Democratic Rep. Andy Kim leads N.J.’s first lady in Senate primary poll

Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey enjoys a double-digit lead over Tammy Murphy, the wife of Gov. Phil Murphy, among Democratic primary voters in the race for a Senate seat held by embattled Sen. Bob Menendez, according to a new poll.

The Fairleigh Dickinson University survey released Friday said Mr. Kim, who’s represented a district in the Philadelphia suburbs since 2019, leads Mrs. Murphy, 32% to 20%, although 31% remain undecided.

Mr. Menendez, who hasn’t said whether he will run for reelection in November, retained only 9% support in the poll. He is indicted on charges alleging he acted as an unregistered agent for the Egyptian government and received cash and gold bars in exchange for favors. 

Labor activist Patricia Campos-Medina received 8% support.

Mrs. Murphy has name recognition as a highly visible first lady in Trenton, with 68% of Democratic primary voters saying they know who she is, compared to 52% for Mr. Kim, the poll said. 

She is also expected to enjoy “county line” status on the ballot, a Garden State quirk in which certain candidates enjoy favorable positioning that attracts the eyes of voters.

Yet pollsters found that 24% of voters “strongly approve” of Mr. Kim, compared with 13% for Mrs. Murphy.

“Generally, institutional support is enough to win a primary in New Jersey,” said Dan Cassino, a politics professor at FDU and the director of the poll. “With Murphy down, this election is a test of whether county organizations still have the power to choose a candidate.”

The poll found Mr. Kim is doing well with White and Asian voters, while Mrs. Murphy tends to do favorably with Hispanic and Black voters.

“The real fight here is between White liberals, who are largely backing Kim, and more moderate Black and Hispanic voters, who are lining up behind Murphy,” Mr. Cassino said. “Kim has always run as a centrist candidate, but these liberal voters dislike the county organizations enough that they’ve adopted him as one of their own.”

The race is getting national attention, given Mr. Menendez’s legal troubles. The 70-year-old senator has resisted calls to resign and plans to fight the charges in court.

Mr. Menendez has served in the Senate since 2006. He beat previous federal corruption charges in 2018 because of a hung jury at trial, but experts believe the latest indictment will be a sterner test.