In a bold declaration that he’s prepared to take on feckless state lawmakers who follow the orders of party bosses, U.S. Senator Andy Kim will support a challenge to State Sen. Jim Beach (D-Voorhees) in the Democratic primary in 2027 and will help recruit primary opponents to run against other incumbent lawmakers he views as impediments to anti-corruption measures.
“I’m going to be stepping up to get involved across this state and make sure we’re taking on elected officials who have been standing up and protecting the machine politics — standing against what we’re trying to do to fight corruption, and that needs to end,” Kim said in a video he released this morning.
Kim ran for the House three times with organizational support, but in late 2023, he mounted an insurgent bid for the U.S. Senate, joining the race one day after a sweeping federal corruption indictment was unsealed against incumbent Bob Menendez.
Beach, the 79-year-old Camden County Democratic chairman and a six-term senator, may be the first to make it on Kim’s target list, but the freshman U.S. Senator is planning to recruit legislative candidates in other districts in 2027, if necessary.
“Going into the 2027 elections and beyond, we’re putting the machine on notice: the grassroots movement that has defied the odds and delivered change to New Jersey is ready to do it again,” Kim said. “It’s time for accountability.”
Kim has not yet decided on a candidate against Beach, who represents a suburban Camden County district that includes Cherry Hill, Voorhees, and Haddonfield. He’s planning a call to action to recruit candidates — possibly newcomers like Kim was when he ousted a two-term congressman in 2018 in a district that Donald Trump had carried — to run for the legislature.
That process started today with a social media video filmed in front of Cherry Hill East High School, which Kim attended.
That comes with some irony for Beach, who was a public school teacher, football coach, and political neophyte in 1991 when he responded to a newspaper ad placed by then-Democratic County Chairman George E. Norcross III seeking outsiders interested in running for public office.
Beach defeated the Republican incumbents to capture a seat on the Camden County Board of Freeholders and has been an organization stalwart ever since. He was elected county clerk in 1996 and went to the Senate in 2009 after John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) was elected to the congressional seat Kim later held.
Kim’s grievance with Beach began during his 2024 Senate race. Beach fought Kim’s successful lawsuit to abolish a county line system that gave organization-backed candidates a preferential ballot position. Among other things, the lawsuit – and subsequent legislation passed under the watchful eye of a federal judge – eliminated a system known as Ballot Siberia, in which insurgent candidates were placed far from the organization slate on the ballot. Beach wouldn’t support Kim in the primary, even after his preferred candidate, First Lady Tammy Murphy, dropped out; his name wasn’t included on Camden County Democratic campaign materials.
But the freshman U.S. Senator’s frustration with Beach intensified on December 1 when Kim went to Trenton to testify against legislation to weaken the office of the state comptroller and transfer the real teeth of its statutory investigative authority to the State Commission of Investigation.
As chairman of the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee, Beach made Kim wait hours before his chance to address the panel, something that forced him to miss his train to Washington, where votes were scheduled for that evening in the U.S. Senate.
Senator Andy Kim announced that he will be supporting challengers against New Jersey Democratic State Senator James Beach and other elected officials who continue to block anti-corruption policies and support corrupt machine politics in New Jersey.
“Why do you think you’re special?” Beach said to him. “You’re not.”
Beach also castigated Kim for voting for some of President Donald Trump’s nominees, including Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Last week, I heard Senator Beach say something to a constituent that I never thought I’d hear a public servant say: ‘I don’t care about you.’ It’s those actions and that kind of politics that New Jersey hates, and it’s time we put it in our past,” Kim stated. “We need to show people that we care; the first step is supporting candidates that do.”
Kima acknowledged that Beach is a member of his own political party.
“I have to stand up against corruption, stand up against the broken politics, no matter who is violating it,” Kim stated. “Sometimes that means standing up against my own party. So I’m going to get more involved.”
In his video, Kim made Beach the poster child for the kind of incumbent he wants to see removed from public office.
“We have elected officials, politicians that don’t feel beholden to the people, don’t feel accountable here in New Jersey. It’s because of these entrenched machine politics that Senator Beach has been a part of for many, many years,” Kim said. “And for so long they have been focused on themselves, on their special interests and their corporate interests, rather than doing what’s right for the people. And I just have to say, that’s enough.”
Without the benefits of the county line, the Camden County Democratic Organization has still prevailed in primary fights – just with a reduced plurality. In 2019, County Clerk Joseph Ripa won his Democratic primary by a 79%-12% margin against progressive Rena Margulis in a three-way race. In 2024, with office block ballots replacing the county line system, Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Cherry Hill), running to replace Ripa, won her primary against a progressive challenger by a 60%-40% margin.
Beach’s candidate for governor in the June Democratic primary, former Senate President Steve Sweeney, received 20% of the vote in the 6th legislative district – enough to finish third in a six-way race. Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill received 29%
Still, it’s not clear whether Beach will seek re-election in two years, when he’ll be 81; speculation suggests he might retire. If he does, possible candidates include Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald (D-Voorhees); Assemblywoman Melinda Kane (D-Cherry Hill), a Gold Star Mother who served as a councilwoman and county commissioner; and Camden County Commissioner Jonathan Young, Sr., the political director of the Eastern Atlantic State Regional Council of Carpenters. Cherry Hill Mayor Dave Fleisher and his wife, Camden County Commissioner Jennifer Cooley Fleisher, could also be potential candidates.
In the June 2025 primary, Rebecca Holloway, a deeply flawed challenger who ran on a slate allied with gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop, came within 2,810 votes of ousting Greenwald, an assemblyman since 1995. She received nearly four times as many votes as Fulop, who was in a crowded field.
Earlier this year, in the first legislative primary with office block ballots, one-quarter of the state’s legislative districts had unusually close primary elections. And the results of the primary and general elections produced a group of freshman lawmakers who take office next month unencumbered by debts to party leaders, including Andrew Macurdy (D-Summit), Katie Brennan (D-Jersey City), Ravi Bhalla (D-Hoboken), Kenyatta Stewart (D-Paterson), Marissa Sweeney (D-Morristown), Maureen Rowan (D-Atlantic City), and Ed Rodriguez (D-Elizabeth).
Kim’s decision to involve himself in legislative primaries in 2027 could put him at odds with Sherrill, the new Democratic governor. She could be forced to defend incumbents she’s working with to get nominees confirmed and bills passed. Even as Gov. Phil Murphy and Norcross feuded, Murphy still endorsed the organization-backed candidates.
“We’ve seen corrupt machine politics prop up the well-off and well-connected while making it harder for everyday New Jerseyans to get ahead,” Kim said. “Together with grassroots support, we stood up against an unfair ballot system that silenced the voices of voters. We halted the legislation that would gut anti-corruption tools like the Comptroller, but we have to keep our feet on the gas.”
