Christine Serrano Glassner is a long-time supporter of former President Donald Trump, long before that support became an unofficial prerequisite for Republican candidates. And when the former president endorsed and heaped praise on her at his recent New Jersey rally, it was a big payoff, perhaps in a Senate primary where being with Trump is no longer a liability and actually helps.
“President Trump is very popular among the base and so the idea that they’re going to be seeking his endorsement, which Glassner got and that Bashaw’s messaging is going to, at some level, align with him, makes a lot of sense,” noted Republican strategist Chris Russell, who is not working with either Serrano Glassner or her opponent Curtis Bashaw. “They have to get through a primary.”
Serrano Glassner, whose campaign has stopped talking to most news outlets, recently said she would not have voted to certify the presidential election of 2020. She also questioned her opponent’s Trump bonafides in TV ads. Bashaw, a Cape May hotelier, has had to repeatedly beat back charges of being less than ardent in his support for Trump. He said this week that he understood what Trump did and won’t hold it against the former president.
“You know, Christine’s husband has worked for Donald Trump for 11 years,” Bashaw said. “The president opted to endorse his long-term employee’s wife. I understand and respect loyalty. I’m loyal to my employees. It doesn’t change my view that Donald Trump needs to win this fall.”
Some Republicans hope a good showing in November by a GOP candidate could bode well for the governor’s race in 2025. And in that regard, Serrano Glassner’s denial of the 2020 election results has given some pause. Bashaw has most of the GOP establishment support.
Gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli late last year said, “We’ve got a great candidate in Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner and I’m supporting her and she’s going to be out there and I look forward to the race.”
However this week, the Ciattarelli campaign said he is officially neutral in the race and Jon Bramnick, the anti-Trump candidate in the race, says he’s no fan of Serrano Glassner’s endorsement of election conspiracy theories. He said he plans to have a talk with Serrano Glassner about that but has not withdrawn his endorsement. Analysts like Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, admit it’s tough to tell who’s most motivated for the June 4 primary election.
“This is a low-turnout primary, a couple of hundred Republicans are going to vote statewide,” he said. “It’s just a question of which one. Is it organizational types? If it is, Bashaw wins, and if it’s Trump voters and supporters then Serrano Glassner may win.”
