Bennett ends six-county tour with Mount Olive town hall

Democratic congressional nominee Rebecca Bennett wrapped up her six-county tour in politically competitive Mount Olive by pledging to block a proposed immigration detention center in neighboring Roxbury, calling for stronger gun safety laws, and sharply attacking President Donald Trump and Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) over the war in Iran.

The final stop on Bennett’s Deckplate Leadership Tour brought her to a Morris County township that could help determine the outcome of her race against Kean.  Trump carried Mount Olive by three percentage points in 2024, four years after Joe Biden won it by five points.  Gov. Mikie Sherrill carried the township by five points in last year’s gubernatorial election.

One of the most immediate local issues was a Department of Homeland Security proposal to establish an immigration detention facility in Roxbury, which borders Mount Olive.

“We absolutely need to make sure that detention facility is not going into Roxbury,” Bennett said. “As your member of Congress, I will do everything in my power to keep that from happening.”

Bennett, a 15-year U.S. Navy veteran and mother of two, also sought to balance protecting Second Amendment rights with additional safeguards against gun violence.

“It is our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. I deployed with weapons of war,” Bennett said. “I’ve trained people how to use weapons of war, and also, I’m a mom.  I worry every day about sending them off to school because I know that they may not come home.”

She argued that gun ownership rights and measures to prevent gun violence need not be mutually exclusive.

“We can make sure we have the ability to safely bear arms and also that we are putting in smart gun safety policies,” she said.  “Like background checks, like red flag laws.”

Foreign policy also emerged as an issue when Bennett was asked about escalating tensions with Cuba and the Trump administration’s increasingly confrontational approach toward the communist island.

At a campaign rally in Florida on Friday, Trump suggested that American warships returning from the war in Iran could make a stop near Cuba, raising the possibility of U.S. military intervention.

“We’ll do a little stopover,” Trump said, describing a scenario in which an American warship would stop about 50 yards off the Cuban coast before Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be sent to negotiate an agreement, according to the Associated Press.

Rubio subsequently urged Cubans seeking political change to pursue what he described as a discreet partnership with the CIA.

Rather than focus specifically on Cuba, Bennett used the question to deliver a broader indictment of the administration’s foreign policy, particularly the war in Iran, which she said has claimed American lives and driven up gasoline prices.

“Donald Trump and Tom Kean Jr. dragged us into a needless war in Iran that has cost the lives of American service members and sent gas prices soaring here at home,” Bennett stated.  “I spent fifteen years serving our country in uniform, so I know how important it is that we have serious leaders who don’t drag us into never-ending foreign conflicts.  What we need to prioritize right now is ending the war in Iran and investing in our communities here at home.”

Kean spent Sunday crisscrossing the 7th district, including stops in Bridgewater and New Providence.