Congressman Andy Kim Shows Strength of Grassroots Movement for Change at Bergen County Convention

PARAMUS N.J. – Today, Congressman Andy Kim showed the power of his grassroots movement for change by winning over 400 delegate votes at the Bergen County Convention in a strong showing against the First Lady’s machine-powered campaign.

Congressman Kim outperformed expectations, with the convention taking place days after verified attempts from County Chairman Paul Juliano to tip the odds in the First Lady’s favor became public. Reporting over the weekend outlined, “real fear Gov. Murphy and party leaders could punish those who openly support Kim over his wife”, was followed up by reports that the Governor also gave Juliano, “who is also his $280,000-a-year chief executive of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority” a position of prominence at last week’s state budget address and put him “under pressure” to get “Bergen County Democratic machine up and running to carry first lady Tammy Murphy to the finish line.”

“We came into this convention knowing the votes were quite literally stacked against us; Today’s final tally should serve as a stunning reminder to the political elite that voters don’t want to be told who to vote for and we are going to take our energy straight to the June 4th primary,” said Congressman Andy Kim. “Our campaign has been a grassroots movement since day one and these results are proof that when voters across Bergen County get a chance to vote, the result could be very different.”

Tonight’s vote included votes from convention delegates as well as “bonus delegates” and “alternate delegates”, delegates chosen by party leaders in addition to traditional voting delegates who are approved by Municipal Committee’s.

According to reporting by Politico this morning, “Chad Coleman, a county committee member from the Bergen County borough of Tenafly and a Kim supporter, said that at a recent committee meeting held over Zoom, Borough Democratic Chair Shama Haider — also a state assemblymember who endorsed Murphy — had a slate of three bonus delegates ready to go, all Murphy supporters (Bergen County Democrats allot towns bonus delegates based on prior election turnout). They were quickly approved by a show of hands in a process that took about eight minutes, he said.”

In responding to the process that allowed appointed party leaders to multiply their votes, Coleman stated, ““This has never been a fair process. New Jersey is an outlier. We should be embarrassed as Democrats with this process.”

First elected to Congress in 2018 at the age of 36, three-term Congressman Andy Kim is one of the younger members to serve in Congress and is the first Asian American elected to federal office from New Jersey. If elected to the Senate, Andy would be the 4th youngest Senator, the first senator from South Jersey in recent memory, and the first Asian American elected to the Senate from the entire east coast of America. In 2018 and 2020, Andy defeated two self-funding millionaires in a district carried by former President Trump, and in 2022 Kim defeated his third self-funding millionaire opponent by 12 points.

In his three terms in Congress, Andy has worked hard to lower costs for New Jersey families and help support small businesses through challenging times. Andy has also been a leading champion in fighting against corruption in our broken politics.