The biggest prize in most statewide GOP nominating contests now belongs to Curtis Bashaw.
On Thursday night, Bashaw won the Ocean Republican convention for the U.S. Senate nomination by a wide margin (73% to 22%) over Mendham’s Christine Glassner; ex-News 12 journalist Alex Zdan finished a distant third with 5% of the vote. Bashaw will receive placement on the county organization-backed line this spring and a likely strong margin from the county’s populous and deep red base of Republican primary voters.
The Cape May-based hotelier and developer now boasts not only the Ocean line but also the Atlantic line, too; he’s also strongly favored in the remaining South Jersey and Jersey Shore counties giving him an arguable early edge in the upcoming June primary contest. By way of example, Monmouth and Ocean alone constituted nearly one-quarter of the total 2020 GOP primary vote while Morris (Glassner’s home county which she carried and Bergen (still up for grabs) combined for less than 18.
Meanwhile, Bashaw recently won the Middlesex County’s Republican Screening Committee with approximately 70% of the vote ahead of the Central Jersey county party’s March 14, 2024 convention.
Wins in Middlesex and Bergen (also in March) would make Bashaw the clear frontrunner in the race.
Democrats are locked in a high-profile battle to replace/succeed Bob Menendez on the other side of the aisle; Tammy Murphy remains the favorite, but Andy Kim of NJ–03 is riding a three-convention win streak. Menendez hasn’t ruled out a run for reelection but is effectively boxed out of the Democrat nominating process. No Republicans has been elected to the U.S. Senate from New Jersey in the post-Watergate era, a drought with few comparisons across the nation.
