Democrat Rebecca Bennett holds a 5-point lead over Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in a recent poll, but in the final weeks of the campaign she is telling voters in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District not to believe the hype. “There is a lot of stuff in the news right now about how, like, Tom Kean is cooked,” Bennett said Sunday to roughly 50 voters packed into a living room in Bernards Township. “I’m here to tell you guys it is a toss-up race.”
The district, which the Cook Political Report shifted to “Lean Democrat,” was drawn to favor the GOP. Registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by roughly 20,000 voters. Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University, said Bennett must win over lifelong Republicans who cannot stand Donald Trump and no longer recognize their party. “It is a Republican-advantaged district, there’s no doubt about that,” Hale said. “She’s got to get people who may have been a Republican all their life, but realize they can’t stand Donald Trump [and] this is not their Republican Party – and there’s still a fair number of those there.”
Bennett has cast herself as a pragmatic moderate focused on affordability—reducing the cost of healthcare, childcare, and housing—rather than cultural politics. She also leans on her experience as a former Navy helicopter pilot with more than 15 years of military service. “When I was in the military, we were just there as Americans to get the job done, and we didn’t talk about what political party we were in,” Bennett told NJ Spotlight after winning the June primary. “It’s about really being able to go solve problems that we’re all facing.”
Kean has faced questions about his protracted 116-day absence from Congress earlier this year. When he returned to Washington, he said he was being treated for depression. During his time away, his campaign kept the public, media, and his colleagues in the dark, saying only that he was dealing with a medical issue. “I certainly would have been more transparent on it if I were the member, as opposed to how he handled it,” Bennett said.
Kean is outspending Bennett by a 3-to-1 margin, according to the ad tracker AdImpact, with the GOP locking in nearly $19 million in broadcast and digital space compared to $5.8 million for Democrats. His attack ads, and those of his backers, try to tie unpopular healthcare industry practices like insurance denials to Bennett’s time as an executive at Johnson & Johnson and Midi Health. The two-term incumbent has also worked to link Bennett with the left wing of her party. During their only debate in September, he accused her of refusing to denounce far-left members of her party. “My opponent right now couldn’t even mention one member of Congress on her own side that she wouldn’t vote for. She supports people who are openly antisemitic, who call Israel‘s justified actions genocide,” he said.
Bennett has positioned herself to the right of more progressive New Jersey Democrats like Rep. Analilia Mejia and Dr. Adam Hamawy, the party’s nominee in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, especially on issues that may alienate Republicans, such as Israel’s war in Gaza and immigration enforcement in the United States. “I don’t want to abolish ICE,” Bennett told Gothamist. She has advocated for reforming ICE rather than eliminating it, while also saying she supports “strong borders.” On Gaza, she avoided a yes-or-no question on whether she would classify Israel’s actions as genocide. “We need to work towards a two-state solution in the Middle East,” she told Gothamist. “We need to work towards long-term stability in the region. But it’s about making sure we have serious people at the table to make sure we’re working towards that.”
Dennis Reznick from Bernardsville, New Jersey, is the type of independent voter Bennett needs. He said he believes Republicans would be better for New Jersey’s property taxes, which are known for being astronomically high, but taxes are just one factor. “Frankly, there’s more important things to me,” he said, adding that he has been troubled watching people struggle to afford health insurance and that Kean has been a “rubber-stamp” for the president’s policies. He donated a $1,000 check directly to Bennett at her campaign event.
Bernards Township has long been a reliably red part of the district, but its politics has shown signs of shifting. This year, the town elected its first Democratic mayor in its 266-year history, even as surrounding towns like Warren and Bedminster, where Trump owns a golf resort, remain solidly Republican. Sue Squires, a former Republican from Bedminster who didn’t vote for Trump but did support both Bush administrations, said Bennett will need voters to “consider other people before we cast our ballot.” “I think the voters should vote with their brains,” she told Gothamist. “And they have to vote honestly and truthfully at what’s right for humanity – and not what’s right for a selective few.”
