Bramnick, Muñoz, Matsikoudis sweep municipal chair endorsements in 21st district

State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) has won endorsements from all nineteen Republican municipal chairs in the newly-drawn 21st legislative district as he prepares to seek re-election to a second term in 2023.

The district’s two assemblywomen, Nancy Muñoz  (R-Summit) and Michele Matsikoudis (R-New Providence), also ran the table on endorsements from local party chairs.

“The local Republican organizations in our district are invaluable partners who work tirelessly to ensure victories up and down the ballot,” the three incumbents said  “We appreciate the endorsement of all 19 Republican municipal chairs and look forward to working alongside them in 2023 to elect more Republicans in legislative district 21.”

Last month, all four GOP county chairs endorsed Bramnick, Munoz and Matsikoudis.

Legislative redistricting added Chatham Township in Morris County and Dunellen and Middlesex Borough in Middlesex County to the 21st, while dropping Cranford, Kenilworth and Roselle Park.

There has been speculation that Bramnick, a moderate Republican, could face a primary challenge from the right.  But GOP voters in the 21st are also more centrist and there is not much of a path to take out Bramnick.

In this year’s Republican primary for Congress, Rep.-elect Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) carried the fourteen municipalities that are in both the 7th congressional district and the 21st legislative district with 58% of the vote in a field of seven candidates.  Kean carried Summit with 71% and Westfield with 68%; he fell below 50% in just two towns, both of which he had not previously represented: 49% in tiny Peapack Gladstone, and 43% in Green Brook.

Bramnick, a former minority leader of the New Jersey State Assembly, won a State Senate seat in 2021 after Kean declined to seek re-election in order to focus on his challenge to Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes).  He defeated Roselle Park Mayor Joseph Signorello by 6,017 votes, 54%-46%.

Muñoz is serving her eighth term in the Assembly; she won a special election convention in 2009 following the untimely death of her husband, Assemblyman Eric Munoz (R-Summit).  Matsikoudis won her first term last year to replace Bramnick.