Republican Tom Kean, Jr. had another solid three months of fundraising, bringing in a $703,418 haul for the second quarter of 2022 for his rematch with Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) in New Jersey’s 7th district, and has $1,309,725 cash-on-hand.
The contest between Kean and Malinowski is among the most closely-watched congressional races in the nation and viewed as key to Republicans winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November.
Kean has raised a total of $2,694,667 since entering the race one year ago. Malinowski has $4.2 million in the bank after raising more than $1.28 million in the second quarter.
The former minority leader of the New Jersey State Senate and son of a former New Jersey governor, Kean needed to get through a seven-candidate Republican primary for another shot to unseat Malinowski. He came within one percentage point of winning the 7th district seat two years ago. Kean has spent almost $1.4 million so far, although that’s not all necessarily allocated to the primary election.
Kean won the June Republican primary with 46% of the vote in a seven-candidate field, outdistancing his nearest competitor by 11,625 votes.
“In my conversations each day with hardworking people across our district, from the Arthur Kill to the Delaware River, I have been struck by the extraordinary motivation to make a change in our representation. Our success in raising the funds necessary to flip this seat reflects that energy,” Kean said. “New Jerseyans feel the effects of Washington’s failures each day, in record-setting gas prices, in the chaos at our border, and in the loss of good jobs from our state, and they know Tom Malinowski has been a willing accomplice to it all. I will bring a much-needed change to our Congressional delegation and get to work on day one finding real solutions for the families of our district.”
Under a Democratic map approved last December, Malinowski’s district has become more Republican, albeit not unwinnable. The new map’s 7th district is Biden +4, compared to Biden +10 currently. Republican Jack Ciattarelli won the new 7th by thirteen points over Gov. Phil Murphy.
Democrats think recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings overturning Roe v. Wade and expanding the rights of gun owners might help Malinowski excite some centrist voters who might otherwise not have backed a congressional ally of President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But Biden’s national job approval numbers are troubling for Democrats like Malinowski, who come from districts that lean Republican.
The current 7th district, which includes parts of Union, Somerset, Essex, Warren, Morris and all of Hunterdon, was drawn to elect a Republican congressman. But in the 2018 wave election during President Donald Trump’s mid-terms, Malinowski ousted five-term Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton Township).
The district now has 18,170 more Republicans than Democrats since the primary, up 1,397 Republicans in the newly-drawn district. GOP registration is up by 4,289, while the number of Democrats increased by 2,892.