Union County is arguably the moderate capital of the New Jersey Republican Party — it’s the county that sends Jon Bramnick and Nancy Munoz to the legislature – but at their convention tonight, big tent Republicans are expected to support more conservative candidates for President and U.S. Senate.
Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are facing off tonight for the chance to run on the organization line in Union County. Fanwood Republican Municipal Chairman Joe Britt will nominate Haley.
In Hunterdon last night, Trump defeated Haley by a 2-1 margin. Union could be a good benchmark of her support in New Jersey at the start of convention season since Haley is unlikely to do better in any other county.
Four Republican U.S. Senate candidates will compete for the organization line tonight: Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, businessman Curtis Bashaw, entrepreneur Steve Boston, and perennial candidate Gregg Mele. Former News 12 reporter Alex Zdan and five others did not file for the Union GOP convention.
Serrano Glassner, a Trump loyalist – her husband has been part of the former president’s inner circle since 2015 – will be nominated by Bramnick, a fierce critic of Trump and a candidate for the 2025 GOP gubernatorial nomination. Bramnick told the New Jersey Globe that he and Serrano Glassner are old friends.
Bashaw, a real estate developer and hotelier, is the anti-Trump candidate in the race; he backed Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2016 and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2024.
Serrano Glassner defeated Bashaw by a 57%-35% margin in Hunterdon on Wednesday night, with the remaining 8% going to Zdan. Mele and two others on that ballot received zero votes.
The New Republic reported that Serrano Glassner “scrubbed nearly her entire campaign website after being caught for plagiarism.” They found entire sections of her policy proposals were “lifted word for word” from the website of J.D. Vance, a Republican U.S. Senator from Ohio.
Her husband, Michael Glassner, is Trump’s former deputy campaign manager and runs one of Trump’s leadership PACs, Save America.
On her financial disclosure statement filed with the U.S. Senate, Serrano Glassner says she is a partner in her husband’s consulting firm, C&M Transcontinental.