Republicans also rallied around Bob Hugin, a wealthy pharmaceutical executive who had never held elective office but still seized the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2016. He lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez in 2018, but is now the state Republican Party chairman.
“Maybe the language is different, but when they give county committees a lot of resources before the endorsement process, what is that except buying the line?” said Julia Sass Rubin, a Rutgers University professor who has researched the role of the party line and advocates for reform at the local level.