A prestigious chain of weekly print newspapers with a large readership in Morris, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties that backed Democrat Tom Malinowski for Congress three times, has endorsed Republican Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) for re-election to a second term in New Jersey’s 7th district.
“Expecting Kean to fall on his sword by openly denouncing Donald Trump is an unrealistic Democratic fantasy; it is the same as urging him to resign or switch parties,” said the New Jersey Hills Media Group in their first endorsement of Kean.
The non-profit Corporation for New Jersey Local Media operates thirteen community newspapers, including the Bernardsville News, the Echoes-Sentinel in Watchung and Warren, the Hunterdon Review, the Mount Olive Chronicle, the Observer-Tribune in the Mendhams and the Chesters, and the Roxbury Register in NJ-7.
The local newspaper editorials likely have more influence than the little-trafficked Star-Ledger and Gannett chain. The New Jersey Hills Media Group ran editorials in all of their print editions. In contrast, Gannett did not run their endorsements of Democratic challenger Sue Altman in their two 7th district dailies: the Daily Record and Courier News.
The newspaper chain said Kean, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs House Subcommittee on Europe, was a “vocal supporter of aid to Ukraine in its war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia” and noted that the post would be “critical if Trump is elected with a Republican Senate and House and is likely to demand a high level of political courage if Trump follows through on his isolationist and anti-NATO rhetoric.”
And they noted that Kean has been “a reliable vote for House Speakers Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson in their intraparty battles with the Republican Right to keep the federal government functioning.”
The endorsement praised the Altman for running “an aggressive campaign focused on abortion rights.”
“She has hammered Kean for his failure to hold town hall meetings and to give regular press interviews until recently,” the newspaper wrote.
The endorsement came with a warning to Kean if he wins and returns to them as a re-election candidate in 2026.
“We will expect Kean to show that courage and independence in a second term – the same independence he showed when he clashed with Republican Governor Christie – to be more accessible to the press and to his constituents through open town meetings,” New Jersey Hills Media wrote in its endorsement.
The New Jersey Hills Media Group endorsed Malinowski in 2018 against five-term Rep. Leonard Lance and against Kean in 2020 and 2022.
The decision to endorse was made by the executive editor without a full editorial board.