Congressman Andy Kim Reelection Remarks as Delivered

MARLTON, NJ — Today, Congressman Andy Kim declared victory in his reelection campaign alongside his family, staff, and dozens of supporters outside of his first campaign office. 

Andy is grateful for David Richter and Martin Weber congratulating him on his campaign’s victory in the election. Andy said “I want to thank David Richter and Marty Weber for running alongside me in our race. David and I have talked before about our passion as dads to build a better future for our kids. Marty has an extraordinary mission to get veterans the care that they need and deserve. I have gotten to know them throughout the campaign and I have a deep respect for them. Putting your name on a ballot takes tremendous courage, it’s what keeps our democracy alive. It was an honor to be in this race with you both.”

Remarks as delivered below:

Hey everyone. How are you doing? It’s a pretty glorious day, isn’t it? I’m not just talking about the weather, right? I just wanted to say thank you. I want to say thank you to all of you for your hard work. What we have put together here has been extraordinary and I’m so incredibly proud to stand before you all today and be able to declare once and for all, officially, that we have won our race. This is what it’s been all about. It’s about our community. It’s about making sure that we are doing everything we can to be able to fight for our kids, our grandkids, for everybody here. Many of you here with me today, we have a small group gathered here. I wish you could be larger. And for those of you watching online, I look forward to hopefully getting to see you sometime in person soon, but I wanted you to join us because this moment is one that I am incredibly proud of. A lot of people back when we started this, I’m talking back in 2017, a lot of people said this was impossible, that there’s no way for us to be able to win this seat, that there’s no way that we’ll be able to do all the things that we said we could do. And then once we won in 2018 people said that that was a fluke, that there’s no way that you can do it again, As the Chairman said that no Democrat had won this seat for reelection since before the Civil War. They said everything that you have done was just because of some blue wave, it wasn’t because of what we built. I believe we have proved them wrong. 

Yeah, We have done it. We’ve been able to show people what our political voice is, what the power that we have been able to create and generate is. And that is something that they’ll never be able to take away from us. We have built this up from scratch. This campaign, working alongside the Chairman with our electeds all across Burlington County to be able to make sure that we’re building that strong, and then in Ocean County to be able to make sure that we put together something extraordinary, that is what we have seen full force through this election. 

Now, the question is, what do we do with this? We’ve shown people that what we did in 2018 wasn’t a fluke. We’ve shown people what it is that we could accomplish again. But you’ve heard me say this before that election day is not the finish line, it’s the starting line. We have to show that there’s a better way to govern, show people that there’s a better way to be a representative. I have done my best over these last two years to be able to try to conduct myself with honor and integrity. I hope that the work I did over the last two year makes you proud. And I hope that the work I do over the next two years makes you proud. That is the promise that I want to make to you today, that we recognize that it’s not just about better policies, and we know we need that; we need to make sure that we’re fighting for the healthcare that people need and deserve, right? That we are taking the steps to be able to address climate change, this pandemic, all these problems with the economic hardship and small businesses, looking out for our veterans and our military, our joint base. We need to take care of all of that. That’s a big task ahead of us, but that is something that we’re up to task for.

Well, what we know right now in our country is it’s not just about better policies, it’s about better politics, right? It’s about making sure that we rise up to this moment and that we find a real way, a real way to be able to heal our country. There is no doubt, no one came out from this election thinking everything’s going to be okay. We have a long road to recovery ahead. Whether that’s about the pandemic, about our economy, or about just the deep divides that we just continue to feel within our communities, even within our families. That just should not be. We are better than that. I believe we already, I know you do too. It is not going to be easy. It is not going to be easy, but I believe that this election has given us the opportunity to be able to do that. With Joe Biden in the Oval Office, Kamala Harris as Vice President, I can’t wait to see what they do. But let’s make sure we never fall into that false sense of security that we had before. It’s not just about who’s President of the United States. It’s not just about who sits in the Oval Office. We learned that the hard way we recognize that the problems that we face right now are great, but that requires us to have the solutions that are even greater to be able to accomplish what we know is necessary for our nation. What we know is that these challenges cannot be solved by any single level of government alone. It requires all of us to lift up and be able to be the kind of leaders that this country needs and deserves at this moment. It’s a tall order. To those of you know me and for those that are getting to know me, you know that I come into the work that I do with a deep sense of humility, that there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t recognize that I work a job, that I’ve been reelected to a job whose job description is written in the Constitution of the United States. That I have the humbling experience to represent the district where I went to kindergarten, where my oldest boy is going to go to kindergarten next year. That is what it is for me. Each of you has your own story about why you love this district, why you fight so hard for this district, but it all comes down to one thing, which is, this is our home. And when our home is struggling, when our HOME has challenges, I don’t have to tell you, you know, you will fight and give it everything you got to be able to protect your home, to be able to protect your family. That’s what this moment is about.

It’s not just about winning the election. That’s just the possibility for change, the potential for progress. Now it’s on us to govern. I’m going to do that as best as I can with a humble heart focused on serving with honor and integrity  the way that our forefathers imagined as they devised up that great Constitution. I believe in America, I believe that this is going to be a new chapter. It will not be a chapter that will just be nothing but positive news and optimism always, we’ll have our setbacks. But it’ll be a chapter of progress when it all is said and done. We need to make sure we keep working with each other. And that’s why I’m just grateful to have such an incredible team.

I just want to say, thank you. To all of you, to the people who say that young people aren’t changing the country, are not getting engaged in politics, this is the team that won one of the toughest seats in the country. To my mom and my dad, who believed in me since I was a little baby boy causing trouble, thank you and I’m glad you’re here with me share this moment. To my father-in-law. thank you. Thank you for watching the kids and giving us all these opportunities to be able to try to do everything that we can. 

To my wife Kammy, I can’t tell you how much this means. I’ll get to the kids later.

To Emily, and Andrew and Andrea and Tyler and Tyree, I’m still missing some people around, thank you. 

To my congressional team, Amy and Anthony and everybody, thank you. 

That’s what this is about. I’ll end by just saying the same lines that I said on election time during 2018, which is let the energy that brought you out today, the energy that you fought with over this campaign, the energy that you brought to be able to win in 2018, let that not just be about 2018, let that not just be about 2020, but the energy that we bring together, the passion that we have, the resolve that we give, let that be that new baseline of civic engagement in our country now and forever. That’s the only thing that will solve the problems of our country. And I want to be there with you every step of the way. 

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