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Editor’s note: This story is part of Project Extreme, a yearlong examination into the rise of extremism in New Jersey and its permeation into everyday life. The project is supported in part by a grant from The John Farmer Memorial Journalism Fund. Read the first part here: https://projects.nj.com/extreme/
The gala was an expensive ticket.
Just walking through the door cost an NJ Advance Media reporter $225.
Still, the elegant ballroom at Galloping Hill Caterers in Union was packed in February as Carlos Santos and the America First Republicans of New Jersey played host.
At least 400 people — Republicans from across the state as well as national conservative influencers — were on hand to support Santos and his startup campaign to become Union County Republican chair.
To make it happen, Santos — a former ironworker from Mountainside — aligned himself with far-right figures like America First co-chair Mike Crispi, trumpeting their endorsements while at times distancing himself from their more extreme views.
Santos looked nervous as he addressed the audience. The crowd was on his side, applauding throughout. But he barely lifted his head as he spoke. At one point, he stopped mid-sentence.
“For too long, we have settled for mere crumbs while only a few privileged… ah, privileged…” Santos said, faltering. “Sorry, let me start over.”
He gathered himself and finished his speech.
Yet in June, Santos seized control of the Union County Republican Committee. He was elected chairman in an insurgent campaign in which he aligned himself with the Make America Great Again right to topple a mainstream incumbent in the heavily populated and heavily Democratic county. County chair is a powerful position in New Jersey, influencing which candidates receive resources and endorsements, critical machinery in determining the party’s ideological tilt.
Santos’ turn of fortunes was meteoric, the rise of an ironworker once unable to pay his bills. Now he’s a Republican power broker. In the past decade, he had filed for bankruptcy protections on several occasions while facing financial hardship.
He tells a story of overcoming adversity.
In 2017, Santos broke four vertebrae in his back during a workplace accident, he said, leaving him permanently disabled. He fell behind on his bills as he waited for Social Security disability and his worker’s compensation case to settle, he said.
“I’m a hard-working guy,” Santos, 46, told NJ Advance Media. “I was a union ironworker over 20 years, and people fall on hard times.”
But court records show Santos’ financial struggles predated his injury. From 2015 to 2017, he sought bankruptcy on four occasions under Chapter 13, in which debtors enter into repayment plans to satisfy their creditors over time.
None of those plans saw fruition after Santos failed to make the payments expected of him, according to reports by the trustees overseeing them. The last case was closed in 2019.
Santos said he withdrew from bankruptcy voluntarily, adding it was something “I dismissed on my own.”
He bristled when asked follow-up questions about the timing of the filings, complaining to an NJ Advance Media reporter that “you’re going to keep digging and digging and digging.”
“I’m going to have an investigator run a full background search on you since the day you were born,” he said during a Sept. 17 interview.
“I’m going to pay somebody probably $5,000 to run a full report on you.”
But listen to Santos talk politics, and you’ll hear optimism about the future — and his ability to attract donors.
“I’ve been chair for two months, and we’ve raised $80,000,” Santos told NJ Advance Media in September, when asked whether he could raise as much money as establishment Republicans. “I don’t know if that answers your question.”
He preaches inclusion and talks about building coalitions so outnumbered Union County Republicans have a voice in their state.
Yet he often speaks at America First events and promotes figures like Lee Mack, a conspiracy theorist whose Concerned Citizens of New Jersey group disseminates anti-LGBTQ+ messaging and Russian propaganda.
The February event Santos co-hosted featured anti-establishment conservative speakers from out of state, including Duke Machado, a Texas political activist, and Dan Shultz, a controversial grassroots organizer from Arizona. Ed Durr, the firebrand former New Jersey state senator running for governor in 2025, was also featured.
“We’re fighting a monster in this state,” Kevin Jenkins, the CEO of the Urban Global Health Alliance and a prominent New Jersey voice in the anti-COVID-19 vaccine movement, told the audience. “The Democratic Party in this state is the worst I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’m married to a Democrat.”
The crowd laughed.
“It is time for this party to grow up. All the things that I’m hearing that’s happening in the Republican Party in the state of New Jersey sickens me,” Jenkins continued. “And we need to stand firm, and we need to work with candidates that are standing with us as America First people.”
Critics question whether the anger Santos tapped on his way to becoming party chair will be effective in the long run.
Glenn Mortimer headed the Union County committee for a decade before Santos unseated him. Mortimer describes himself as a Ronald Reagan conservative and said inflammatory rhetoric and conspiratorial claims are problematic, whether they are coming from the far right or far left.
“Stuff like that doesn’t help anybody, because you can’t persuade anybody based on this nonsense, really,” Mortimer said. “There’s some people that believe these things, but until you have evidence, it’s not the way to win elections.”
State Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Trump critic who is competing for the Republican nomination for governor next year, has distanced himself from Santos despite also being based in Union County.
“If we’re going to win as Republicans in New Jersey — and there’s a desperate thirst for balanced government — we’re not going to win as the party who’s angry or hateful,” he said. “It’s never going to happen.”
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Riley Yates may be reached at [email protected]. Spencer Kent may be reached at [email protected].