Dems put Tom Kean Jr. on their 2026 target list

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) won re-election by more than five points in 2024 in New Jersey’s swingy 7th congressional district. Democrats are hoping that’s the last time he’ll win a seat in Congress – and they’re gearing up to bring him down next year.

In an unsurprising but still noteworthy move, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced this morning that the 7th district is among the 35 Republican-held seats on its initial target list for 2026. Kean, currently serving his second term in Congress, is the only New Jersey Republican on the party’s Districts in Play list.

“Tom Kean Jr. is running scared, and he should be,” DCCC Chairwoman Suzan DelBene said in a statement. “From tanking the economy, gutting Medicaid, abandoning our veterans, to making everything more expensive, he’s broken his promises to New Jerseyans, and it’s going to cost him his seat. The DCCC is already working to recruit authentic and battle-ready candidates in New Jersey who reflect this district and will work to better New Jerseyans’ lives, not line Elon Musk and his D.C. party bosses’ pockets.”

The Democratic field to take on Kean remains unsettled with more than a year to go until the primary. Two candidates, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett and former Summit Councilman Greg Vartan, are already in the race; a number of others are actively considering campaigns, among them former Small Business Administration official Michael Roth; and the seat’s past two Democratic nominees, former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) and top Andy Kim staffer Sue Altman, both remain politically active in the district.

It could take a long while for the Democratic field to sort itself out, especially if multiple candidates continue battling all the way to the June 2026 primary. But whoever does emerge from the primary, the DCCC said, will receive a boost from the party’s nominee fund, which will begin raising money now in support of the district’s eventual Democratic nominee.

Spanning a politically diverse swath of New Jersey from elite suburbs in Union County to rural towns in the state’s northwest corner, the 7th district had long been held by Republicans until Malinowski defeated Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton) in 2018. Malinowski won re-election in 2020, but he fell to Kean in 2022 after redistricting made the seat substantially redder; Altman attempted to flip the seat back in 2024 in the most expensive House race in New Jersey history, but fell short.

The district, which under its current lines narrowly voted for Donald Trump last year, is also no stranger to outside involvement from both parties. The DCCC has put the district on its priority lists in every cycle since 2018; in all of those cycles, national Democrats have invested millions in the pricey New York City media market to aid their nominees, though sometimes they’ve done so more willingly than others.

Republicans, too, have focused heavily on the 7th district ever since Malinowski toppled Lance in 2018. While the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) has not yet released its list of potentially vulnerable incumbents for the 2026 cycle, Kean is near-certain to be on it, and NRCC spokesperson Maureen O’Toole said that Republicans are ultimately confident Kean will prevail.

“Tom Kean Jr.’s record of delivering bipartisan, commonsense results for New Jerseyans is undeniable,” O’Toole said after the DCCC released its target list. “Garden State voters have proved that they have no interest in the extreme Democrat agenda, and they’ll reelect Tom Kean Jr. again next fall.”

The DCCC’s target list does not include either of New Jersey’s other Republican congressmen, Reps. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) and Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis). Smith’s exclusion is understandable – his district was specifically designed to be as red as possible – but Van Drew holds a seat that was competitive not too long ago, though most Democrats have largely given up hope of beating the South Jersey congressman.

As for Democratic-held seats, Democrats and Republicans alike agree that the Trump-won 9th district, held by Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), is the state’s top GOP target this cycle. Pou, who won her first term just last year, is on both the DCCC’s initial Frontline list and the NRCC’s initial target list for the 2026 cycle. (No other New Jersey Democrats, even those from relatively marginal seats, are on either list.)

This story was updated at 9:34 a.m. with comment from the NRCC.