Andy Kim Seeks To Take Down The Democratic Machines In 2027

Sen. Andy Kim is declaring war on New Jersey’s Democratic bosses, announcing in a video Wednesday that he plans to recruit challengers to elected officials who protect “machine politics.”

Kim, a Democrat whose renegade 2024 Senate campaign destroyed the “county line” ballot structure that helped power brokers from both parties concentrate power, plans to start with Democratic state Sen. Jim Beach. He chaired a committee last week that forced Kim to wait hours to testify against a bill stripping power from the Office of the State Comptroller, which has aggressively investigated people and companies with ties to some of New Jersey’s most powerful Democrats.

But Kim did not cite his own verbal scuffle with Beach, a 16-year incumbent and former county clerk who is closely associated with the South Jersey power broker George Norcross. Instead, he focused on Beach’s remarks to a hearing attendee who complained about the process.

“A constituent from the crowd spoke out and the state senator, the chairman, looked at him and said ‘I don’t care about you,’” Kim said in the video, in which he stood in front of his old high school in Cherry Hill, a town in Camden County where Norcross’ power base is. “And I just thought that that was so reflective of the broken politics that we have in New Jersey and frankly around this country.”

The video is the latest volley in the internal battle that has gripped New Jersey’s Democratic Party for years, pitting power brokers against its progressive base. Progressives had long struggled, but broke through with then-Rep. Kim’s 2024 primary victory over the Democratic establishment-backed first lady Tammy Murphy to replace disgraced Sen. Bob Menendez, who had become emblematic of the Democratic machine system. Murphy, who was counting heavily on the county line, dropped out of the race just days before a Kim campaign lawsuit overturned it for that year’s Democratic primary.

Kim also notched a victory Tuesday when state Senate President Nick Scutari ended his lame duck push for the bill to strip power from the Comptroller’s Office.

Kim said he will support a primary challenger to Beach when he’s up for reelection in 2027. “And I’m going to be stepping up to get involved across this state and make sure we’re taking on elected officials who have been standing up and protecting the machine politics, standing against what we’re trying to do to fight corruption, and that needs to end,” Kim said.

All 80 Assembly seats and 40 state Senate seats are up in 2027.

In a phone interview last week, Beach, 79, told POLITICO he had not decided whether he will seek reelection. He did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday. Beach’s 6th Legislative District, which covers Burlington and Camden counties in South Jersey, is a safe blue seat.

Even before saying he’d try to unseat Beach, Kim was emerging as an anti-machine kingmaker — establishing himself as an influential voice in the Democratic Party, just a year into his Senate tenure.

He waded into the Jersey City mayor’s race, coming to stump for progressive James Solomon in a runoff against Jim McGreevey, the former governor who had establishment backing, including the endorsement of current Gov. Phil Murphy.

In an interview with POLITICO last month during an afternoon of campaign stops for Solomon during the runoff, Kim portrayed the number of active primaries as an outgrowth of his work killing the county line.

“I think that's a real testament to getting rid of the county line and making sure that people feel like they can have the right to be able to step in and not have to ask permission, not have to kiss any rings,” Kim said.

Kim has also endorsed former Rep. Tom Malinowski in the February special primary election to succeed Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill in the 11th District, where a dozen Democrats are vying for the seat. He hit the trail with Malinowski, an early supporter of Kim’s insurgent Senate bid who lost his own reelection bid in the 7th Congressional District in 2022 after redistricting took away some of the bluer parts of his district.

Kim said that his message about reforming machine politics resonates beyond the Democratic Party.

“I want to build a cross-partisan movement,” Kim said in an interview last week, citing concerns he hears from constituents that the government is corrupt. “This isn't just about one side of the Democratic Party or the other. What I’m trying to build is something across our political spectrum that can tap into a lot of that frustration.”

Ry Rivard contributed to this report.