What's next for Tammy Murphy's Senate campaign after losing on her home turf? | Stile

LONG BRANCH — Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady and a candidate for U.S. Senate, pledged Saturday at the Monmouth County Democratic Party convention to be a bring-home-the-bacon representative if sent to Washington.

But in a stunning rebuke, the pitch to her hometown county failed to to win over the majority of the 466 voting committee members, who gave their endorsement to upstart Andy Kim, a Burlington County congressman who is seeking to tap grassroots discontent over the Democratic Party’s closed-door nominating process ― and with Murphy’s candidacy.

Kim captured 265 votes, or 57% of the vote, with Murphy grabbing 181 votes, or 39%, and Patricia Campos-Medina, a Latina activist, winning 20 votes, or 4%.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

It gives Kim, a third-term congressman and a former national security official in the Obama administration, the party’s endorsement and now means he will be bracketed on the “line” with other county endorsed candidates on the June primary ballot.

It’s a coveted position that confers an enormous competitive advantage in Monmouth County ― candidates who win the line typically win the primary.

The race is far from over ― Monmouth Democrats comprise about 6% of all Democrats in New Jersey and Murphy has already wrapped up the endorsements of county leaders in the Democratic fiefs of Essex, Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties, which traditionally would translate into a cruise-control victory to the nomination.

But Saturday’s victory calls into question whether the top-down management of those big Democratic counties can wield enough power to avert Kim’s insurgency.

After being congratulated by Murphy after the vote was announced, the low-key Kim said that he now has momentum heading into the larger nominating contests.

“I think this very clearly… shows that there’s nothing inevitable about this race,’’ Kim said to reporters inside the Long Branch Portuguese Club. “There’s nothing. There’s no sense that anybody is destined to be able to win this thing. And this confirms what I’ve always thought, which is we’re the campaign that has the momentum, that we’re the campaign that has the energy.”

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, D-3, makes his pitch as a Senate candidate to Monmouth County Democrats on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024.

Murphy and her entourage, which included her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy, a voting committee member, quickly left the hall without talking to reporters. But her campaign released a statement noting that she is “thrilled” with the “groundswell” of support, including winning the ballot line from the Passaic County Democratic County screening committee earlier in the day.

“Tammy is grateful for all the votes she received today from Monmouth County and is thankful for all the delegates that stayed in the room during the long day,’’ campaign spokeswoman Alex Altman said in a statement. “Tammy congratulated Andy on a hard fought win today in Monmouth and she looks forward to continuing her work to build a strong coalition across the state and earning the support of New Jersey voters. New Jersey needs a senator that will stand up to MAGA Republicans and their harmful agenda.”

Murphy’s candidacy not without controversy

The primary fight began last fall after federal prosecutors indicted sitting Sen. Bob Menendez on charges that he took bribes from the Egyptian and Qatari government in exchange for official actions on their behalf. The Democrat has denied the charges.

He has not said whether he will seek reelection, but his name was not submitted for the endorsement competition Saturday. He has resisted calls from Democrats in Washington and New Jersey to resign.

Kim was the first to jump into the race after the indictment in September, but Murphy quickly won the endorsements from some of the powerful party leaders shortly after entering the race in November. That incensed some of the liberal activists and grassroots groups who have been campaigning in recent years to break the power of the county parties and the use of the endorsement process to protect incumbents and squelch competition.

But Murphy’s entry fueled another dimension of discontent. Many see the swift support from the large Democratic counties as a blatant form of dynastic nepotism.

A first-time candidate for office, Murphy, they argued, benefited from the enormous power at her husband’s disposal ― the ability to shut down appointments, patronage, funding and legislation that many of the county leaders covet. Several also are lobbyists whose firms have business before the state government.

The governor’s power provided an unspoken incentive for many county bosses to throw their support to his wife.

That hasn’t sat well with the party’s rank and file who vote to award the line. But it was unclear how deep that discontent ran until Saturday, when Murphy failed to use her hometown bona fides and contacts to assuage the anger. Aware of the challenge, Murphy personally sought to round up votes with phone calls to members.

She had behind her a platoon of powerful Monmouth leaders including longtime U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, a Monmouth County powerhouse for nearly three decades who introduced Murphy to the convention, and state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, who won reelection last November in a stunning rout. Also on hand were an array of party operatives, including Peg Schaffer, the Somerset County Democratic Party chairwoman and the vice chair of the state Democratic Party.

But that show of force could not overcome doubts about Murphy’s experience when contrasted with Kim, who flipped a Trump district in 2018 and went on to defeat two wealthy Republican challengers in 2020 and 2022. The Kim campaign has also stressed Murphy’s past political life as a registered Republican until 2014, long after her husband served as an ambassador to Germany under the Obama administration.

“She used to be a Republican,’’ said Margaret Beekman, a committee member from Freehold Township. “I don’t know if I can trust her.”

Murphy, meanwhile, doubled down on her appeal to women voters, saying that Washington needs a “Jersey girl with grit” and that a woman senator can better be entrusted to crusade for reproductive rights than a male. Both Murphy and Kim support a national law that would ensure abortion rights.

“Little girls are growing up with fewer rights than I did,” she said, referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling that dismantled a constitutional right to an abortion in 2022.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: What’s next for Tammy Murphy’s Senate campaign after losing on her home turf? | Stile