Andy Kim, a third-term US Congress representative, won a Senate seat for New Jersey in the US general election Tuesday. (Yonhap)

Andy Kim, 42, a three-term Congress representative from New Jersey, has won the US Senate race, becoming the first Korean American elected to the Senate.

Kim, a Democrat, defeated Republican Curtis Bashaw, securing 53 percent of the vote to Bashaw’s 44.7 percent, with 87 percent of ballots counted as of 3 p.m., according to AP.

This Senate seat opened in August when former Senator Bob Menendez resigned after being convicted on charges of bribery and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government. New Jersey has elected Democratic senators in every election since 1972.

“The greatness of America is not what we take from this country but what we give back,” Kim said in his victory speech at a Cherry Hill hotel, where his election night celebration was held on Tuesday.

The location, he noted, held personal significance as it is the same hotel where his family had stayed when they first moved to New Jersey from Boston.

Kim’s win has fueled hopes in Korea that he might play a more influential role on issues affecting the Seoul-Washington partnership and approaches to challenges posed by North Korea.

Compared to a House representative, a senator holds a stronger position in shaping US foreign and security policy.

At the press event in Cherry Hill, Kim also underscored the weight of his new role, remarking that only around 2,000 people out of 600 million Americans have served in the Senate.

President Joe Biden also congratulated Kim on his victory in a call, according to the White House.

Major media outlets, including The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, highlighted Kim’s groundbreaking achievement as the son of Korean immigrants.

Kim, seen as having realized the “American Dream,” was born in Boston and grew up in southern New Jersey, the child of first-generation immigrants.

In 2004, Kim attended Deep Springs College and earned a degree in political science from the University of Chicago. As a recipient of both a Rhodes Scholarship and a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, he earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford.

Before entering politics, he built a distinguished career in foreign policy, serving on the White House National Security Council, at the Pentagon, the State Department, the US Agency for International Development, and as a civilian adviser to Generals David Petraeus and John Allen in Afghanistan.

In 2018, Kim was first elected to Congress by defeating Republican Tom MacArthur, becoming the first Asian American elected to Congress from New Jersey.

Kim gained national attention in January 2021 when he was photographed helping clean up the Capitol after the Jan. 6 riot.