Andy Kim stands with us. We want him as our next Senator.

When it comes to politics, we put people first. Our community, the people and places that make it up, and the issues that matter to us are our top priority when it comes to electing folks to represent us. So during state and local elections, we ask our representatives not what party they’re part of, but whether or not they stand with us – whether we have a seat at the table and a voice in the problems and solutions that affect our daily lives. 

This November, New Jersey will be electing a new Senator to represent us in the U.S. Congress (get details for when and how to register at the bottom of this post!). Our new Senator can’t be someone who puts profits over people’s lives, and who only listens to corporations and donors with lots of money and fancy titles. We want a representative who will listen to us and work to govern alongside us. As we like to say, nothing about us without us. 

For that reason and many more, we are excited to announce that NJOP is endorsing Congressman Andy Kim for U.S. Senate! 

When we say NJOP is endorsing someone, that means we all come together to make a decision. It’s kind of a big deal – in fact, this is only the third time we’ve ever made an endorsement as an organization. Starting in February, our Elections Committee asked you which candidate you supported in the upcoming Senate primary. Here’s what you told us: 

Andy Kim got a whopping 75%, with “I don’t know” and “I’d like to learn more” coming in second.

We’ll admit… we weren’t entirely surprised at these results! Congressman Kim has been working with NJOP for years, since before he was even elected to represent our 3rd Congressional district. We also endorsed him back when he was running for reelection in Congress in 2020 – here’s what we said back then:  

“When he was elected as our Congressman he took action and worked with us to pass the solutions we need to not just survive – but thrive – here in South Jersey.  One of the first things he did as a Congressman was work with us on introducing legislation to end clawbacks on Sandy survivors. Then he followed through and signed on as a cosponsor to the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act to help end the overdose crisis and make access to Medication Assisted Treatments more easily accessible and affordable. He’s also supported key reforms needed in the National Flood Insurance Program.”

We played a role in getting Congressman Kim to where he is today – and since then, he’s stayed with us. Here are just three more examples of what we’ve done together since we endorsed him in 2020.

He sat down with us in Toms River for Overdose Awareness Day in 2021 and listened to the people on the front lines about the solutions we need to end this public health crisis. He said, “I am proud to have delivered $500 million in additional funding for opioid treatment research and to be a cosponsor of the bipartisan Mainstream Addiction Treatment Act. I will continue working hard to get the MAT Act onto the president’s desk for signature.”

That same year, he helped us win $25 million dollars in Superstorm Sandy Community Disaster Loan loan forgiveness for 18 communities hit hard by first the storm, and then the burden of having to repay the money our towns needed to recover. 

In December of 2022, Congressman Kim fought with us and won a permanent extension to spend Sandy recovery funds. While Sandy families still owe clawbacks, there is now no deadline for repaying that money. This buys us more time to win total clawback forgiveness, and allows us to invest in other areas in New Jersey – for example, millions of much-needed dollars into Ida recovery programs.

For the 10th anniversary of Sandy, we came together with storm survivors from across the country to call on our electeds to finally fix the broken disaster recovery system – and Congressman Kim stood with us, and supported the FEMA, insurance, and clawbacks fixes we’ve long been demanding. (This event, as well as others where we stand together for Ida and Sandy recovery across the state, were even featured in one of his Senate campaign ads 😉)

This is all great – but we wanted to know, will Senator Kim continue to show up for our communities in the same way that Congressman Kim has been? 

So we hosted an event for our active members to be part of a conversation asking Congressman Kim specific questions about how he plans on continuing to move the solutions we need forward, and how he plans to stay in communication with the people he represents (aka, us). 

Our questions were focused on and crafted by the work we’ve been doing in each campaign for years now. Check out the full questions we asked him down at the bottom of this post. Here are some highlights from what we heard from the Congressman in response during our event: 

• “The more we can recreate what NJOP has been able to do in different parts of the country the better.”
•  “If elected, you’ve seen my commitment to forgiving Sandy clawbacks  – I’m even standing up to leaders in my own party when they’re not moving on this front. The Senate will give me a stronger ability to push.”
• “When it comes to the overdose crisis, we need to move with a solution that rises to the magnitude of the problem we face. We can’t keep moving incrementally when the situation is a crisis and an epidemic.”
• “There’s not an actual recovery system that has the urgency needed to meet moments of disasters. It’s an incredible failure that funds don’t move with the right speed, and they still have mistakes when they do move. I hope to create the momentum needed in the Senate to pass the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act.” 
• “Big picture, we need people on Medicaid to have access to substance use recovery support. I support the Extending Access to Addiction Treatment Act so MAT is available to everyone, including the roughly 86% of Americans who struggle with opioid addiction who are on Medicaid.”
• “You’re looking out for others, but you also need to make sure there are people who are looking out for you, and I want to be one of them.”

Based on those answers and the years-long relationship we’ve had with Congressman Kim… our attendees voted to endorse him for the U.S. Senate!

There’s still a ways to go before the Senate election this upcoming November, but make no mistake: it’s go time. To check if you are registered to vote, visit the Department of State New Jersey Division of Elections (the deadline to register for the primary has now passed, but if you aren’t registered and want to vote in the general election, you have to register by October 15). Get all the details on when and how to vote in the primary here. 

Want to get involved in helping to elect Congressman Kim to the U.S. Senate? We’re going to be calling around, knocking on doors, and talking with our friends, family, and community about the upcoming Senate election. Reach out to us at [email protected] with the subject line “I’m in” to join us. 

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