Tammy Murphy receives crucial support in her bid for the US Senate

Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, received crucial support in her bid for the U.S. Senate on Monday evening, winning the vote at the Democratic Convention in Bergen County by a decisive margin.

It was Ms. Murphy’s first win at a convention decided by secret ballot delegates, and it was considered a must-win contest in her primary battle against Representative Andy Kim, a third-term Democrat from South Jersey.

The votes were 738 for Ms. Murphy and 419 for Mr. Kim.

Over the past month, Mr. Kim, 41, won the first five county conventions in New Jersey where delegates could select a candidate, including in Monmouth County, where Ms. Murphy and her husband, Gov. Philip D. Murphy, have lived for 25 years.

With the support of Mr. Murphy, who has nearly two years left in his term, Ms. Murphy, 58, collected early endorsements from a string of influential Democratic officials before she hit the campaign trail.

But she has been battered by claims of nepotism and is struggling to gain support among rank-and-file Democrats as she makes her case that she should be their nominee to run for a coveted seat now held by Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat accused of taking bribes. Mr. Menendez has not ruled out running for re-election, but he has been abandoned by most Democratic leaders and has virtually no path to victory.

Bergen County, in northern New Jersey, is the state’s most populous region. It has more Democrats than any other county than Essex, which includes Newark, the largest city in the state.

“It’s going as I hoped,” Ms. Murphy told reporters after being declared the winner on Monday. “Of course it is great to achieve this incredible victory.”

Starting at 5 p.m., deputies began putting paper ballots into locked silver-and-red boxes on tables surrounding a union hall in Paramus, NJ. The room remained packed for most of the evening as people walked around chatting with friends while waiting for the election. votes to be counted by hand at 7:30 p.m. Many people wore embroidered patches or clothing that indicated they were union members or worked for local public safety departments.

Supporters of both Ms. Murphy and Mr. Kim said they had no memory of a convention that had attracted more interest from the news media — or from the candidates.

“Calls, mail, texts,” said Rob Rohrberger, 64, of Glen Rock, describing the barrage of political messages sent by candidates.

Ms. Murphy helped run Mr. Murphy’s two campaigns for governor, but she has never run for office before. She was a registered Republican until 2014, when Murphy prepared to run for governor.

Mrs. Murphy, a mother of four adult children, worked as a financial analyst for several years after graduating from college, but she has not worked outside the home since she married Mr. Murphy 30 years ago. Since then, she has served on several philanthropic boards and, as first lady, has been an advocate for improving maternal and infant mortality rates.

Bergen County Democratic Chairman Paul A. Juliano, a former public works director in Fairview, was appointed by Mr. Murphy last March to a $280,000-a-year state job as CEO of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. He endorsed Ms. Murphy shortly after she entered the race in November and has actively campaigned for her.

Elizabeth Heap, a longtime member of the Bergen County Democratic Committee, said she voted for Ms. Murphy.

“It’s time for New Jersey to have a woman in the Senate,” Ms. Heap, 74, said as she left the union hall.

Mr. Rohrberger said he had received personal calls from both candidates but had decided to vote for Mr. Kim, a former national security adviser who advised generals during the war in Afghanistan. Mr. Kim flipped a seat from a Republican to be elected to Congress in 2018, and has been re-elected twice.

For Mr. Rohrberger, it was Mr. Kim’s experience that made the difference.

Ms. Murphy has also been selected as a nominee in Passaic and Union Counties. However, those decisions were made by a handful of party leaders in closed-door meetings.

Last week, Mr. Kim filed a federal lawsuit that took direct aim at the backroom party politics that support the state’s longstanding practice of allowing district leaders — whether Democrat or Republican — to nominate preferred candidates for place all races in a single row or column. ballots. It is known as ‘the line’ and is unique to New Jersey. Unendorsed candidates appear to the side, in a nearby row, or at the edge of the ballot, a location commonly referred to as “ballot Siberia.”

a recent research by a professor at Rutgers University showed that placement on the so-called line of candidates for Congress gave a lead of 38 percentage points.

Mr. Kim has asked a federal judge, Zahid N. Quraishi, to overturn the practice and instead require candidates to be grouped by the office they seek. Judge Quraishi did expects to hold a hearing on the matter on March 18, a week before the deadline for candidates to file petitions for nomination.

Ms. Murphy has lagged behind Mr. Kim in several surveys, including the first independent poll of the race, and her campaign manager resigned last month, signaling a possible change in strategy.

Since then, she has released her first television commercial, filmed in front of the National Rifle Association’s headquarters in Virginia, and announced the endorsement of Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont. She held a fundraiser in Massachusetts last week with the state’s governor, Maura Healey; On Wednesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is expected to host a fundraiser for Ms. Murphy, with suggested donations ranging from $3,300 to $6,600.