Republican Steve Lonegan, who ran against now Senator-elect Cory Booker (D-NJ) says he would have beaten Booker if it weren’t for the government shutdown.

“There is no doubt in my mind or in the minds of any of my campaign staff that the shutdown cost me the election,” Lonegan said in an interview with the New Jersey Star-Ledger on Monday. “If I had known it was going to happen and that it was going to be handled so badly in Washington, I wouldn’t have run for Senate.”

Lonegan supported the shutdown while he was running for Senate.

Booker was long expected to clinch the nomination and win the Senate seat. Lonegan trailed in most polling of the race, even before the shutdown.