WESTFIELD – A week after Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle expressed her disappointment over state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean’s (R-21) decision to run for Congress with President Donald J. Trump at the top of the ticket, Union County Republican Committee Chairman Glenn Mortimer defended Kean, and made his case for GOP incumbents in this battleground 21st District.

“The Democratic Party at the national level seems to have gone very far to the left,” Mortimer told InsiderNJ downtown at the Westfield Fall Festival.

“I think Senator Kean would make an excellent congressman and I think he’s always been a unifying factor around this area,” the chairman added. “I’m sure he’ll vote his conscience and I’m sure he’ll vote in the interest of the district. Whether or not that agrees with the president… time will tell.”

This area has resisted the GOP since Trump became president, notably dealing Republicans a local loss in 2017 when Brindle won here, and in 2018 when Tom Malinowski turned Leonard Lance out of office in the 7th Congressional District.

That’s the seat Kean wants to reclaim for the GOP. Trump’s political minder, Bill Stepien, earlier this week announced the formation of a PAC to help Kean raise money.

Up against Democratic challengers Lisa Mandelblatt and Stacey Gunderman, incumbent Republican Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-21) and his running mate, Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-21), are trying to buck the trend on Nov. 5th

“Jon and Nancy certainly have 21st district voters at heart,” Mortimer said.

As for the fact that Bramnick is running ads featuring only himself and not Munoz, the GOp chairman insisted, “They’re unified.”

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