Former Bogota Mayor and conservative activist Steve Lonegan announced Wednesday that he will run to be the New Jersey GOP’s next chair.
Republican State Chairman Glenn Paulsen announced he would step down as chair at the end of the year after Jack Ciattarelli’s crushing loss in this month’s gubernatorial election. Lonegan is the first to announce his intention to run publicly.
“For far too long, the New Jersey Republican Party has been content to manage decline instead of fighting for revival,” Lonegan said in his announcement. “We’ve watched our state become more expensive, more overregulated, and more hostile to working families—while our Party leadership has lacked the energy, courage, and vision to stand up and win. That ends now.”
Politico NJ first reported that Lonegan intended to run.
Lonegan served as mayor of Bogota from 1996 to 2007 and was the GOP nominee in the 2013 special election to succeed the late Senator Frank Lautenberg; Cory Booker defeated Lonegan by about 11 percentage points. He also unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination for governor in 2005 and 2009, and for state Senate in 2023. Lonegan worked as a spokesperson for Senator Ted Cruz’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid.
Lonegan listed three “core commitments” in the announcement of his candidacy: building a victorious party infrastructure, restoring conservative principles, and reenergizing the base and expanding the coalition.
The state GOP has yet to set a date for the election to succeed Paulsen.
