Varela snags big group of endorsements from Morris County Dems

Brian Varela, one of several Democratic candidates vying to take on Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, released a long list of endorsements today from Democrats in Morris County, establishing him as a serious political force in his home county.

The endorsements include former Morris County Democratic Chairman Lew Candura, five municipal elected officials, six Democratic municipal chairs, and this year’s Assembly nominees for two local legislative districts. Few of them are household names, but in a part of the state with almost no Democrats serving in elected office, the list represents a big chunk of the Democratic establishment in the 7th district’s portion of western Morris County.

“These leaders know what it takes to compete in tough races – and they’re standing with us,” Varela said in a statement. “We’re building something bigger than any one candidate – and we’re just getting started.”

Varela, a small business owner and a former leader of the New Jersey Forward Party, has not been a Morris County resident for long. He previously lived in North Bergen in Hudson County, where he tried to run for Congress against now-Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) in 2022 but didn’t make the ballot; in 2023, he moved with his family to Washington Township in rural Morris County.

But in the two years he’s lived in the county, he’s evidently built up a number of political connections. He’s the chairman of the Morris Dems Hispanic Caucus and was a Democratic nominee for township committeeman in Washington Township last year, losing by a large margin in the deep-red town.

Varela launched his campaign for the highly competitive 7th district in April, and he remains the only notable Morris-based candidate in the race, allowing him to consolidate Democratic support in the county. (Morris County cast around one-seventh of the 7th district’s Democratic primary votes last year, with Union, Somerset, and Hunterdon Counties all making up substantially larger shares of the Democratic electorate.)

Other Democratic candidates for the district include former Summit Councilman Greg Vartan, former Small Business Administration official Michael Roth, and former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett; criminal justice professor Beth Adubato has plans to join the race this summer, and physician Tina Shah is considering running as well. Endorsements in the race have been relatively few and far between thus far: Vartan has the support of two local councilwomen in Summit, while Bennett was endorsed by the liberal veterans group VoteVets.

Kean, first elected in 2022 in an expensive race against Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes), is on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)’s list of 2026 targets.

Full list of endorsers

• Lew Candura, former Morris Democratic county chair
• Jonathan Sackett, Democratic State Committeeman, Rockaway Township committeeman, and former Democratic nominee for county commissioner
• Alicia Sharma, Democratic State Committeewoman and former Democratic nominee for Assembly in LD-24
• Bob Hathaway, Netcong Democratic municipal chair & councilman
• Stacy Strum, Chester Borough Democratic municipal chair
• Jess Price, Mount Arlington Democratic municipal chair
• Patrick R. Conner, Washington Township Democratic municipal chair
• Carisa Baldwin, Wharton Democratic municipal chair 
• Caitlin Killian, Chester Township Democratic municipal chair
• John Holt, former Washington Township Democratic municipal chair
• Steve Barratt, 2025 Democratic nominee for Assembly in LD-24
• Eugene Grinberg, 2025 Democratic nominee for Assembly in LD-24
• Marisa Sweeney, 2025 Democratic nominee for Assembly in LD-25
• Steve Pylypchuck, 2025 Democratic nominee for Assembly in LD-25 and Morristown councilman
• Jonathan Torres, former Democratic nominee for Assembly in LD-25
• Bud Ravitz, Morris Township committeeman and former Democratic nominee for county commissioner
• Judy Hernandez, Parsippany councilwoman and former Democratic nominee for county commissioner