Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot and healthcare executive, has won the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, NBC News projects, setting up a general election campaign against Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.
Bennett defeated physician Tina Shah, former Small Business Administration official Michael Roth and business owner Brian Varela for the Democratic nomination. Now, she will take on Kean in a district that President Donald Trump carried by just 1 percentage point in 2024, making it one of the most tightly divided districts in the country.
Kean, who was first elected in 2022 and was unopposed in the Republican primary, won re-election by more than 5 points in 2024, running ahead of Trump.
Kean has not voted in the Capitol or been seen in public since March 5 because of what his office describes as a “personal medical issue.” On Tuesday, he said in a statement that he will return to the Capitol “within a matter of weeks,” when, he said, he will be “completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition.”
In an interview last month, Bennett said she wished Kean a “speedy recovery,” but she accused him of being “nowhere to be found” on key issues affecting the district even before his medical problem.
“I do think, looking at his record, he has absolutely failed this district,” Bennett said. “I mean, he was the deciding vote on the ‘one big, beautiful bill,’ which is the reason why tens of thousands of people in our district are losing access to their health insurance.”
Asked at a primary debate last month why she was best positioned to defeat Kean, Bennett said her military experience and healthcare background “uniquely positioned me to flip this seat.”
In a statement, National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole said, “Tom Kean Jr.’s record speaks for itself: He’s lowered taxes, cut costs, and made New Jersey’s communities safer,” and she called Bennett “a tax-and-spend liberal.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee congratulated Bennett in a statement posted on X and criticized Kean for “years of broken promises.”
In the final weeks of the primary campaign, Bennett faced attacks from Shah for having previously been registered as a Republican. Bennett’s campaign said she grew up in a Republican family but registered as a Democrat after Trump became the GOP presidential nominee in 2016.
Bennett also faced attacks from a super PAC, Real Change PAC, which spent more than $600,000 on the race, according to campaign finance disclosures. The group’s ads hit Bennett as soft on Immigration and Customs Enforcement compared with Shah and Varela. But the group has not disclosed its donors, and some Democrats feared that it was a Republican-run organization seeking to influence the Democratic primary in an important battleground district.
Bennett has said she would not only work to get the Democratic base motivated but also appeal to independent voters and center-right Republicans.
Despite his absence, Kean’s campaign and official social media accounts have continued posting as usual. At the end of May, in his first interview in months, Kean told the New Jersey Globe that he was still running for re-election.
Voters in the 7th District had mixed views of Kean’s absence when they were asked by NBC News last month.
Somerville resident Bobby Anderson called Kean’s absence “pretty shocking and fairly alarming to me as a voter.”
Another constituent, Cindy Capodice, said she did not think Kean was required to share the details of his health issue.
“I think there’s a good amount of privacy that people are allowed to have, whether they’re in office or not,” she said.
