Andy Kim sees 3rd straight win over New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy in primary battle for Bob Menendez seat

Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., picked up a third consecutive win over New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy as the Democratic primary contest heats up for embattled Sen. Bob Menendez’s seat. 

Kim’s victory at the Hunterdon County Convention on Sunday means his name will appear in the same column down the ballot as other candidates endorsed by the Democratic Party. 

His third consecutive county-line win did not come without controversy. 

An ally of Murphy, Hunterdon County Democratic Chair Arlene Quinones Perez, proposed a change in the endorsement rules to allow candidates with 30% of the vote to share the valuable county-line positioning on the primary ballot. The proposal was met by cursing and screaming from fellow delegates and was ultimately rejected by a hand vote, Politico reported. 
 

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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and first lady Tammy Murphy attend the National Governors Association summer meeting, July 15, 2022, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

The wife of Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Murphy had reached out to Perez and other county chairs after losing the Monmouth County Democratic convention earlier this month, the New Jersey Globe reported. Kim won in Monmouth over Murphy by 57%-39%. 

On Sunday, Kim won in Hunterdon County with 120 votes compared to Murphy’s 64, or 62%-33%, Politico reported. 

It varies by county how the party-line is awarded in New Jersey’s primary system. 

Some counties have delegates vote, while in other counties it is enough to have just the county party chair’s support to win the party line. Perez on Sunday cited a letter from Murphy and two other Senate candidates, Patricia Campos-Medina and Lawrence Hamm, asking that an “office block” primary be established in the 19 of New Jersey’s 21 counties that instead employ the party line, according to Politico. Murphy did not clarify if she knew in advance of the specific Hunterdon County Convention proposal when Perez announced it on the floor Sunday. 

Rep. Andy Kim speaks during a House Small Business Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on July 17, 2020. He is running for U.S. Senate.  (Erin Scott/Bloomberg)

“I thought it actually might have made sense, but I had no vote in it,” Murphy said. 

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“They decided that it’s good to have something sprung upon a convention at the last possible second without any ability to discuss or deliberate,” Kim said, according to Politico. “You saw the reaction from people. They don’t like that… I made it very clear what I want, which is every single county to be able to do the office block.”

First lady of New Jersey Tammy Snyder Murphy speaks as Gov. Phil Murphy is sworn in for his second term in office on Jan. 18, 2022, in Trenton. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

While Kim’s convention wins in Burlington County – where he grew up – Monmouth, about a third of which he represents in Congress, and now Hunterdon might suggest he’s gaining momentum, those counties represent only a small fraction of the state’s registered Democratic voters. Murphy, who has lived in Monmouth County for well over two decades despite losing the convention there, is expected to enjoy favorable ballot positioning in the state’s Democratic strongholds, such as Middlesex County. 

Murphy did not answer directly to Politico when asked if she would support a similar 30% shared party line rule in other counties she is expected to win. 

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The June primary is shaping up as a battle, so far, between Kim and Murphy, though other Democrats are also campaigning in the race. Amid infighting between New Jersey Democrats who have called for Menendez’s ouster and are competing to succeed him, Menendez has not said if he will run again and has so far rejected calls for his resignation.