A counterterrorism and economic sanctions expert who grew up in Warren County is considering a challenge to Rep. Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) in New Jersey’s 7th district next year, three individuals with knowledge of the upcoming campaign have told the New Jersey Globe.
Jason Blazakis spent a decade as the director of Counterterrorism Finance at the U.S. Department of State, could join a Democratic primary field that already includes New Jersey Working Families State Director Sue Altman in one of the most closely-watched House races in the nation.
Blazakis, 48, joined the State Department in 2004 as an Afghanistan program officer assigned to the Embassy in Kabul. He had previously spent more than three years as a legislative assistant to Rep. Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and worked as a Domestic Intelligence analyst at the Congressional Research Service.
Since leaving the State Department in 2018, Blazakis has been a professor at Middlebury College’s Institute of International Studies, where he runs the Center of Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism. He also operates a geopolitical risk consultancy group and is a senior advisor at The Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security firm.
He is among the 500 Americans sanctioned by the Russian Federation in May.
Blazakis dropped a slight hint of his interest in running for Congress in a Tweet on Saturday from a popular hot dog stand in Belvidere.
“As I hang out at home in NJ-07, I had to get a hot dog from hot dog Johnny,” he wrote. “Appropriate given world affairs. Big day for hot dog vendors everywhere.”
It’s rare for non-political people to identify their congressional district on social media.
Blazakis is not registered to vote in New Jersey – he lives in Washington — and appears to be a relative newcomer to the political arena. He’s made three modest campaign contributions: $500 to Joe Biden and $250 to Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) in 2020, and $25 to Slotkin in 2018.
He does have roots in New Jersey. Blazakis played basketball for Belvidere High School in the 1990s, his late father spent 37 years as a decorated U.S. Army National Guard veteran, and his grandparents owned The Esquire Luncheonette in Princeton. He graduated from the University of Mississippi and received graduate degrees from Columbia and Johns Hopkins.
The sprint to pick a challenger for Kean began in March after former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) announced that he would not seek a return to Congress after narrowly losing re-election last year.
Saturday marks the start of the third quarter of 2023, and fundraising numbers revealed by candidates in October will serve as a benchmark for the state of the NJ-7 race.
Altman announced her bid to take on Kean on March 31 and raised over $100,000 in her first week as a candidate. She’s also scored personal endorsements from the heads of two politically influential labor unions: the Communications Workers of America and 32BJ SEIU.
Roselle Park Mayor Joseph Signorello told the New Jersey Globe earlier this month that he might drop his challenge to incumbent Bob Menendez in the 2024 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and switch to a run against Kean.
Republicans held the 7th district House seat for 62 years until Malinowski unseated Leonard Lance (R-Clinton Township), a five-term incumbent in Trump’s 2018 midterm election, with 52% of the vote. Two years later, Kean came within one percentage point of winning the seat back.
Malinowski’s political undoing was aided by his own party after Democrats on the congressional redistricting commission successfully advocated for a map that shored up three other New Jersey House seats at his expense.
The newly-drawn 7th went from a district Joe Biden carried in 2020 by ten points to one he prevailed in by four points. In the 2022 midterm, Kean, the former minority leader of the New Jersey State Senate and the son of popular former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, defeated Malinowski by three points.
RELATED ARTICLES
-
October 28, 2018 -
January 17, 2019 -
March 4, 2022