The seat may yet remain in Democratic hands, but a contentious campaign could consume energy and resources as the party gears up for a grinding presidential campaign and the larger fight to control Congress.

Kim cast his candidacy in terms of the public’s distrust of officials and party insiders, pointing specifically to Menendez’s indictments. A 2015 federal corruption indictment against Menendez ended in a hung jury and with prosecutors dropping the case. The concern, Kim said in an interview, is that progressive Democrats who oppose the party bosses’ influence and independents might sit out the November election if they think Murphy’s candidacy was foisted on them.

“If the Democrats don’t fix this and show that this is a credible and legitimate process, I think that this Senate seat could be in jeopardy this November. And I think that that’s something I absolutely refuse to see happen because I’ve been there in Congress. I know exactly what the Republicans would do if they have the majority in the Senate,” Kim said.

Tammy Murphy, who worked at Goldman Sachs briefly and helped start a policy think tank in New Jersey, pushed back at the notion that the support she has is based on her marriage to Phil. She said Saturday she isn’t asking for his help. She also defended her departure from the Republican Party, which she left shortly before her husband’s run for governor in 2017.

“I’ve been on the ground for the last eight years, literally building the party,” she said. “I’ve shown up serially in all these, all the red counties where they needed help. I showed up.”

She added: “Many people are leaving the Republican Party here now, and I will tell you, I have stood for the same values since day one. Absolutely the same values.”

Republican hopes

The possibility of Republicans picking up the seat in November is overblown, Cassino said, in large part because the state tilts so overwhelmingly Democratic and because it’s an election year. Ben Dworkin, who heads the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship, echoed that sentiment, pointing out Republicans haven’t been elected to the Senate in New Jersey since 1972.

Republicans are grappling with their own primary, featuring southern New Jersey businessman Curtis Bashaw, Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner and former TV news reporter Alex Zdan. Also running in the Democratic primary are labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina and civil rights activist Lawrence Hamm.

Shortly before the Burlington Democratic Party results were announced Saturday, voters leaving the hall greeted each other with smiles and hugs. Kim and Murphy both stopped to chat with people.

Murphy had talked earlier in the day about needing to send “ticked off” moms to Washington to fight for families. Kim had focused on being a county native and said he’d fight for the state particularly in light of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and the threat to the country’s democracy.

A number of voters acknowledged the awkwardness of having the first lady and their congressman competing and declined to say which one they supported. But they sounded more certain about their resolve to win in November.

“We’ll come together,” said Gina LaPlaca, a local official in Burlington County. “The threat from Republicans is too much.”