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| ▲ This file photo, released by the Associated Press, shows Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) speaking to delegates in Paramus, New Jersey on March 4, 2024. (Yonhap) |
New Jersey-Senate race
Korean American Senate candidate awaits New Jersey primary outcome
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Yonhap) -- Democratic and Republican voters in New Jersey went to the polls to determine their parties' nominees for the Senate on Tuesday, as a Korean American candidate remains the odds-on favorite to become the Democratic standard-bearer for the November election.
Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), a third-term congressman. has been leading a powerful Senate campaign as incumbent Senator Bob Menendez has been mired in a corruption trial with his once archrival, New Jersey's first lady Tammy Murphy, having exited the race in March.
Should Kim win in Tuesday's primary and the November election, he would become the first Korean American to be elected to the Senate.
"I'm humbled to be on the ballot today running for Senate," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
"I never imagined this when I started on this path of service 20 years ago. But I still believe we can heal this country and fix what's broken. I'm ready to do my part," he added.
In the Democratic contest, Kim is competing against activist Lawrence Hamm and labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina. The Hill, a U.S. news outlet, said that Kim is expected to "easily glide to the nomination."
On Monday, Menendez filed to run as an independent, a move that observers said could affect the vote tally for the Democratic nominee though the Garden State has not elected a Republican as its senator since 1972.
Four candidates are in the GOP primary race, including Justin Murphy and Christine Serrano Glassner.
During an interview with Yonhap News Agency last month, Kim expressed his desire to bring his multifaceted foreign policy portfolio to the Senate. He served at the White House National Security Council, the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
He also underlined his sense of responsibility to "lift up the voice, hopes and concerns" of the Korean American community.
He was born in Boston in 1982 to a family of South Korean immigrant parents -- his father being a medical researcher and his mother a nurse.
In 2004, Kim earned a political science degree from the University of Chicago. He was later awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which led him to earn a master's degree and a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford.
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