New Jersey’s Third Congressional District Representative, Andy Kim, 42, is going to be headed back to Washington, but this time with a new title and a new office—and his constituency just grew by about 8.2 million residents.

The Associated Press called the contest for Kim here.

As of 8:45 p.m., the unofficial margin of Kim’s victory over Republican Curtis Bashaw was 55.9-42%. 1.7 million to 877,649.

Meet the newly minted US Senator-elect Andy Kim.

Kim set up his headquarters in Cherry Hill on Election Night to await the results, having cast his vote in Moorestown in the morning with his family.

Kim defeated his Republican challenger, Cape May businessman Bashaw, a 63-year-old moderate-styled entrepreneur from the hospitality sector. The path to Kim’s ascendancy from the US House of Representatives to the US Senate followed the political implosion of US Senator Robert Menendez, formerly New Jersey’s senior senator, following his second corruption trial. Menendez had been under enormous pressure to step down from his own re-election campaign, while his legal woes were consuming all the political capital he had, in a desperate, obnoxious bid to retain power. Kim was the first to declare his candidacy to displace Menendez, with Patricia Campos-Medina, Larry Hamm, and First Lady Tammy Murphy throwing themselves into the Democratic Primary. Murphy, who never held political office in her own right, was initially seen as the Democratic Party machine favorite, lined up powerful county and civic endorsements.

Critics attacked her candidacy as First Lady, saying that her position and the power of her husband represented an unfair and ethically dubious campaign advantage. Her inability to cultivate a grassroots base of support, characterized by her opponents as the beneficiary of naked nepotism, dogged her well-funded campaign. Kim, however, had bucked the party apparatus, offending some in positions of power while framing himself as something of an outsider—even though he has been an elected official since 2018. The Kim Campaign made its mark on New Jersey political history by championing the court challenge to disestablish “the line”—advantageous ballot positioning awarded by county party endorsements. This was a phenomenon unique to New Jersey, and the courts struck it down, ordering an unbiased ballot to be designed for the Democratic primary election. Murphy withdrew her candidacy before the primary, leaving Kim as the nominee, defeating Campos-Medina and Hamm.

In the meantime, as Menendez’s world crumbled around him, polling in the dirt, he eventually relented, gave up his re-election bid, and resigned. Governor Phil Murphy appointed George Helmy as an interim senator until such time as Kim will be sworn in.

History was going to be made, whether the victor was Kim or Bashaw, reflecting the diversity of the Garden State and growing acceptance from the voter base. Bashaw is an openly gay, pro-choice Republican—a surprising set of qualities in the age of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement—who has sought to establish himself as his own brand, autonomous from the wider MAGA flavor led by the former president. It follows a general trend by the New Jersey Republican Party to put forward more moderate candidates such as Jack Ciattarelli and Jon Bramnick who can appeal to the approximately 2.2 million unaffiliated voters, a crucial bloc to win over if the Republicans seek to overturn the Democrats’ million-more registered voter advantage.

Kim, a Millennial, son of South Korean immigrants, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford graduate, and former national security advisor to President Barack Obama, will be the first Korean-American from the east coast to serve in the US senate.

32BJ SEIU New Jersey State Director Ana Maria Hill issued the following statement.

“Andy Kim over the course of three terms in Congress showed he’s a champion for democracy and working families. After rioters ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, it was Kim who sticked around after the chaos to clean up their mess. The son of immigrants, he knows the importance of supporting working families. This summer Kim shadowed our members at Newark Liberty International Airport as they fought for fair wages. He’s supported bills that capped insulin prices, lowered costs of prescriptions for seniors, expanded Medicare coverage and expanded free meal programs in schools — legislation that is immediately felt by working families. He’ll continue championing workers in the U.S. Senate. We’re proud and excited to have supported a senator who will look out for essential workers like our members in Washington, D.C.”

 And here are Kim’s remarks as prepared for delivery at his victory party tonight:

Remarks as prepared:

Thank you everyone. Thank you for joining tonight.

This is a lot to process.

There have been few moments in my life where I feel the weight of the moment as I do now. Like a gravity generated by the magnitude of consequence in our country.

I look out in this room and see so many people from all of the moments of my life.

You are here because you in one way or another have touched my life. You have helped me in ways I may never fully be able to express.

Whether you met me in elementary school or on the campaign trail, I want to start by saying thank you.

Thank you to my team – my congressional team who has shown what service means for the last six years.

My campaign team who carried our message of change forward.

Many of you took risks to join.

You had people doubt your choice to join our campaign.

You worked long hours and struggled and stressed about the challenges we confronted.

I hope you take pride in this moment. Whoever says young people don’t care about politics haven’t met the young people that are the engine powering campaigns all over this nation.

To our supporters, Look what we’ve accomplished.

By most standards of what is possible, this moment right now should not be occurring.

A year ago… 6 years ago… few believed we could.

We showed that politics isn’t some exclusive club for the well off and the well connected.

We’ve built something that epitomizes the grass roots. I hope this experience has brought you closer to our democracy, that you have a deeper understanding of what it means to be a citizen. That you feel empowered.

You’ve heard me say that line, that I believe the opposite of democracy is apathy. By extension that means that our campaign is the opposite of helplessness. I hope this moment is every bit as meaningful for you as it is for me.

Thank you to my family – my parents and my sister – who gave me a grounding in service and a purpose that powers me every day.

To my wife Kammy. Look what we did. I am so proud of you. Proud of the boys.

We did this for you boys.

I know it wasn’t easy. I know I haven’t been there every moment for you as a father. But I hope you are proud. I hope when you learn about this moment in America, you understand why we did what we did.

I chose this hotel for a very particular reason.

37 years ago, when I was 5 yrs old, my family and I lived out of this hotel for several weeks when we first moved to New Jersey. My dad had just accepted his very first job ever in a lab in Camden to do cancer research and we were looking for a home we could rent.

My first nights in NJ were spent right here. Some of the very first strong memories I have in my life were here. It was my first time ever I recalled staying in a hotel and I felt like a prince.

It had a restaurant at the time I believe called Circle or something like that. I loved the food and remember thinking the people of NJ live large. They live the good life here in the garden state.

I wanted to be here tonight. In this hotel. To pay tribute to my parents. To my family. To this state. For giving a kid like me a chance to dream. For giving me the tools through public education and a kind community.

It wasn’t easy initially. We had no family to lean on. No friends to help get us started. But New Jersey welcomed us.

I wanted to return to this hotel tonight. To give perspective. For my parents, this hotel was an important step in achieving the American Dream and giving back to New Jersey.

My parents taught me to love America.

I revere this country. I am in awe of America.

When I worked at the White House I had a pair of black pristine leather shoes that I only put on when I was asked to walk into the Oval Office. I wanted to treat that room differently. I wanted to remind myself constantly that I’m part, we are part, of something bigger than all of us.

And it’s because of my reverence for this nation that it also pains me to my core to see the struggles we are going through.

That we aren’t just having policy debates and fights, but instead the very foundation of our democracy is rendered fragile.

People tell me they simply didn’t trust their public servants. They simply didn’t believe that their politics was working for them. They didn’t think that the big challenges we face as families and as a state were solvable because they thought nobody was looking out for them.

While we know what happened in this race, I recognize we are at a moment of profound anxiety about what comes next for our country.

The coming minutes and hours will be excruciating.

But regardless of what happens next, we need to recognize that we face incredible challenges.

The divisions we face are deep in the bone.

They will not be fixed by any single election. And it isn’t just politics. We live in the time of the greatest amount of inequality in our nation’s history.

In Salem I visited a public housing complex and talked to a mother who showed me the black mold growing in her home and told me about her pleas for help.

I heard from a young man who felt so pessimistic about his life he said he didn’t think he would ever afford to buy a home due to the high costs and his huge student loan burden.

Regardless of what the final results are tonight, our nation is on an unsustainable trajectory.

But let there be no doubt that there is a new era of politics rising. The same old same old is done.  We’ve showed New Jersey there’s a better way.

But this isn’t just about NJ; we’ve showed the nation there is a better way.

It could mean a politics that lifts people up…

That gives people hope…

That delivers for everyone.

It could mean a politics that changes the trajectory of our nation and builds a brighter future.

I’d like to put forward a challenge to us all.

In a year and a half we will celebrate our 250th anniversary as a nation. As a democracy.

Let us use the extraordinary milestone as a moment of healing. Let us change that trajectory.

In the same way that I reflect on my family’s start in this hotel, let us reflect upon the first principles of our nation and put forward a renewed vision.

Let our 250th anniversary be a reminder that the greatness of America is not what we take, but what we give back. It is what we pass down – as I look at my parents and look at my own two boys – I hope to give them the same opportunities and certainty that my parents gave us when we first came to this hotel nearly forty years ago.

We should use the 250th anniversary to make major investments to Supercharge civics education, Build a national service program, Invest in civic organizations and community groups.

This is about rebuilding the architecture of community that has decayed, with a goal of breathing new life into the meaning of patriotism

This challenge is a reminder that today, Election Day is the starting line not the finish line.

What we built wasn’t just a campaign. It’s a movement. A movement to fix our broken politics.

A movement that does not end with the election tonight. One that doesn’t diminish with the voting ending.

It’s a movement that helps our nation heal by reminding us that we have more in common than separates us.

It’s one that can put service at the center of citizenship, giving everyone a chance to give back and be a part of something bigger.

It’s one that can lift up the knowledge of our citizenry to ensure we are informed to make decision and also remind people that public service is something to be proud of, to aspire to, and not to diminish.

Showing Americans that being patriotic means looking out for one another, not tearing each other down or attacking our democratic institutions.

I approach this moment with the utmost humility. As I prepare to take on a job that only 2000 Americans in the history of America have ever had the honor to do.

Out of the approx 600 million people who have ever been called Americans. Of the over 120 yrs of Koreans being in America, that I can add a chapter that hasn’t been written before.

I will not be perfect. I will stumble. I will struggle at times. But I assure you I will give this everything I have and will try and serve with honor and integrity.

I promise you I will not lose myself along the way. I will anchor myself in the deep sense of public service that has guided me all these years. I won’t let the job change me, instead I will work to change the job. To change the broken politics that is decaying our nation.

I hope to represent everyone in this state. Whether you voted for me or not, I serve you. And I hope to bring meaning back to the phrase public service.

I am now dedicating the rest of my service to this nation to address one singular question: how do we heal this country?

I do this for my boys. Austin and August. Who deserve more than I can ever create.

We do this for your kids and your grandkids because what is the point of our time on this planet if we take more than we give.

I thank you not just for being with me on this journey, but for being with me on the journey ahead.

What started in living rooms in Burlington and Ocean counties, and grew to convention halls in Monmouth Hunterdon and Atlantic, and became the strongest grassroots mobilization NJ has ever seen.

and from a movement that nobody believed would win, to one that is bringing my voice – and YOUR voice – to the highest level of our great democracy .

Are you proud of what we’ve built?

Do you believe in the change we seek to build?

Are you ready to keep fighting for our country?

And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the incredible honor…

for this Jersey kid who never thought he’d be able to say this – to be your next United States Senator.

Thank you!

END