Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics and we're

celebrating Juneteenth so something a little different today. I recently sat down with New Jersey

Democratic Congressman Andy Kim to talk about his run for Senate. He went from

long-shot candidate to presumptive frontrunner in a matter of months.

And he did it by taking on his own party's power brokers

and indicted incumbent Senator Bob Menendez,

who's running as an independent while on trial

for corruption charges.

Kim's also a Democrat who won a district Donald Trump won twice.

So I wanted to get his take on the Senate race

and the state of American politics.

Congressman Anikim, thank you so much for coming into studio.

Thanks for having me today.

I was hoping we could start with you recalling back to the day that you ultimately decided

that you were going to jump into the Senate race because it does seem like it was a jump.

This wasn't a big long thought out long running plan of yours to get into this race.

No, it was definitely not.

You know, I have a six year old and an and an eight-year-old two little boys.

I was not necessarily think I would take on a statewide Senate campaign, but I saw the indictment

of Senator Menendez come out and like many other people across New Jersey across the country just

we saw it and it just like it just unfortunately just feeds into this deep

distrust that so many people have of government right now.

...