Andy Kim says his win has changed Jersey politics 'forever.' Let's hope. • New Jersey Monitor

New Jersey Democrats had a terrible Election Day, but a bright spot for them occurred with Rep. Andy Kim’s victory in the U.S. Senate race.

Kim’s convincing win not only gave Democrats something to celebrate as they mourned the thumping Donald Trump gave the party nationwide, but it signaled what could be a new chapter for New Jersey politics — if our bosses don’t stand in the way.

“Let there be no doubt this is a new era of politics rising. The same old, same old is done, and we’ve shown New Jersey that there’s a better way,” Kim told cheering supporters in Cherry Hill Tuesday night.

Kim captured the seat that was once held for 18 years by Bob Menendez, a Hudson County Democrat who began his political career as a reformer but ended it after a bribery trial that exposed him as a cartoonishly corrupt pol, one with literal bars of gold he took from men who needed favors from him. From Menendez to Kim — what a glow-up for New Jersey.

That Menendez remained in the Senate for so long is an example of the same old, same old approach to politics Kim declared dead in his victory speech.

If our public officials cared more about what we think of them, Menendez would have been shamed into stepping down when his first corruption trial revealed the shady relationship he had with a major campaign donor and friend (the jury deadlocked). Instead, Menendez sought reelection to a second term anyway and launched that campaign in 2018 at a rally where powerful New Jersey Democrats like Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. Cory Booker — who should have been pushing him into retirement — feted him as someone we could not live without.

Menendez eked out a primary victory, won a second term on the strength of New Jersey Democrats’ loathing of Donald Trump, and then spent that term participating in a new bribery scheme, this time with global actors. This led to indictment No. 2 in September 2023.

Kim has said the new charges inspired his bid to oust Menendez. And on Tuesday, he promised not to embarrass New Jersey the way Menendez did.

“I assure you I will give this everything I have and I will try and serve with honor and integrity. I promise you I will not lose myself along the way. I will anchor myself in the deep sense of public service that has guided me all these years,” he said.

The idea that Kim would ascend to the Senate seemed improbable from the start. He had arrived on the political scene way later than some other Democrats who probably thought they’d be next in line for the Senate seat. He wasn’t exactly beloved by New Jersey’s political establishment. And he soon found a primary rival — first lady Tammy Murphy — who had the support of so many Democratic Party officials that her victory seemed a fait accompli in a state where the party machine reigns.

Any other Democrat probably would have folded under the pressure of going against the wife of the sitting governor and every party boss in the state. But not only did Kim press on and emerge victorious — Murphy dropped out of the primary before a single vote was cast — he simultaneously led a court fight that put a stake through the heart of New Jersey’s notorious county line, a move that has the potential to limit the power of party bosses and make it easier for the next Andy Kim to replace the next Bob Menendez.

When Kim told his supporters Tuesday that they showed New Jersey there’s a better way, he was right. His candidacy proved to any person out there who wants to take on the political establishment that they can do it, too, and they can win without bending the knee to party bosses.

Kim told me Tuesday he thinks that because of his candidacy, “Jersey politics has changed forever.”

“We are entering a new era of politics in New Jersey. We don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like yet, but I’m going to play a very serious role and try to shape it,” he said.