Alex Zdan mulling U.S. Senate bid

Former News 12 reporter Alex Zdan is contemplating a run for the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey, giving the GOP an option of a face recognizable to rank-and-file voters as they seek to flip a seat held by Democrats since 1959.

“I’m actively considering a run for U.S. Senate,” Zdan told the New Jersey Globe.  “We need a senator who stands up for New Jersey: not for themselves.  We can’t replace Bob Menendez’s corruption with Phil and Tammy Murphy’s nepotism.  We need a new generation of fiscally conservative, liberty-oriented leaders in Washington.”

Menendez, who was indicted on federal bribery and conspiracy charges in September and for illegally acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government in October, has not announced if he will see re-election to a fourth term next year.  Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), First Lady Tammy Murphy, and former Newark school board member Lawrence Hamm are already seeking the Democratic nomination; former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) is also mulling a Senate bid.

Zdan’s record as a journalist received widespread praise from Democrats and Republicans after he became a victim of massive layoffs at News 12 in October.  He covered Menendez’s 2017 corruption trial and Murphy’s governorship for nearly six years and developed relationships across the state as the host of News 12’s weekly Power & Politics show.

A Senate race could allow Zdan, 38, to drop the objectivity of his career in journalism and speak out on issues of concern to him.

His announcement that he’s testing the waters – he began making calls to Republican insiders recently – comes hours after Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) announced that he would not seek the Senate seat and instead run for a fourth term in the House.

“I’m humbly working to earn support,” said Zdan.  “Stay tuned.”

Television journalists have run for office before.  Diane Allen, the anchor of the nightly news show for a CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, served in the New Jersey legislature for 22 years, and State Sen.-elect Paul Moriarty (D-Washington) was an investigative reporter for a network affiliate in Philadelphia.  Rod Grams, a news anchor in Minnesota, won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1994.

Zdan made some national news in 2020 when he was broadcasting live from Philadelphia when Pennsylvania was called for Joe Biden.  A Donald Trump supporter with a mask approached him and asked, “real news or fake news?”

“Buzz off,” Zdan told him.

Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, a former Bush administration official and the wife of a top advisor to Trump, is already in the race.  Curtis Bashaw, a South Jersey real estate developer and hotelier who served as executive director of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Authority, is also considering a Senate run.

There are also three minor candidates on the Republican side: Daniel Cruz, a former member of the Andover Regional School District Board of Education; perennial candidate Gregg Mele, the 2021 Libertarian nominee for governor; and small business owner Michael Estrada, who won 1% of the vote in an independent State Assembly bid six years ago.