Senator Who Flipped a Trump District as a First-Time Candidate, a Leading Advocate for ICE Accountability, Backs Kim-Varet in the Final Days Before CA-40’s June 2 Primary
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA – Esther Kim-Varet, Democratic frontrunner to flip California’s 40th Congressional District, today announced the endorsement of U.S. Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, one of the most prominent national voices for immigration accountability and a Democrat who knows firsthand what it takes to flip a Republican seat. The endorsement lands in the final stretch of a race that a new Tulchin Research poll shows is a three-way dead heat tie between Esther Kim-Varet and Republican incumbent Representatives Ken Calvert and Young Kim for the top two June 2 primary spots.
In 2018, Andy Kim was a first-time candidate and former Obama national security aide who took on a two-term Republican incumbent in a district Donald Trump had carried by six points. Almost no one gave him a chance. He won anyway, unseating Republican Tom MacArthur and becoming the first Asian American ever elected to Congress from New Jersey. Six years later, he won a U.S. Senate seat. Sen. Andy Kim knows better than almost anyone in American politics what it takes to flip a Republican district, and how rare is the kind of candidate who can actually pull it off.
Senator Kim has been at the forefront of Senate efforts to demand accountability and reform at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Just this week, on May 25, he was hit with pepper spray deployed by federal agents while he stood outside Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility in Newark, where roughly 300 detainees were on a hunger strike over spoiled food, lack of medical care, and denial of due process. Kim said he had tried to position himself between the agents and the crowd to de-escalate. “This was never about me,” he said afterward, refocusing attention on the detainees and civilians who were in harm’s way.
“Like Esther, I first ran for Congress in a district many said couldn’t be flipped,” said Senator Andy Kim. “I can see she has the grit, the message, and the grassroots support to win. This district is one of the handful of seats around the country that will decide control of the House, and with this rogue president attacking the Constitution and creating skyrocketing costs for families, flipping CA-40 is necessary. Esther Kim-Varet is the Democrat who can win it. I am proud to endorse her campaign for Congress.”
“Senator Kim is living proof that the so-called experts are wrong about which seats can be won,” said Esther Kim-Varet. “In 2018 he was a first-time candidate, written off by everyone, who flipped a Trump district through sheer determination and a refusal to back down. That is exactly the kind of campaign we are running in CA-40. And when I watched him stand between ICE agents and the people they were terrorizing this week, I saw the kind of courage I want representing all of us. His endorsement means the world to me, and it tells voters in this district that the people who have actually done this believe we can do it here.”
Senator Kim’s endorsement adds to a growing coalition of Democratic Congressional leaders backing Kim-Varet, including Rep. Gil Cisneros, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Rep. Laura Friedman, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep. Grace Meng, Rep. Marilyn Strickland, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (ASPIRE PAC), former Rep. Harley Rouda, and former Rep. Dean Phillips, alongside many state and local leaders who have recognized Kim-Varet as the only viable candidate to flip CA-40 red to blue.
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California’s newly drawn 40th Congressional District, spanning portions of Riverside County and Orange County, is one of the most consequential U.S. House district battlegrounds in the nation. CA-40 includes the cities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Murrieta, Menifee, Lake Elsinore, Wildomar and Canyon Lake as well as parts of Mission Viejo, Orange, Anaheim and Corona.
First-time candidate Esther Kim-Varet has raised $3 million to date, powered by over 65,000 individual small dollar contributions from across the nation, with no corporate or foreign PAC money whatsoever. Esther is not a politician. She is a working mom of two young kids, running for Congress to restore the American Dream for all. In Congress, Esther will combat corruption, defend democracy, and fight for the middle class, small businesses, public education, and healthcare access.
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