Republicans want Menendez's Senate seat. Trump devotion is getting in the way.

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

77% : "And in a rally in Wildwood on May 11, Trump rewarded Serrano Glassner's loyalty with an endorsement.
60% : "Serrano Glassner, on the other hand, has wholeheartedly embraced Trump -- and all of his conspiracies about the 2020 election.
48% : "Bashaw had no record of supporting Trump besides having a Trump supporter on his campaign when he launched it in January.
45% : Serrano Glassner, meanwhile, started airing ads Thursday touting her recent endorsement by Trump and pointing out Bashaw's past donations to "radical Democrats," saying he "is no conservative.
38% : In the Senate contest, both candidates are racing to pledge their allegiances to Trump ahead of the June 4 primary, while Democrats have spent most of the year railing against the state's party boss system.
35% : The same is true in the early stage of the 2025 Republican primary for New Jersey governor, with one of the two declared candidates endorsing Trump last month after famously calling him a "charlatan" who is unfit to be president nine years ago.
32% : The party's conundrum is on stark display in the Senate primary: Christine Serrano Glassner, a Trump-endorsed mayor, is all in on 2020 election denial while the moderate hotelier Curtis Bashaw is now backing Trump with no substantial record of supporting him in the past.
30% : Trump lost by double digits in the past two presidential elections in New Jersey, and his support of the GOP nominee for Senate didn't help defeat Menendez in 2018.
29% : For Republicans, what little oxygen is left has been sucked up by Trump.
26% : That sparked criticisms from Serrano Glassner that he was "too chicken to debate the only pro-Trump candidate in the U.S. Senate race, just like he's too chicken to back Trump.
15% : Jeanette Hoffman, a spokesperson for Bashaw, called that move a clarification of his position, saying, "[Bashaw] would support [Trump] as an alternative to President Biden, who's taken the country in the wrong direction on issues ranging from the economy to the border.

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