Senator Kim Delivers Maiden Speech Outlining a Future for America Shaped by Care for One Another and Our Nation

“This sacred ground that we get the honor to embody, it’s not just a place of heated debate and consequential vote. It can and must be a place of care, not just for those of us in this chamber, but for a nation.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today on the one-year anniversary of being sworn in as a United States Senator, Senator Andy Kim (D-N.J.) delivered his maiden speech on the Senate Floor, sharing his personal story of becoming his dad’s caregiver and his resolve to use his time in the Senate to build a care movement that not only delivers tangible solutions for millions struggling to get care but can build unity around our humanity and a shared responsibility to care for one another.

In the speech, Senator Kim commits to answering the formidable question shared across millions of Americans: “Why is it so hard to get care in this country?”

He called on his fellow Senators to uphold their own duty to be caregivers to our nation, stating: “No bigger responsibility exists than the one we have to the people we love, and that extends to the nation we love. And there’s no larger obligation that we have – as Senators and as Americans – to make it easier to look after each other.”

Watch Senator Kim’s Maiden Speech

Yesterday, Senator Kim released a video documenting his personal experiences since first learning about his dad’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and beginning a conversation with the American people as he confronts his personal battles as a caregiver and channels his family’s experience into his service in Congress to be a voice and fighter for the millions facing similar challenges as caregivers to their loved ones. Today’s speech builds on that conversation.

Read Senator Kim’s full speech as prepared here. Key quotes are outlined as prepared below:

Never in my life have I felt the call to serve so strongly and viscerally as I do right now. I believe we are in a moment of extraordinary consequence and magnitude. That the next 5 years will shape the next five decades. There is nowhere else I’d rather be than to have a voice in this room, and vote in this chamber on the monumental decisions that will shape our nation’s future through tumultuous times.  

But there is a bittersweet taste now a year later when I look back on that day I was sworn in. By my children’s side as they watched me a year ago, were my parents. Both born during the Korean War, both born into poverty and struggled to survive. Both saw America as a place where they could achieve the closest thing they could get to a guarantee that the family that they raise would have a better life than they did. 

It was actually our predecessors in this room that passed the immigration reform that allowed my parents to come here. Had it not been for decisions right here, our family story had no chance in America. And the decisions we are making now are shaping families for generations to come. I am in awe of what this nation has afforded my family in just 1 generation.

But now I think through an episode that happened a few weeks ago. I was with my father at the doctor’s office. The doctor asked my father, “tell me about your son, tell me what he does for a living.”

My father was silent.  Looked at me with embarrassed eyes and said “I don’t know.”

My father no longer remembers being in this chamber a year ago. He no longer remembers that momentous day I hoped we would never forget. He no longer remembers that his hard journey from the Korean War to immigrating here led to his son being sworn in as a first ever Korean American Senator.

And it got worse. The next question the doctor asked him, “What job did I you have? What was your life’s work?”

My father looked down at the ground, paused, and said the same 3 words, “I don’t know.” 3 words that I’m sure I will hear more and more from him.

That was the day my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. …

…….

Was there something I could have done to better prepare for this moment? I should have seen the warning signs and took precautions to provide better care to my father and my family. I fixated on a singular question: Why is it so hard to provide care in this country? From that question, others came: Why is providing care so insanely complicated? And why does it feel like we are alone as we try to provide care for the people we love? And for many the disease or injury is only part of the problem. We are the richest, most powerful country in the world.  Why does it cost so much to provide care? The answers explain my anxiety.

…….

But I'm worried. I'm worried because we stand here in this chamber under this ubiquitous phrase. 

E pluribus unum. Out of many…one. It is the same motto that perches over the Capitol rotunda, the House chamber, the Oval Office. But does it ring true, especially in this divided moment?

…….

Being the nerd that I am, I dug around and tracked down the origin of the phrase, back to Cicero at the dawn of republics, and found the missing Verb. 

He says, “When each person loves the other as much as himself, it makes one out of many.”  The missing verb is “to love.” But how do we express that love to each other?

Another way to think about it, when we care for another as we would care for ourselves. Care is how we manifest our love of nation, love of each other.

And this is the realization I have come to. 

E Pluribus Unum requires love and care. 

How we become one out of many is to be caregivers to one other. We here in this chamber are to be caregivers to the nation, a nation that right now needs healing. A nation whose future is uncertain and unsteady. 

My role as a caregiver takes on new meaning. The care with which I transfer my father to his wheelchair and wash his disabled body is but an example of the care with which we must handle our nation in fragile times… 

…….

I have seen glimpses of what the Senate can be. This sacred ground that we get the honor to embody, it’s not just a place of heated debate and consequential vote. It can and must be a place of care, not just for those of us in this chamber, but for a nation.  The care you have shown me, from the ear with which you have listened to my telling of my troubles, let us pour that out of these doors and give it towards the 7 million Americans afflicted with Alzheimers, the tens of millions more who are families struggling with the struggles of their loved ones.

Let our care pour out to the tens of millions of parents who struggle to give their kids the kind of the life they want…

…….

Today, in this maiden speech, I make a promise to the people of New Jersey and the people of this country that for as long as I have the chance to serve here, I will do everything I can to give you the care you deserve. I will care for your parents and grandparents as hard as I will for mine.  I will care for your kids and grandkids as much as I care for mine. 

I will not be perfect. I will stumble at times. But I have learned as a caregiver, I have no other choice but to endure.  Whether it’s the emergency calls in the middle of the night or the drop everything moments where I have to rush to the hospital. There is no alternative. As a caregiver, we are the backstop. 

We here in this chamber need to be that for the ailing nation. We are the backstop.

…….

This is my maiden speech. One day I will stand here again to give my farewell speech. The duration between these two speeches will I hope not be measured in years, but instead by the problems I sought to tackle and solve. 

In between these speeches I hope we meet the urgency and lead our nation forward with strategy and purpose. 

I’ve often said that we work in what’s arguably the most reactionary building in America, reacting to the headlines, the social posts.  But it doesn’t have to be this way. 

Instead, we can be a Senate that sets out real goals and builds a strategy to meet them. Where do we want our Nation to be in 10, 20, 30 years from now?

I want to be a part of that Senate. A Senate unafraid to pursue big ideas. 

…….

Colleagues, I asked you to be here because I need your help. None of us have this power alone, and the nation is looking to us to right the ship and give a vision we can be proud of. To my staff, I promise you this will be a noble journey you will be proud to be a part of. I know this will be hard and could very well fall short of our lofty goals. But I want no regret in my time here in this sacred Chamber.

That I can say I did everything I could. I have no regrets about the time I spent in here…being a caregiver to our great nation, to make One out of Many.

I’m ready. Let’s get to work.