The National Organization for Women (NOW) has endorsed Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) over Tammy Murphy in the Democratic primary, eschewing the chance to send the first woman from New Jersey to the United States Senate.
The NOW endorsement comes three weeks after NOW-NJ voted to recommend Kim – and despite deep fissures within the state group.
A second woman, activist Patricia Campos-Medina, is also in the race.
NOW is the nation’s largest grassroots women’s advocacy group and their endorsement comes hours before the Hunterdon County Democratic convention.
“I want to thank the New Jersey chapter of NOW for recommending this endorsement, and to the National Organization for Women for placing their trust in me to fight for the women of this country in the Senate,” Kim said. “I also want to thank both chapters for recognizing that the fight for equal rights and ending discrimination transcends gender lines. I have consistently taken on Republicans in Congress to protect women’s rights and close the inequality gap and have the experience needed to be ready on day one to take on Senate Republicans. I look forward to partnering with members of NOW NJ and others across New Jersey throughout the election cycle to knock on doors, make calls, and get out the vote.”
As a congressman, Kim has strongly supported reproductive rights, equal rights, and closing the gender pay gap. He co-sponsored legislation to provide access to women’s reproductive health care as ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee.
The NOW vice president, Bear Atwood, has strong New Jersey ties. She served as a deputy state attorney general and president of NOW-NJ in the 1990s; later, she became the legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi and now serves as that state’s NOW chair. And one of their national board members, Anjali Mehrotra, is supporting Murphy after initially backing Kim.
Murphy has the endorsement of EMILYs List.
New Jersey Democrats have not nominated a woman for U.S. Senate since 1930, when 32-year-old Thelma Parkinson was slotted to run for a ten-week unexpired term in a bid by party leaders to attract women who had been voting for just a decade to back their candidate for six-year-term, Alexander Simpson, a state senator from Jersey City.
New Jersey is one of seventeen states that have never been represented by a woman in the Senate. In addition to Parkinson, Republicans Millicent Fenwick (1982), Mary Mochary (1984), and Christine Whitman (1990) ran unsuccessfully.
See here for a full list of endorsements in New Jersey’s 2024 congressional contests.