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Majority Savers: Let's Support Andy Kim for New Jersey-3! [1]

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Date: 2022-08-05

Candidate Background

Rep. Andy Kim has had a fascinating history, of which I can only scratch the surface. If you want more information about him, here and here are good places to start.

Kim is the son of Korean immigrants who migrated to southern New Jersey in search of better opportunities for their children. As you will see, young Andy Kim took advantage of those opportunities through a tenacious work ethic.

Kim is a Rhodes scholar, and he went abroad and studied at Oxford University. There, he met and befriended another rising star in the Democratic Party in Pete Buttigieg, who of course is now the Secretary of Transportation under Biden.

Kim worked in the State Department and was an advisor to General Petraeus in Afghanistan. Once he came home, he was also a national security advisor to Obama late in his presidency. This gave him the political connections to run an effective campaign later on.

Kim had a very close race in ejecting Rep. Tom MacArthur from Congress in 2018. He can thank his connections to the Obama administration for giving him the political chops to succeed.

Signature Issues

Rep. Andy Kim is more of a pragmatic liberal in the New Democratic Coalition mold than a fire breathing progressive. This is a relic of being in a district TFG won twice — it is likely that Kim will move slightly to the left if he wins his better district in 2022.

Kim has a DW Nominate score of -0.3, which puts him slightly right of center in the Democratic caucus. He is more liberal than 62% of the entire House membership, while also being more moderate than 72% of his fellow Democratic caucus. He votes with Joe Biden on the issues nearly 100% of the time.

Health Care and Abortion : Rep. Andy Kim supports Medicare being able to negotiate prescription drug prices, as well as cover dental/vision/hearing without the Medicare Advantage scam. He would protect the ACA, especially the pre-existing condition portion of the Act. Finally, he would be a vote to codify Roe as he is pro-choice.

Climate Change and the Environment : Kim realizes that climate change is a potent threat, as shore flooding happens quite frequently in southern New Jersey. He is for honoring our agreements in the Paris accords and for cutting our emissions by 50% by 2030. He would also repeal tax breaks for polluters. Finally, his work ten years after Superstorm Sandy is ongoing in securing funds to rebuild.

Veterans Issues : Kim served as a policy advisor in the State Department, and witnessed the carnage of Afghanistan firsthand. He is working to lower the suicide rate of veterans, as well as working to provide employment opportunities for them. Finally, he wants to improve outreach to homeless veterans who should not be penalized for serving our country by mental health challenges.

Elections History

Recent Elections —

2020 President: Joe Biden (D) 56.4%, TFG (R-inc) 42.3%

2020 House: Andy Kim (D-inc) 53.2%, David Richter (R) 45.5%

2022 Race Rating: Likely Democratic

2022 PVI: D+5

The 3rd district for the past couple of decades has spanned from the Philadelphia suburbs to the Ocean County shoreline in southern New Jersey. This version of the 3rd district was Republican leaning in nature, as evidenced by the long tenure for Rep. Jim Saxton from prior to 1993 to 2009. This happened even as Gore won the district in 2000 and Bush narrowly won the district in 2004.

During the Obama era, the district acted as a swing seat. Rep. John Adler won the seat in the 2008 romp when Obama handily won the district. Adler was quickly jettisoned during the 2010 red wave, which brought football player Rep. John Runyan to represent this seat. He survived a 2012 challenge while Obama was winning this district more narrowly.

Runyan retired in 2014 and passed the torch to Rep. Tom MacArthur. MacArthur was helped in 2016 by the fact that TFG won the district narrowly. The 2018 blue wave was a bridge too far for MacArthur, and Rep. Andy Kim came to Congress after a very close race. TFG won under the old lines a second time, but Kim hung on to stay in Congress. His reward is a much improved district that takes away Ocean County and substitutes much friendlier turf by Trenton.

Southern New Jersey still features as part of the district, but central New Jersey also comes into play now due to gerrymandering and the 2020 redistricting cycle.

Political Tour of the District

The new and improved NJ-03. Note the arms extending out to scoop up more Democratic voters.

This district still contains the bluing suburbs of Philadelphia found in Burlington County. What is different about this district is the inclusion of territory surrounding Trenton and the appendage going up into Monmouth County with more Democratic voters than Ocean County contains. It is a much safer district, but not so safe that we don’t have to worry about it in a wave election.

Here’s where this race will be won in the 3rd district.

Burlington County Suburbs: This is one of two Democratic anchors found in the district. Most of these denizens are still new to voting for Democratic members of Congress, so there is a chance that they could swing against us. Luckily, this is the base of Rep. Andy Kim.

This is one of two Democratic anchors found in the district. Most of these denizens are still new to voting for Democratic members of Congress, so there is a chance that they could swing against us. Luckily, this is the base of Rep. Andy Kim. Trenton Area : This is the other Democratic anchor in the district, and it is new to Rep. Andy Kim. He will have to introduce himself to these voters to ensure that they are willing to vote for him. Failure to do so would have disastrous consequences for his re-election campaign.

Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.

Monmouth County : This county is a mixture of blue townships/cities (Freehold and Marlboro) and more red townships. Rep. Andy Kim needs to turn out the blue voters in this appendage, and hope that there is less turnout in the more red sections of the county included in the seat.

: This county is a mixture of blue townships/cities (Freehold and Marlboro) and more red townships. Rep. Andy Kim needs to turn out the blue voters in this appendage, and hope that there is less turnout in the more red sections of the county included in the seat. Rural Burlington County : There aren’t many votes by the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean, but what is there is hopelessly red. Rep. Andy Kim is better off focusing on other portions of the district richer in votes, and hoping that the few Democratic voters still turnout for him.

Activism — Help How You Can!

Rep. Andy Kim is a solid fundraiser, and he needs to be because his opponent can self-fund his race. Kim raised $894k for his re-election bid in Quarter 2. He was actually outraised by his opponent, Bob Healey. Healey only raised $370K, but he self-funded another $1 MILLION in order to take the advantage in this money race. This could turn into a very expensive race quickly.

Kim still has the advantage when it comes to cash on hand. Kim has a grand total of $4.4 MILLION cash on hand, while Healey has about $1.5 MILLION cash on hand. Unless polling says its a race, it is likely these two will be left to contest one another themselves. Since his opponent can self-fund, Kim will still need more donations in what could be an expensive race.

DONATE TO REP. ANDY KIM HERE

Kim will need volunteers, especially in the Trenton area, which is new to the district. It isn’t just about canvassing and texting. There are social media platforms to update, voter lists to update, and a seemingly endless number of tasks that a campaign needs help doing. Volunteer here for his campaign today!

Since Rep. Andy Kim became famous after 1/6, his Twitter following has exploded. He has an astounding 114.8k followers on Twitter, which is one of the highest totals I have seen for a member of the House. He is prolific in his tweets, so don’t miss out on the latest campaign news! Here is that famous blue suit once more.

x 6 months ago today I wore this blue suit as I cleaned the Capitol after the insurrection, now I just donated it to the Smithsonian. Jan6 must never be forgotten. While some try to erase history, I will fight to tell the story so it never happens again. Here is one story…(THREAD) pic.twitter.com/GKePd1ZMrr — Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) July 6, 2021

Kim is also quite profligate on Facebook at AndyKimNJ and on Instagram at andykimnj. Go ahead and check them out for me, because I don’t do politics on either platform!

It would be a shame if this now famous representative was beaten in his 2022 re-election campaign due to people not knowing there was the potential for this to turn into a competitive race. That is why Majority Savers was conceived — to shine a spotlight on races where there could be action. I wish Rep. Andy Kim the best in his campaign, and I hope to see him still in Congress after November!

How to find all Majority Savers’ diaries:

To find all past and future diaries of the Majority Savers group, go to their Diaries List. (We suggest that you Bookmark that page.) The home page of the Majority Savers group is here.

Andy Kim for New Jersey-3

Donate | Volunteer | Campaign | FaceBook | Twitter | Instagram

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