Challenges Rep. Menendez on bribery charges
When elected, he becomes the first Korean senator to make history.
US political media Politico reported on the 23rd (local time) that Andy Kim (Democrat, New Jersey), a second-generation Korean American and third-term congressman, declared his candidacy for the Senate election.
When Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, his district, was indicted by prosecutors on charges of accepting bribes, he announced his intention to run in the party’s primary election.
If Representative Kim defeats Senator Menendez in next year’s election and wins the general election, he will become the first Korean to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
“I feel like fighting against him (Menendez),” he said on “We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our integrity.”
Among the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, there are four Koreans, including Rep. Kim and re-elected Rep. Marilyn Strickland, and Republican Rep. Young Kim and re-elected Rep. Michelle Park Steele, but there are no Korean-American lawmakers in the Senate.
Rep. Kim was the first person in the Democratic Party’s New Jersey constituency to demand Rep. Menendez’s resignation, and later governors and lawmakers whose constituencies were in New Jersey, including Governor Phil Murphy, called for Menendez’s resignation.
Menendez is accused of using his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to receive bribes and provide benefits to the Egyptian government and businessmen.
Menendez stepped down as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee after the controversy broke out, but rejected the party’s demands for his resignation.
In a statement released on the 22nd, he made it clear that he had no intention of resigning, saying, “I am not going anywhere.”
Andy Kim, born in New Jersey, studied political science at the University of Chicago, was selected as a scholarship student, and received a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford, England.
Rep. Kim was elected to the House of Representatives in southern New Jersey, where Republican support was strong, in 2018, and then succeeded in his third term in last year’s midterm election.
He has experience working as a counterterrorism expert and National Security Council member in charge of Iraq under the former Barack Obama administration.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.