New Jersey Democrat Kim targets party’s ‘machine politics’ corruption

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., takes the ax on New Jersey Democratic PartyThe President’s political “machine” has pledged to support a primary challenge against longtime New Jersey Sen. James Beach and any others “fueling corrupt machine politics” in the Garden State.

Kim is the latest Democrat to break away from the party’s old guard. In a video announcement released Wednesday, the blue state senator described a political establishment that is more focused on special interests than “doing what is right for the people.”

The New Jersey Democrat’s plan comes on the heels of former Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman David Hogg sparking a rift within the party earlier this year when he announced he would invest millions through his political action committee, Leaders We Deserve, to older and incumbent primary Democrats who he said were “asleep at the wheel.”

It was Hog Quick to endorse Kim’s ‘Amazing’ Plan Garden State Senator Asks What Leaders We Deserve Can Do to Help.

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Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., arrives in the Senate subway at the Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“We need leaders who represent the people, not powerful interests; we need a people’s army to build an anti-corruption movement,” Kim said on Wednesday.

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While acknowledging that Beach is part of Kim’s own party, the Democrat said he was forced to speak out after the recent election. State Senate committee hearing.

“He said something I had never heard before in politics,” Kim said. “One constituent spoke up in the crowd, and the state senator, the president, looked at him and said, ‘I don’t care about you.’ And I thought that was a reflection of the broken politics that we have in New Jersey, frankly, throughout this country.”

Beach did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Beach told the New Jersey Globe on Wednesday He plans to seek re-election In 2027.

“I have never believed that holding elected office is a right that cannot or should not be challenged, and I welcome any and all opponents who come forward against me to try to re-elect me so that we can fully review our records and our agenda for the future. I am very proud of my record,” Beach told The Globe, while accusing Kim of trying to become a “party chairman.”

Then the MP. Andy Kim, DN.J., speaks in Paramus, New Jersey, on March 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wing, File)

But Kim believes elected officials who reject voters reflect a broader problem in politics.

“We have elected officials, politicians who do not feel indebted to the people, who do not feel accountable,” Kim explained. “Here in New Jersey, Senator Beach has been part of this entrenched machine politics for many years. For too long, they have focused on themselves, on their own interests and the interests of their companies, instead of doing what is right for the people. And I have to say enough is enough.”

Fed up with the status quo of “machine politics,” Kim has pledged to support a primary challenger against Beach in 2027, when he is up for re-election. Beach has served as a New Jersey state senator since 2009.

“I’m going to step in across this state and make sure that we stand up to elected officials who have been standing up and protecting machine policies, standing up against what we’re trying to do for Fight corruption“This must end.”

The Hogg Leaders We Deserve has led a national effort to elect young, progressive candidates to Congress and state legislatures across the United States.

The group has endorsed a slew of prominent progressive Democrats this year, including New York City Mayor-elect Zahran Mamdanifailed congressional candidate and Gen Z activist Deja Vox and Akbar Ali, who was recently elected to the Georgia General Assembly at just 21 years old.

Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg gives remarks to Michigan State University students as they protest gun violence in Lansing, Michigan, on February 20, 2023. (Reuters/Emily Elconen)

Hogg resigned as vice chairman earlier this year after Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin gave him an ultimatum to either abandon his involvement with Leaders We Deserve or resign as vice chairman. Amid a procedural challenge to his election, Hogue resigned, arguing that party politics had played a role in causing him to resign, an accusation the Democratic Party rejected.

The 25-year-old’s plan to challenge Democrats in primaries in safe blue districts has sparked debate over the future of the party as Democrats spent much of 2025 without a clear message or leader after their down-ballot losses last year.

In the wake of Mamdani’s success in New York City — a race that took national politics by storm as a generational socialist was elected to lead the largest city in the United States — more progressive and anti-establishment candidates have been jumping into races across the U.S.

In San Francisco, two leading Democratic challengers have announced campaigns for the former House Speaker Nancy PelosiCongressional seat before announcing her plan to step down from the seat she has held since 1987.

Saikat Chakrabarty, former chief of staff to MP. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezNew York Democrat and state Sen. Scott Wiener are running to Pelosi’s left, as part of a broader coast-to-coast battle for the Democratic Party’s progressive base.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and then-candidate Zohran Mamdani carry a sign across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City on Monday, November 3, 2025, before Election Day. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Just this week, Brad Lander is Mamdani Certified He launched a primary challenge against Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who refused to endorse Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. Lander is considered the more progressive candidate for his outspoken condemnation of the war in Gaza, while Goldman told CBS New York’s Marcia Kramer that he fears Mamdani will not do enough to protect Jewish New Yorkers.

While Kim takes a stance on the ideological divide driving the future of the Democratic Party, the New Jersey senator encouraged his voters to participate in the political process.

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“Senator Beach is part of my political party, but I have to stand against corruption, and I have to stand against broken policies, no matter who violates them. Sometimes that means standing against my own party,” Kim said.

The New Jersey state senator’s announcement also came on the heels of Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s success in November, with national Democrats claiming they are “on the offensive” ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Kim did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.