TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Southern New Jersey’s Senate nomination of Curtis Bashaw over Donald Trump’s preferred candidate in Tuesday’s Republican Party primaries and the possibility that Sen. Bob Menendez’s embattled independent campaign will win Democrats could divide, have fueled the GOP’s hopes that it will win a reliably blue Senate seat in New Jersey this fall.
It is a battle that national Democrats did not expect, but one they will have to win if they want to retain control of the closely divided US Senate.
Bashaw, 64, a hotel developer and political newcomer who lives with his husband in the Victorian seaside town of Cape May, appears poised to distance himself from the right-wing politics of the Republican primaries in a state where Republicans have no elections won. for the Senate in 52 years. He defeated Trump-backed Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner on Tuesday and will face Democratic Rep. in the general election. Andy Kim.
Kim, who has shown a knack for holding her own in the rough world of New Jersey politics, easily won the Democratic nomination during Tuesday’s primaries. Menendez, a longtime Democrat, filed to run as an independent in the fall but is currently in New York federal court on corruption charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Democrats can hardly afford a close — or expensive — battle in a state they long assumed was safe.
Republicans hope that Bashaw is the candidate who will break the Democratic wall. Republican Sen. Mike Testa endorsed Bashaw in the primary, citing his background as a businessman and political outsider and saying he was the only candidate who could win in November.
Bashaw has other advantages for the Republican Party: He has put nearly $1 million into his own campaign so far, according to Federal Election Commission data, and while he supports Trump, he drew a distinction between Trump’s efforts to Win back the White House and his Senate campaign. in New Jersey. Republicans lost ground there during Trump’s sole term in the White House, at one point holding just one seat in the 12-district congressional delegation.
“There are different missions. We’re on the same team,” Bashaw said of his and Trump’s campaigns. “New Jerseyans want a hopeful, positive message from someone who has done something. And I think that’s why our campaign is resonating. And I think that’s why Republicans have a chance to take back their seats for the first time in fifty years.”
Kim has emerged as a formidable political force in the state’s dominant party.
Returning to his home state in 2018 after serving as a national security official in the Obama administration, Kim defeated a Republican incumbent in 2018 and won again in the Republican-leaning district two years later. He was re-elected in 2022 in a newly elected district.
His Senate campaign stemmed from the indictment against Menendez in September, which alleged that he and his wife took gold bars and cash in exchange for helping businessmen make lucrative deals abroad. The day after the indictment, Kim said he would challenge Menendez in the Democratic primary and called for his resignation.
Kim’s campaign faced resistance when first lady Tammy Murphy entered the race, drawing support from the party establishment. That led to a lawsuit from Kim and others aimed at overturning the state’s unique primaries, which gave preferential status to candidates with support from the party boss.
In an unforeseen twist, a federal judge sided with Kim and put the so-called county line system under control. Murphy dropped out of the race, saying she didn’t want to get into a brutal primary battle with a fellow Democrat. Meanwhile, Kim had endeared himself to progressives who had fought bitterly against the system for years.
In an interview, Kim said his experience would resonate with voters. He mentioned Trump not by name, but by bringing up the former president’s criminal conviction in New York and tying him to both Menendez and Bashaw.
“I don’t think any other Democrat in New Jersey could be stronger than us in terms of being able to stand up to Republicans,” Kim said. “Our message right now – standing up against corruption, standing up against broken politics – it will work very strongly against Senator Menendez and against a Senate candidate who supports a convicted felon.”
It’s unclear how Menendez’s trial will go, let alone how his independent bid could affect the race. However, Trump’s position as the standard-bearer of the Republican Party could rally loyal Democrats behind Kim. The former president’s time in the White House has coincided with a near-total elimination of Republican seats in the House of Representatives in the race. The party has recovered somewhat from an 11-1 Democratic advantage to 9-3, but Trump is widely seen as holding back Republicans who want to run for statewide office.
“Trump on the ballot is a bigger problem for Republicans than Menendez on the ballot is for Democrats,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “We saw this voting pattern in the federal election in New Jersey, which was driven by significant anti-Trump sentiment.”
A word of caution for Republicans is that they know they’ve seen this movie before.
In 2018, Republicans nominated Bob Hugin, a wealthy pharmaceutical executive who has spent millions defeating Menendez.
Menendez emerged from his first federal corruption trial, which ended in a hung jury. Hugin attacked him for the scandal, but Menendez won by double digits.
