Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim was elected Tuesday to the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw for the seat that opened when Bob Menendez resigned this year after his federal conviction on bribery charges.
Kim, a three-term congressman from the 3rd District, in central New Jersey, becomes the first Korean-American in the Senate. In a recent interview, he said that accomplishment would validate his parents’ decision 50 years ago to immigrate to the United States. He was the state’s first Asian-American to be elected to Congress when he defeated a Republican incumbent in 2018.
In his first media interview after he declared victory in New Jersey’s Senate race, Democratic Rep. Andy Kim told NBC News that he was still taking it all in.
“I’m here with my mom and my dad. I’m here with my wife, with my two sons — three generations in the same room,” said Kim, 42. “It’s a lot to process, but I’m really proud.”
Kim said he hopes constituents see him as “somebody who’s trying to usher in a new era of politics.”
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“We live in a time of such great distrust in government, and I really do think that that poses a deep, deep concern and threat to our society,” Kim said. “That’s a big reason why I stepped up to run for Senate, jumped in the day after the indictment of the senator, because I felt like we needed to change course.”
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A former Obama administration national security aide, Kim was a Rhodes Scholar and has a Ph.D. from Oxford. He’s presented himself as an unassuming, hard-working official and gained national attention in 2021 when he was spotted cleaning up the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection, bagging trash.
His victory keeps a reliably Democratic seat under his party’s control. He is also expected to take up the seat sooner than January because of Menendez’s resignation. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has said that George Helmy, who is serving the remainder of Menendez’s term, will step down and the winner of Tuesday’s election would be appointed.
Kim was first elected to Congress by defeating Republican Tom MacArthur, an ally of former president Donald Trump ally. He’s now been re-elected three times. During the campaign, Kim said he would oppose tax breaks for the wealthy and support abortion rights.
Bashaw personally financed his campaign with at least $1 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. He gained the GOP nomination in June when he defeated a Trump-backed rival. A first-time candidate, he’s served on several boards including for Stockton University and a state tourism panel.
Bashaw, 64, has said he considers himself a moderate, pointing out he supports abortion rights and is a married gay man.
“When my party’s right, I will support it. But when my party’s not right, I’ll stand up against it,” he said recently. “I am a moderate, common sense person that will work to be a voice for New Jersey.”
As much daylight as Bashaw invited voters to see between himself and the GOP, he backed Trump, who’s been a lightning rod in the state.
Kim seized on that in a recent debate. During a discussion of considering presidential appointments if elected to the Senate, Kim questioned Bashaw’s discernment based on supporting Trump.
“The one endorsement that he has made is for Donald Trump to be president of the United States. And I guess we get a sense of his judgment from that. And it’s something I deeply disagree with,” Kim said.
The Senate race began chaotically for Democrats. The party, which controls the Legislature and the governorship, found itself with an incumbent senator facing a second federal corruption trial. Menendez was convicted on bribery charges that he traded his office for cash, gold cars and a luxury car, and has resigned. But he’s denied the charges — as he did in his earlier trial, which ended in a hung jury.
This time, though, Democrats abandoned him. Kim launched his own race in defiance and rejection of Menendez the day after his indictment last fall.
But it wasn’t an easy path to the nomination. First lady Tammy Murphy launched a campaign that was well-funded and widely backed by insiders. Kim upended politics in New Jersey when he sued in federal court to stop a practice whereby party leaders were allowed to influence how ballots are drawn up, widely seen as helping preferred candidates. The judge, in an initial ruling, sided with Kim. Murphy dropped out and Kim won easily in June.
