always win.

"We have some scary moments and scary things going on in our country and in our world right now," Kim said to a standing-room-only crowd of 300 packed inside the auditorium of Rowan College at Burlington County before the voting started.

"We face some real existential threats, real challenges at deep levels, whether that's what we see on Jan. 6th and what we see going on around the world," he added referring to the riot of supporters of President Donald Trump just before he left office in 2021. "We're in this together."

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In the county-by-county contest for party support, Saturday's vote has limited value. Burlington's 140,000 registered Democrats represent just 5.6% of the 2.5 million voters eligible to cast ballots in the Democratic primary.

Yet the victory is certain to add to the perception that grassroots momentum continues to build behind Kim's buck-the-machine candidacy. Earlier this month, Kim stunned the political establishment by notching a blowout victory over Murphy in Monmouth County, where the Murphy family has lived for 25 years. He is also expected to win the smaller Hunterdon County convention on Sunday.

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The first lady still has considerable advantages in her corner, winning the endorsements of county bosses in the Democratic Party strongholds of Essex, Hudson, Middlesex and Bergen counties. In those counties, the party leaders' endorsement has an enormous sway in the nominating process.

Many of the leaders in those Democrat-rich counties endorsed Murphy shortly after she jumped into the race in November, a move that signaled an attempt to create an aura of inevitability about her campaign and derail Kim before he got any traction.

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In her pitch to the committee delegates, Murphy argued that a woman senator could be a reliable and determined foe of the right-wing, Trumpian extremism that has engulfed the Republican Party and wields power in Congress. If elected, Murphy would be the first woman senator from New Jersey.

"We need more ticked-off moms who are beholden only to our children in Washington, D.C.," she told the audience before the vote. "We need a senator who's going to be a champion for women and girls and stop right-wing extremists who want to ban abortion in all 50 states."

But many of Murphy's institutional advantages may have turned into potential liabilities for her, sparking accusations that she sought to coast to the nomination with the help of husband Gov. Phil Murphy's grip on Democratic Party insiders. The charges of nepotism have dogged the campaign from the moment she stepped into the ring.

Kim has constantly attacked Murphy as a dubious Democrat, who raised thousands of dollars for Republicans dating back to the late 1990s, including former President George W. Bush. Although Murphy also gave to prominent Democrats at the time — including Al Gore, Bush's opponent in the 2000 presidential race — she remained a registered Republican as recently as 2014.

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The result has been a rocky start for Murphy, who has trailed in opinion polls. Her campaign also announced last week the departure of her campaign manager, Max Glass. No replacement was named.

Kim, meanwhile, has cast himself around the state as the most reliable Democratic Party choice to win in the general election by frequently citing his record of flipping the 3rd Congressional District in 2018 and his consistent opposition to Trump policies since taking office.

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Murphy has tried to muddy that record by citing several procedural votes that aligned with the Trump agenda. Yet, on Friday, the Kim campaign circulated a photo, first published by the Daily Beast, of the Murphys posing in a group shot with Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, son of the disgraced New Jersey developer Charles Kushner.

Talking to reporters after Saturday's event, Murphy defended the appearance as the result of responsible diplomacy that her husband conducted with the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor maintained that the open channels with Trump helped the state secure needed supplies and relief from the federal government.

"We're never going to progress as a country if we are … constantly sitting at the table with people who are thinking the same way and we're watching the same news feeds," she argued. "If we had not reached across the aisle during COVID to get the PPE [personal protective equipment], to get the ventilators, people would have died in our state."

Yet the Daily Beast account says the picture was taken at a Somerset County restaurant in July 2023, nearly 2½ years after Trump left office.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Senate race: Kim trounces Murphy on Burlington County home turf