TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim was elected to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, defeating Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw for the seat left vacant when Bob Menendez resigned this year after his federal conviction on bribery charges .

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Kim, a three-term congressman from the 3rd District in central New Jersey, will become the first Korean-American in the Senate. In a recent interview, he said that this success validated his parents' decision to emigrate to the United States 50 years ago. He was the state's first Asian American elected to Congress when he defeated a Republican incumbent in 2018.

Kim, a former national security adviser in the Obama administration, was a Rhodes Scholar and has a Ph.D. from Oxford. Presenting himself as a humble, hard-working public servant, he gained national attention in 2021 when he was seen cleaning up and bagging trash at the U.S. Capitol following the Jan. 6 insurrection.

His victory leaves a reliably Democratic seat under his party's control. Due to Menendez's resignation, he is expected to take the seat sooner than January. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said George Helmy, who is serving out the remainder of Menendez's term, would resign and the winner of Tuesday's election would be named.

Kim, 42, was first elected to Congress by defeating Republican Tom MacArthur, an ally of former President Donald Trump. He has now been re-elected three times. During the campaign, Kim said he would oppose tax breaks for the wealthy and support abortion rights.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Bashaw personally financed his campaign to the tune of at least $1 million. He won the GOP nomination in June, defeating a Trump-backed rival. As a first-time candidate, he served on several boards, including for Stockton University and a state tourism board.

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Bashaw, 64, said he considers himself a moderate and stressed that he supports abortion rights and is a married gay man.

“If my party is right, I will support it. But if my party is not right, I will oppose it,” he said recently. “I am a moderate, common sense person who will work to be a voice for New Jersey.”

As much as Bashaw invited voters to see the difference between him and the Republican Party, he also supported Trump, who was a lightning rod in the state.

Kim brought this up in a recent debate. During a discussion about presidential nominations if elected to the Senate, Kim questioned Bashaw's judgment based on supporting Trump.

“The only endorsement he has made is for Donald Trump to be president of the United States. And I think we get a sense of his judgment from that. And I don’t agree with that at all,” Kim said.

The Senate race got off to a chaotic start for the Democrats. The party that controls the Legislature and the governor's office faced a second federal corruption trial involving a sitting senator. Menendez was convicted of bribery for trading his office for cash, gold cars and a luxury car and has resigned. But he has denied the allegations – as he did in his earlier trial, which ended with a hung jury.

This time, however, the Democrats let him down. The day after his indictment last fall, Kim launched his own race of defiance and rejection of Menendez.

But it wasn't an easy path to the nomination. First Lady Tammy Murphy launched a campaign that was well-financed and widely supported by insiders. Kim upended New Jersey politics when he sued in federal court to stop a practice of allowing party leaders to influence the production of ballots, which was widely seen as helping favored candidates. In an initial ruling, the judge sided with Kim. Murphy was eliminated and Kim won easily in June.

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