NJ-SEN: The GOP's big 2026 question: who will run against Cory Booker?
In less than eleven months, someone will appear on every New Jersey voter’s ballot as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate against Cory Booker. Who will that person be?
Republicans have no idea.
With the filing deadline just a few months away, the New Jersey GOP doesn’t have a single declared Senate candidate, and unlike in some past cycles, there’s not anyone obviously waiting in the wings. That’s a product of many converging factors: exhaustion in state Republican circles after a bruising gubernatorial loss, a diminished bench of interested candidates, and a belief that Booker likely isn’t beatable in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 1972.
The New Jersey Globe spoke with several state and national GOP leaders, and most of them said the same thing: while they’d like as strong of a nominee as possible, they’ve seen relatively little interest among Republicans looking to take Booker on.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/the-gops-big-2026-question-who-will-run-against-cory-booker/