Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and Democrat Rebecca Bennett are set to face off Sunday night in the only scheduled debate of their tightly contested race. Kean, a New Jersey congressman, was absent from the House for four months this year before revealing that he had been receiving treatment for depression.
New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, which includes President Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, has switched party control in each of the past two midterm elections. That history has made the district a major target for campaign spending and a closely watched political bellwether. Republicans are working to preserve their slim House majority as Trump’s approval ratings remain deeply negative and gasoline prices climb amid his war with Iran.
Kean, a former state legislator and member of a prominent New Jersey political family, is campaigning for a third term. During his time away from Washington, he missed more than 100 congressional votes.
He returned to Congress in June and disclosed that he had been hospitalized for depression. Kean also described himself as a private person.
Bennett, a former Navy pilot and healthcare executive, is running for office for the first time. She emerged from a competitive Democratic primary in June and was broadly regarded as a more moderate, stronger general-election candidate than several of her rivals.
The contest has attracted millions of dollars in outside spending.
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Last week, a super PAC aligned with the Republican president said it planned to spend more than $3 million to support Kean. A Democratic-linked political action committee has earmarked roughly $2.5 million for television advertising in the New York market, backing Bennett as well as another Democrat running in a New York congressional district.
The district shifted modestly toward Republicans after lawmakers redrew its boundaries following the 2020 census. Democrats nevertheless see the seat as one of their best opportunities to gain ground.
Kean captured the seat in 2022 by defeating Democrat Tom Malinowski, who had previously taken it from Republican Leonard Lance in 2018.
Kean’s political lineage reaches back roughly 250 years, to the nation’s founding era, when one of his ancestors became New Jersey’s first leader after independence.
His great-grandfather served in the Senate, his grandfather represented New Jersey in Congress and his father was elected governor twice.
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