Bob Hugin Is Not a Trump Republican, Says Bob Hugin

Former pharmaceutical executive Bob Hugin is asking New Jersey voters to elect a Republican to the United States Senate for the first time in almost five decades, and he's doing so by running a moderate campaign.

"I'm an independent Republican," Hugin said during last week's one and only senatorial debate. "I've been independent all my life."

Hugin is running against Democratic incumbent Senator Bob Menendez. The rivals share not only a first name; they're both 64 years old; both were raised working class in Union City and were first in their families to go to college.

That's where the similarities end. While Menendez went into politics at age 19, Hugin spent some time in the marines before entering the corporate world, eventually becoming CEO of the pharmaceutical company Celgene.

While the Menendez camp has done its best to paint Hugin as a greedy pharma exec, many Republicans say Hugin's background works in the multi-millionaire's favor.

"I know we're all supposed to hate corporations. But at the end of the day, he was out there, building a company, putting thousands of New Jerseyans to work," said Matt Rooney, who runs the conservative Save Jersey blog.

"As much as we complain about drug prices, and there's some validity to that, the pharmaceutical industry is a big employer in the state. It puts food on a lot of people's tables," Rooney said.

Celgene is not without its controversies. Under Hugin, the company settled a $280 million lawsuit for allegedly marketing cancer drugs without federal approval. And it's come under fire for aggressively hiking up prices — at one point, a month's supply of the company's staple life-saving cancer drug was more than $16,000.

But one of Menendez's biggest lines of attack has been labeling Hugin a Trump Republican. Hugin gave at least $100,000 to the Trump campaign; he served on Trump's transition team and was a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention.

In response, Hugin often lists all the ways he's a moderate: he doesn't support offshore drilling or the $10,000 cap on state an local tax deductions under the Republican tax bill. He says he's pro choice and pro marriage equality.

It's not just Hugin, all the incumbent Republicans running for reelection in the house are trying to prove they're not Trump loyalists. But Ben Dworkin, who runs the Rowan Institute for Public Policy, said the Republican Party has moved so far to the right, that what is considered a moderate covers a lot of ground nowadays.

"In our current political landscape, with extreme hyper partisanship, anybody who is less than 100 percent is considered a moderate," Dworkin said. "So if you disagree with the house Republican leadership a little bit, if you disagree with the president a little bit, then you're considered a moderate."

WNYC's Rebeca Ibarra spoke to All Thing Considered host Jami Floyd about the Republican opposition candidate and where he stands on the issues.

Click 'Listen' for the interview.