Andy Kim is tired of New Jersey being a ‘laughing stock’

Andy Kim, the three-term House Democrat running for Senate, says he believes in “customer service governance.”

It seems like a self-evident job requirement, but Kim says he hasn’t seen much of that since taking office in 2019 — certainly not from Sen. Bob Menendez, who was charged in a federal indictment with accepting cash and gold bribes for favors as New Jersey’s senior senator. He has pleaded not guilty.

Kim, who was a State Department official before flipping the 3rd Congressional District seat in South Jersey in 2018, says he sees a commitment to public service lacking among many of his colleagues in the Capitol.

“They look at the news and they see members of congress bicker and argue about who's going to expel who and all these kinds of nonsense debates,” Kim said in an interview.

For a candidate who is among the country’s most prolific fundraisers and who’s beaten well-heeled Republicans in a Trump district, Kim is an underdog in the conventional wisdom of the 2024 Senate race. Menendez himself seems to be an electoral dead man walking, but another primary candidate, Tammy Murphy, has locked up key support from county chairs who are crucial to primaries.

The wife of Gov. Phil Murphy also has strong fundraising skills and a public profile that is boosted by virtue of her marriage and government public relations team, though she has said she intends to keep her campaign separate.

POLITICO spoke with Kim about his policy goals and his uphill battle against Murphy.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are your top priorities if you get to the Senate and how do you get them done? 

I certainly want to make sure that I'm focused on the key issues that I'm hearing about from people in the district. Affordability is at the top of the list. Right now, that's just affecting so many people's thoughts about quality of life. They just kind of feel this weight on them right now. And so that's what I'm hoping to do, is give people more of that breathing space.

A lot of parents [are] concerned about the affordability of education for their kids. A lot of young students are worried about college affordability. I've been pushing hard on issues like doubling the number of Pell grants that are out there. The Pell Grants just haven't been keeping up with the cost of education. Those are some of the tangible things that we're trying to address.

Prescription drug costs has been one of the key places that I've been leading in, and I hope to do a lot more. We've made some real progress with the Inflation Reduction Act, in particular the provision that I helped author which would cap out of pocket costs for seniors at $2,000 a year for their prescription drugs. That was my biggest legislative success in my time in Congress so far. It’s real, tangible help for seniors.

What’s your elevator pitch to voters? 

I'm really honored that I've been three times elected to the United States Congress — especially someone who is a Democrat that represents a district that Trump won twice. It shows that I've been able to build bridges, to try to do my best to move past the toxic partisanship of today and instead try to focus in on getting things done. I'm a workhorse, not a show horse. I've been a public servant my whole career, just focused on doing my best for this country.

I'm proud of the work that I got done lowering prescription drug costs, which is amongst the top things that I hear about from people in terms of affordability. That I was able to play a role to be able to help a lot of families get through the pandemic. The work that I did on the Small Business Committee through the pandemic, addressing the Paycheck Protection Program and trying to get aid and support to them while also fixing those programs to make them more effective. I was one of only seven Democrats on the select committee on the Coronavirus crisis for the first year of the pandemic, helping lead the charge on the support and aid that came back to our state.

And the bipartisan infrastructure law that's fixing up our roads and our bridges, our tunnels here in New Jersey, all across the state.

I hope people will see those values [and] they see the value of having a national security background during these turbulent times globally. And I'll be ready [on] day one coming into the Senate. I don't need any on-the-job training.

As we speak there is an agreement to extend an initial, four-day truce in the Israel-Gaza war, but Israel’s defense minister said he anticipates fighting to resume for at least another two months. Do you think that's the best course of action, is to have this pause and then Israel goes back to pummeling the Gaza Strip?

I was encouraged that this diplomatic opening has occurred, and I've been hoping that it can continue and try to open up the real possibility that they can come up with an agreement that would have the release of all hostages. And I think that that's something that would open up more opportunities and try to figure out how to bring this violence to a close. For this to drag on this long, in terms of having the hostages continue to be under Hamas captivity, that's been really frustrating because it has impeded the ability for there to be a real discussion about what comes next.

Hamas’ attack on October 7 really shattered the idea in the minds of a lot of people that some type of longer ceasefire or peace can be trusted from them. I supported the initiative before where Egypt brokered the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel a couple years ago. And then for that to be broken so savagely on October 7 — what kind of assurances can we give to Israel to the people in Gaza, that this isn't going to just cycle again?

It’s really tricky, obviously. It seems like the chief goal of Israel is to eliminate Hamas, and you can’t do that without women and children and innocent lives being lost in the process. On the other hand, how can Israel get anything more than greater assurances that a ceasefire won’t be broken? 

I recognize that history didn't start on October 7. There's a broader context here and history here that we need to take into account and really shapes whether or not an actual durable piece can come out from this.

And not only is there a concern about just the significant bloodshed that has occurred — especially the women and children in Gaza — but what kind of implications does that have long term for the ability to broker some type of peace and to make sure that there's not another generation of young Gazans and Palestinians and Israelis that only know war and conflict between them?

I know our military and the Biden administration has made those points and Israelis, to be very mindful of the tactics that they're using here. How do we try to do our best to protect civilians? What does that mean for trying to build international support and a coalition? And then looking at the long-term consequences when it comes to that. I'm not going to say I found the perfect solution to address this all, but trying to make sure that we’re raising this with those involved.

Do you think aid to Israel should be conditioned? 

I think we need to make sure that they certainly have the ability to be able to defend themselves, so I'm supportive of continuing some aid. But we have oversight in Congress. We're doing that with Ukraine right now. We're not conditioning aid in terms of the types of munitions we're sending out there, but we're keeping a close eye on how it's being used to determine whether or not that's appropriate for further usage. I see a lot of similarities in terms of how we're supporting Israel and how we're supporting Ukraine — two allies that are both at war right now.

Republicans are trying to tie that aid to Israel and Ukraine to border security. Do you agree with that? Do you think that they should all be in the mix?

I voted to increase border security in the past, so I'm not opposed to engaging on that issue. I'm somebody that has worked in national security before. I want us to be able to make sure that we're securing our borders, whether by land, air or sea. It’s just a matter of, what kind of aid and support are we talking about? How does this fit into some of the broader initiatives we've been trying to engage in, which is also including, for instance, increasing additional needs when it comes to processing asylum seekers and other issues that are there that are causing some of the backlog and the strain upon our system.

I think this gets at a broader problem that we have in Congress where we're just struggling to get anything passed because of this dysfunctional Republican majority in the House — such that we're now talking about basically lumping everything together, including with the NDAA, the Defense Authorization Act. There's a possibility that all of that gets lumped into one giant piece of legislation this month.

I think it does our country a disservice to have this kind of situation where we're not able to have real robust debates on more particular issues, but if this is what it takes to get some of this done, I'm open to that.

You’ve said repeatedly that Washington is broken. What would you be able to do as a senator — and it will likely be a divided chamber — to fix it? What needs to be fixed? 

With my office, we try to fight back against this broken politics by showing that there's a different way to do it. So for instance, I've done 70 town halls in my time in Congress in five years. Sometimes I go to different parts of my district and people are like, ‘By the way, you're the first Democrat to show up to this part in a long, long time.’ People don't necessarily feel like they have these opportunities to get in front of their elected leaders. So for me to be able to do that in and of itself would be a game-changer — to be able to have this opportunity where I can engage the entire state.

Yes, the Senate is divided, but the Senate has also been the driving force in Congress so much — for the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act.

President Joe Biden is unpopular, polling poorly and constantly facing questions about his age and ability to defeat former President Donald Trump. What’s the risk Biden presents not only to his own reelection but to Democrats preserving the Senate majority and possibly retaking the House in 2024? 

I don't know where things are going to be a year from now. I would hope that people and voters would see some of the real accomplishments that we were able to get done — generational changes like that bipartisan infrastructure law, like the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment to address climate change in our nation's history, things like the CHIPS and Science Act, which I know doesn't necessarily get the biggest publicity but that was a monumental piece of legislation, bipartisan legislation. That is one of the biggest steps we can take to increase American competitiveness at a time when we're concerned about our ability to keep up with China or other countries.

But I recognize that it's hard right now to connect with voters and I sense it in our own community, just the frustrations that people have with the broken politics that we have. So I'm going to do my best to just inform people and remind them about some of the things that have gotten done while making it clear that I wish more things got done too, and I feel that frustration.

Your biggest primary opponent, first lady Tammy Murphy, has gained endorsements from several county organizations and leaders that effectively guarantees the ballot placement for her in the primary. All this was done within days of her announcement without any formal screening or debates and things that you may have gone through in the past. What's your reaction to that? 

It just shows that we're running two completely different kinds of campaigns. She’s very much focused on going that very political leader route. Whereas, for me, I've tried to bring in regular New Jerseyans, regular Americans and engage with them about what's on their minds, figure out how to earn their support. And I just feel like that's what people in New Jersey want right now. They want something different. I've heard from a lot of people that say what they've seen in terms of the first lady's campaign so far, it's just business-as-usual for Jersey politics, which — especially in the aftermath of the indictment of Menendez — it's not sitting well with a lot of people. I want to show that we can do something different. That we can have a different kind of politics.

I'm just tired of our state being this laughing stock in the rest of the country. We deserve something better. And we deserve something that really puts the voters in the driver's seat of our democracy. Things are just different after this latest indictment of Menendez. And I think our political leaders need to recognize that. It will never be the same again and I want to bring about the kind of change that I believe the vast, vast majority of people in New Jersey want.

Will you try to piece together an alternative line to challenge Murphy in counties like Bergen or Hudson? 

I'm assessing whether or not that kind of action or others are the right ones for me to take. But it's not at the forefront of my mind. I'm very aware of those tactics. I have some time. Right now, I'm more interested and focused on building the coalitions around the state, making sure that I engage with the different communities in all 21 counties, the different leaders and different groups, labor unions and others as well.

If I come right out and only think about the tactical aspects of the ballot and how to engage in that way, how is that any different than when I was just talking about? This isn’t just about me; I need to be able to show people why I'm trying to do this, what is the reason that I'm stepping up to run statewide? So we'll get there. But I will say, I'm gonna use every tool at my disposal to be able to win this.

What would you say are your biggest differences between you and Tammy Murphy? And specifically are there any divergences with her on policies? 

First and foremost is that I am a three-term member of Congress. I have direct experience in terms of working in the legislative body and, in particular, working at the federal level.

We're running in a Democratic primary. I've been a registered Democrat and a member of the Democratic Party ever since I was able to vote. She, I think, registered as a Democrat in 2015 (editor’s note: it was 2014). So she's gonna have to explain to the Democratic Party why that changed and why she thinks she can represent this party as the nominee.

I don't actually know what her positions are on a lot of issues, so it's hard for me to say. I think we share similar concerns about climate change. I voted for and supported the largest investment to fight climate change in our nation's history. But I think that's something that the voters are going to need to hear more [about] in terms of what her positions are and be able to compare with things that I've done and my voting record.