Dark money group resumes anti-Kean campaign as battle for NJ-7 intensifies

Progressive independent expenditure smacks Kean with mail from parents of an autistic adult son

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. at his first meeting on the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2025. (Photo: Office of Rep. Tom Kean Jr.).

Unrig our Economy, a progressive-leaning dark money independent expenditure group that has already spent hundreds of  thousands of dollars slamming Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield), is back in New Jersey’s 7th district this week with a direct mail piece attacking Kean

The group ran ads against Kean in 2025, and spent $280,000 on digital ads in March, on President Donald Trump’s tariffs and another six figures later that month,

“Tom Kean, Jr. voted for a law that will raise health care costs for people like our son, so he could give tax breaks to billionaires,” said a Flemington couple, Ed and Karen, the parents of an autistic adult son.

They say they’re “terrified about the setbacks he could face” because of Kean’s vote to make healthcare more expensive.”

Unrig the Economy is 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit, meaning it is legally not required to disclose its donors.  It’s connected to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

The 7th district is expected to be one of the nation’s most expensive House races, with millions in outside spending likely to pour in as Republicans defend one of their most vulnerable seats and Democrats target it as a top pickup opportunity.

NJ-7 supported Trump in 2024 by one percentage point, and Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the district by two points in last year’s gubernatorial election.

Kean, a two-term Republican who narrowly ousted a two-term Democrat in 2022, is expected to return to Washington on June 30 after a nearly four-month absence for an unspecified health issue.  He faces Democrat Rebecca Bennett, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot.

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David Wildstein: David Wildstein is the Editor in Chief for the New Jersey Globe.