A tweet from a Daily Caller reporter that Bob Hugin will run for governor next year does not appear to be true, the New Jersey Globe has determined.
Hugin, a former Celgene CEO who spent $36 million running for U.S. Senate in 2018, is making no preparations to run.
The NJ Globe spoke with multiple Hugin supporters and advisors who say they have not heard from the pharmaceutical executive regarding his interest in challenging Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021.
“If he was running for governor, I’d know,” one GOP county chairman told the NJ Globe. “We’re close friends. If he were interested, he’d have called me. I haven’t heard from him.”
Two years ago, Hugin told the NJ Globe that he wasn’t interested in running for governor if he lost is challenge to Democrat Bob Menendez.
Hugin’s friends say that he doesn’t take Shermanesque positions of permanently ruling out an option, but that he’s taken no real steps that indicate an interest.
That doesn’t mean people aren’t approaching him with the idea of running.
Hugin has been urged by some Republicans to get in the race, including Nicholas F. Brady, the 90-year-old former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and interim U.S. Senator.
Some allies of former Gov. Chris Christie have demonstrated some interesting recruiting a candidate against Murphy. The only announced candidate, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, was not a close Christie collaborator during his time legislature.
Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick is considering running and has met with two top Christie advisors, Bill Palatucci and Michael DuHaime, to discuss his options. He has told the New Jersey Globe that he would decide after the 2020 campaign is over – which it not yet is.
Republican State Chairman Doug Steinhardt is also giving serious consideration to a gubernatorial bid.
Hugin’s cell phone went directly to voicemail.