Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) has won the first-in-the-state Monmouth County Democratic convention, defeating First Lady Tammy Murphy in a hugely consequential vote that could reshape New Jersey’s intense Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
With hundreds of local party leaders and elected officials gathering in Long Branch today, Kim received 265 votes to Murphy’s 181, a margin of 57% to 39%.
In third place was Patricia Campos-Medina, a longtime labor activist who got 20 votes. Former Newark school board member Larry Hamm, who was on delegates’ ballots but withdrew from the convention shortly before the vote, received zero votes; indicted incumbent Senator Bob Menendez did not file for the convention at all.
Kim’s resounding win may go a long way towards proving to New Jersey’s Democratic leadership that he is, in fact, a highly viable contender against Murphy, whose marriage to New Jersey’s most powerful Democrat made her a formidable candidate from the day she entered the race.
“This is what we’re feeling all over the state,” Kim said shortly after the results were announced. “It’s good to see it actually in numbers here. What we’re seeing here in Monmouth County, the energy that we see in this room, we’re seeing in 20 other counties across the state. We’re fired up, and we’re ready to get to June 4th.”
One of Murphy’s top lieutenants, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), said Murphy was going to keep up the battle through future counties and the primary.
“I’m disappointed, but we’re going to continue the fight,” Pallone said. “I strongly believe that Tammy Murphy will win the primary, and we’re going to fight to make sure that she wins in Monmouth County as well.” Pallone said he has not yet made a decision about whether to run off-the-line with Murphy or bracket with Kim on the official Monmouth line for his own re-election campaign.
In a statement, a Murphy spokesperson pointed to Murphy’s simultaneous win today in Passaic County – something that was preordained months ago when the Passaic Democratic chairman endorsed her – and thanked the Monmouth delegates who did support Murphy’s campaign.
“Tammy is grateful for all the votes she received today from Monmouth County and is thankful to all the delegates that stayed in the room during the long day,” spokesperson Alex Altman said. “Tammy congratulated Andy on a hard fought win today in Monmouth and she looks forward to continuing her work to build a strong coalition across the state and earning the support of New Jersey voters.”
Going into today’s event, the first open Democratic county convention of the year, both Kim and Murphy were seen as having a solid chance of winning, with Murphy as perhaps a slight favorite.
Each has strong connections to the Jersey Shore-based county: Murphy and her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy, have lived there for decades, while Kim represents around one-quarter of the county’s residents in Congress. The governor was present as a voting delegate at today’s convention, and was an active surrogate for the first lady’s campaign leading up to the vote.
Kim’s victory means that he’ll now have the county Democratic organization’s official party line, a controversial mechanism that groups all party-endorsed candidates together in the same row or column on primary ballots. Candidates running on the line typically have a substantial advantage over those running without it; since Monmouth County makes up more than 5% of the statewide Democratic primary vote, the electoral implications of today’s convention are significant.
But the symbolic implications may go even further. Murphy is the preferred choice of many top Democratic leaders around the state, and she’s already guaranteed a place on the party line in many big counties like Essex (home to Newark) and Hudson (home to Jersey City). That’s led some observers to call her the race’s frontrunner even though Kim has led in every publicly released poll.
By winning the Monmouth convention, though, Kim has proven that Murphy won’t be able to sweep up county parties with small-d democratic endorsement votes so easily. Two other counties with similar convention processes, Burlington and Hunterdon, are set to make their own endorsements in two weeks.
Kim has in fact called for the county line system to be abolished, saying that it confers an unfair and undemocratic advantage; Campos-Medina and Hamm have said the same thing, while Murphy is supportive of the system. But Kim decided to compete in the county line system anyways, arguing that it’s better to try to change the system from within.
The race for Senate was kicked off in September, when an explosive federal indictment was released against Menendez, a three-term Democrat who was until recently the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kim launched his campaign against Menendez the day after the charges were made public; Murphy joined the race a month and a half later.
The next month and a half will be critical for both Kim and Murphy, who will want to win as many county lines as possible heading into the primary election. But both are set to continue their campaigns through the June 4 primary regardless of how those county endorsements go.
A growing field of candidates are also running on the GOP side, most prominently Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, South Jersey developer Curtis Bashaw, and former News12 reporter Alex Zdan. Republicans haven’t won a Senate seat in New Jersey since 1972, though, and few expect this year to be the year that changes.
This story was updated at 2:36 p.m. with comment from Murphy’s campaign.