War, high prices, typical midterm backlash spurred NJ GOP losses, party says

New Jersey’s top Republican party official said a dour national political climate and economic fallout from the Iran War helped seed the party’s broad losses Tuesday, but she said it is too soon to chart the GOP’s course into the future.

The electoral losses cost New Jersey Republicans two of their three House seats and cemented for national Democrats their largest congressional majorities in nearly 20 years.

“I would say that it’s, No. 1., you have the midterm backlash, which is normal, and then on top of that, you have a war, you have high gas prices,” said Republican State Chair Christine Hanlon, who is also Monmouth County clerk. “I don’t think it’s too difficult to look at what was going on, to come up with the reasons why people were not happy.”

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On Tuesday, Democrats swept congressional races across the country. They won at least 54 seats in the Senate and have claimed at least 247 seats in the House, a feat not seen since a wave of Democrats entered Congress on President Barack Obama’s coattails in 2008.

New Jersey Republicans’ losses included House seats held by Reps. Tom Kean Jr. and Jeff Van Drew, as well as losses further down the ballot, including for county offices in Monmouth, Cumberland, and Morris counties.

Republicans had been bracing for Kean’s loss to Democrat Rebecca Bennett but were stunned when Van Drew was ousted by Zack Mullock, the Democratic mayor of Cape May City.

Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union), a frequent and longtime critic of President Donald Trump, said Trump’s brand is corrosive in New Jersey, adding that Republicans need to return to moderation and fiscal conservatism. Trumpism “just doesn’t work in New Jersey,” he said.

“Stop making excuses. Stop blaming fraud in voting and start to accept the fact that you win when you follow traditional Republican values,” he said.

Bramnick has for years sparred with Trump allies in New Jersey over whose brand of Republicanism is more favored in the Garden State.

The president’s allies were sure they won that argument in 2024, when Trump came closer to winning New Jersey in that year’s presidential election than any other Republican in decades, but the following year the party’s Trump-supporting gubernatorial candidate lost in a landslide.

Hanlon acknowledged decisions made in Washington, D.C., had a “real impact” on New Jersey’s races but said Republicans need to regroup first before looking forward. The state party had limited success getting its own messaging out, she conceded.

“Our legislators have been banging the drum,” she said, adding, “We’ve been trying to have a New Jersey message, and it kind of gets drowned out in the national. “

Ocean County Republican Chair George Gilmore likewise acknowledged Trump contributed to Tuesday’s results, but said the GOP needs to do a better job of matching candidates to districts and financially supporting its office seekers.

Further, the disparate Republican campaign arms need to better coordinate their plans and spending, both to keep hold of GOP ground that has progressively shrunk over the last two years and bolster Republican organizations whose control has waned in counties like Bergen and Somerset.

“What I want to see is progress all the way around, in the Senate, in the Assembly, in the state committee, and among the county chairs to work together to make the Republican Party viable again,” Gilmore said. “Right now, we’re at the point of not being a viable entity, and we can’t let that happen.”

For Bramnick, the path forward is a clean break with Trump, even if that split proves electorally costly for members in heavily Republican districts, like those based in Ocean County or the state’s northwest.

“They have to get over self-preservation and start thinking about the Republican Party as a whole in New Jersey,” Bramnick said. “I don’t know how you do that. People have to be selfless, and they have to say, ‘Look, here are the results. Stop.’”

The Republican Party has limited time to find its path forward. Every seat in the New Jersey Legislature — that’s 40 in the State Senate and 80 in the General Assembly — is up for a vote next year. Democrats, who control the Senate 25-15 and the Assembly 57-23, have controlled the Legislature for more than two decades.

Bramnick’s anti-Trump stance has already drawn a 2027 primary challenge from Peapack-Gladstone Councilman Conor Sweeney. Bramnick represents the 21st Legislative District.

Gilmore said Republicans need to adapt their candidates to the districts they are running in, warning that Sweeney could win that primary but could cost Republicans the district’s Senate seat in the general election.

The 21st is a suburban district long targeted by Democrats. Last year, Democrats ousted Republican Assembly members there, marking Democrats’ first win in the district since 1989.

“Don’t tell me there’s going to be some miracle wave that comes into everybody’s mind and in Bramnick’s district they’re going to vote conservative next year,” Gilmore said. “It’s not going to happen, so why set yourself up for failure?”