FREEHOLD - This may not be the best of times for New Jersey Republicans, but distress can bring opportunity.

Christine Hanlon - just elected state Republican chair - is candid about the 2025 election. She called it "devastating" for the GOP.

That, of course, was last year.  This is a new year, a new slate of elections and with that, a new challenge.

Hanlon's "day job" is Monmouth County Clerk, a position to which she was just reelected.

Monmouth is a strong Republican county and Hanlon wants to bring the organizational skills she's used in Monmouth to the party statewide.

"There's a lot of structural things that we can work on," she said in a chat this week at a local cafe.

She mentioned marketing party principles and bolstering the Republicans' appeal to voters, especially women.

The marque race this year - at least on paper - is the U.S. Senate, where incumbent Cory Booker is quite the obstacle. He has both a huge war chest and national visibility.

Justin Murphy, a one time municipal official in Tabernacle, Burlington County, is so far the only Republican running. There is still time, Hanlon says, for others to get in the race.

Republicans now hold three of New Jersey's 12 House seats. The incumbents are Jeff Van Drew, Chris Smith and Thomas H. Kean Jr.  While Hanlon says it's important to hold those seats, she also is hopeful of flipping CD-9 where Democrat Nellie Pou was narrowly elected to her first term in 2024. There is also an upcoming special election in CD-11 where she says the party is "excited" over GOP candidate Joe Hathaway.

Any talk of Republican success and turnout soon swings around to mail-in ballots and early voting. Saying this is a problem for the GOP is an understatement.

"Republicans just generally like to go out and vote on Election Day, it's a concept," she said.

At the same time, Hanlon knows what happens. So many Democrats vote early that when the polls close, they have a healthy lead.  For instance, in last fall's election, the Democrats' early vote lead was 300,000-plus.

Change is not easy. Hanlon called it a "very hard and difficult proposition" to get GOP supporters to vote by mail. But it's one she wants to work on.

To that end, she may be getting some help from Morris County - still a Republican county, although things have gotten more competitive of late.

Morris Republicans plan a "Vote by Mail Workshop" via Zoom this Saturday. It will be led by Christine Fano of Montville, who, according to the county party,  led a successful vote-by-mail operation last fall.

"By replicating Montville's strategy we are confident each municipality can pick up at least 100 extra votes, and in many cases, much more," said Morris Republicans.

There may be something here. A lot of municipal elections in GOP towns were close last fall, but in Montville, two Republican municipal candidates won easily.

Any look back to last year's election statewide has to look at Donald Trump.

Here is one takeaway:

Democrats may not have loved Mikie Sherrill, but they hated Donald Trump. That's why there was a big Democratic turnout. And why Sherrill won by almost 500,000 votes.

If that observation is accurate, it's troublesome for Republicans because Trump will be president for three more years.

Hanlon doesn't agree.

"No matter who the Republican president is, you're going to have the enthusiasm on the other side," she said.

Hanlon said Jack Ciattarelli had a lot of enthusiastic support, but was done in by the Dems' 800,000-plus registration advantage.

The election also arrived in the middle of the government shutdown, which many people blamed on Republicans, she said. A valid point, as many voters do not get into such things as the 60-vote rule in the Senate to end a filibuster.

That registration deficit is a significant problem, but Hanlon is optimistic Republicans can overcome it.

"Just go back one year," she said. That was 2024 when Trump came close to winning New Jersey and Republicans won many local races.

The overall point: Republicans can win in New Jersey with a messaging and a campaign that appeals to average people.

And Democrats continue to give the GOP a lot of fodder.

Hanlon said that under complete Democratic control, New Jersey will continue to be unaffordable with high taxes and energy costs.

Mikie Sherrill will be governor in less than a week.

"I think there are a lot of promises made that are going to be very difficult to make good on," she said of Sherrill.

The job of county chair, regardless of party, can be a taxing one. There are many events to attend and, of course, a lot of travel. New Jersey is not a large state, but there is, obviously, a lot of traffic.

Hanlon defeated three other candidates to get the job and she leaves no doubt why she wanted it, saying:

"I'm very passionate about the Republican Party."