Cumberland County Republicans unanimously chose Curtis Bashaw as their preferred candidate for U.S. Senate, giving him his third organization line in a bid to replace indicted Democratic incumbent Bob Menendez.
Bashaw had the backing of Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland), a state senator and GOP county chairman, who is the dominant player in Cumberland County politics.
Cumberland produced the second-smallest number of votes in the state in the 2020 Republican primary, making up 1% of the vote.
Bashaw’s win follows a devastating defeat two days ago in Monmouth County, where he went in as the leading candidate but lost to former News 12 New Jersey reporter Alex Zdan on the first and second ballots. Monmouth is the number two GOP county in the state.
The support for Bashaw is more regional than political. He lives in next-door Cape May County, where he owns and operates local hotels. He’s a moderate, anti-Trump Republican; Testa is a conservative who co-chaired Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign in New Jersey.
Cumberland is one of the few GOP success stories in the state. Under Testa, the county now has a firm local on county government with only one Democrat remaining in office.
The GOP today nominated County Commissioner Victoria Lods to take on County Clerk Celeste Riley. Two other commissioners, Joe Sileo and Tony Romero, are seeking re-election.
This is Bashaw’s third convention win: he has already won contests in Atlantic and Ocean counties.
Christine Serrano Glassner, the mayor of Mendham, has close ties to Trump. She won the Warren County GOP convention earlier this morning and has already won lines in Hunterdon, Morris and Union counties.
Six other Senate candidates – Steve Boston, Michael Estrada, Albert Harshaw, Brian Jackson, Justin Michael Murphy, and Fred Schneiderman – did not compete in Warren.