For much of this year, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) has been running for re-election without a Republican challenger despite the fact that his district came only 6,000 votes away from supporting Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election – but no longer.
Sean Kirrane, a corporate consultant, budding artificial intelligence entrepreneur, and father of two from River Vale, will run as a Republican for the 5th congressional district, which spans from the suburbs of Bergen County to the Pennsylvania border. Politico NJ first reported on Kirrane’s candidacy earlier today.
“I don’t want to be one of these people who sits around and complains and watches TV and says, ‘I could do it better than those people on TV,’ but doesn’t actually do anything about it,” Kirrane told the New Jersey Globe.
Kirrane, who has never run for office before, defined himself as a “socially moderate, fiscally responsible” Republican, and said he wanted his campaign to focus on two things above all others: sweeping affordable housing legislation and the creation of a universal health care system. Both ideas sound at first like progressive proposals rather than conservative ones, but Kirrane said his idea is to let the free market drive both.
“I’m not proposing a single-payer governmental health care system, where it’s a left-type concept. I’m proposing a paid-for system where it’s a free-market system,” he said. “Basically, we would create a designated plan for Americans and pay for it through the tax system on an income-level basis, but cost-sharing within that plan. But again, let the free market do what it does best and run these plans.”
Earlier this year, Gottheimer’s 2024 foe, Mary Jo Guinchard, announced that she would run against the congressman once again in 2026. Soon after Gottheimer lost a Democratic primary for governor and committed to running for re-election, however, Guinchard announced that she was ending her rematch campaign, though she did not say why.
Guinchard’s performance from 2024 is a good indication of how difficult it will be for Republicans to unseat Gottheimer: the moderate, well-funded congressman won re-election 55%-43% even as Kamala Harris was carrying the district just 50%-48%. With attention largely focused on two other North Jersey districts this cycle, the Democratic-held 9th and the Republican-held 7th, neither party is acting like Gottheimer’s re-election campaign will be especially competitive.
Kirrane is the first Republican willing to go up against those odds, and he said his message has begun resonating with 5th district voters.
“I think the fact that I’m not a career politician is actually a benefit, because I don’t have the past history and baggage that some of the other politicians may have,” he said. “I come with a fresh side of eyes.”