Andy Kim wins in New Jersey to become the first Korean American senator

Rep. Andy Kim was elected Tuesday to the U.S. Senate by a decisive margin, according to The Associated Press, after a tumultuous campaign that grew out of a corruption scandal that engulfed New Jersey’s former senator, Bob Menendez, a once-powerful Democrat.

Kim’s campaign was defined by his ability to vanquish New Jersey’s first lady, Tammy Murphy, and topple a long-standing source of electoral power for the state’s Democratic and Republican political machines.

A son of immigrants, Kim, 42, a Democrat, will become the first Korean American in the Senate and its third-youngest member when he takes the oath of office.

Kim is expected to be sworn in later this month, in an arrangement laid out by the governor when Menendez resigned after being convicted of peddling his political influence for bribes of gold bars, $480,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.

“We showed that politics isn’t some exclusive club, just for the well-off and the well-connected,” Kim told supporters gathered in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to celebrate his victory.

“I believe that the opposite of democracy is apathy, and, by extension, I hope that you see our campaign as a means of being the opposite of that helplessness,” he added.

Kim was leading his Republican opponent, Curtis Bashaw, by about 10 points two hours after polls closed.

After a turbulent Democratic primary, the matchup between Kim and Bashaw was notable for its civility.

When a podcaster took a jab at Kim’s Korean heritage, Bashaw quickly denounced the comments and defended his opponent as a “good man and a patriotic American who has dedicated much of his life to public service.” When Bashaw, 64, became lightheaded during a debate, Kim was the first person by his side, steadying a lectern that Bashaw was gripping to stop him from falling.

“I am so proud of what we accomplished tonight,” Bashaw told supporters in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, as he conceded the race. “Instead of tearing people down, we are building something bigger. We are building a bigger and better Republican Party together, a party of people who believe in greater freedom and a vital economy to create more opportunities.”

Democrats outnumber Republicans in New Jersey by more than 900,000 voters, and the state has not elected a Republican senator in 52 years. Kim raised three times as much in campaign contributions, and Bashaw, a hotel developer from south Jersey who ran as a political outsider, consistently trailed in polls, leaving few people in doubt of Tuesday’s result.

Still, the start of Kim’s campaign was replete with perhaps enough political intrigue for an entire election cycle.

He jumped into the contest the day after Menendez, 70, was accused by federal prosecutors in Manhattan of being at the center of a yearslong international bribery scheme. Two months later, Murphy also entered the race for the Democratic nomination.

Murphy, a fundraising powerhouse, was a first-time candidate with limited experience. Her candidacy was almost entirely dependent on the support of county political leaders beholden to the Democratic governor, Phil Murphy. That combination of factors led critics — and Kim — to denounce her campaign as an example of the same political self-dealing that had allowed Menendez to thrive.

She dropped out before the primary election.

Before she quit, however, Kim, a third-term House member from south Jersey, filed a federal lawsuit that sought to dismantle the state’s decades-old primary ballot design that gave county political leaders outsize power.

Candidates favored by local political bosses have for years been awarded prominent ballot positions in a row or column known as “the line.” The names of unendorsed candidates appeared off to the side, in so-called ballot Siberia, and generally lost.

Kim won the legal challenge, and in late March a federal judge ordered clerks to redesign the ballots, upending politics in a state often seen as synonymous with political corruption.

Menendez faces a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced Jan. 29.

In August, he stepped down from a Senate seat he had held for 18 years and said he would not run for reelection. His decision came weeks after a jury convicted him of acting as an agent of Egypt, taking bribes and obstructing justice, and left Murphy with the opportunity to install a temporary replacement in the narrowly divided Senate.

The governor declined to appoint Kim, who won the Democratic primary with nearly 75% of the vote. Instead, Murphy named his former chief of staff, George Helmy, to the post.

Helmy has said he will resign after Tuesday’s vote is certified Nov. 27. At that point, Murphy is expected to appoint Kim to the job, roughly a month before the 119th U.S. Congress takes the oath of office in January.

Before flipping a Republican seat in the House in 2018, Kim worked in foreign policy in Washington. For a time, he advised Gen. David Petraeus, then the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. At age 31, Kim became the only member of the National Security Council advising President Barack Obama on Iraq.

But to the large and vibrant Korean American community in New Jersey, he is known more for his parents’ roots in Korea and his immigrant upbringing.

Jonghun Kapsong Kim, 59, a director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action in Palisades Park, New Jersey, immigrated from Korea as a teenager, but said he often still feels like an outsider in New York City and New Jersey.

Andy Kim’s election to the Senate, he said, “means you can feel confident that we are finally part of this country.”