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For a Democrat in a traditionally red NJ district, how to woo Republican voters
By
Mike Hayes
Published Oct 11, 2026
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Aristide Economopoulos for Gothamist
By
Mike Hayes
Published Oct 11, 2026
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You wouldn’t know Democrat Rebecca Bennett had a 5-point lead over Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in a recent poll by listening to her speak in the final weeks of the campaign.
“There is a lot of stuff in the news right now about how, like, Tom Kean is cooked,” Bennett said Sunday to roughly 50 voters packed into a living room in Bernards Township, a historically Republican-leaning part of the district she is trying to win. “I'm here to tell you guys it is a toss-up race.”
While the Cook Political Report has shifted New Jersey’s 7th Congressional district to “Lean Democrat,” political observers say Bennett will have to woo many longtime Republicans in a district that was gerrymandered to favor the GOP. Registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by roughly 20,000 voters.
“It is a Republican-advantaged district, there's no doubt about that,” said Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University. “She's got to get people who may have been a Republican all their life, but realize they can't stand Donald Trump [and] this is not their Republican Party – and there's still a fair number of those there.”
To that end, Bennett has cast herself as a “pragmatic” moderate focused less on cultural politics and more on affordability issues like reducing the cost of healthcare, childcare and housing. She’s also leaned heavily on her experience as a former Navy helicopter pilot with over 15 years of military experience.
“When I was in the military, we were just there as Americans to get the job done, and we didn’t talk about what political party we were in,” Bennett said in an interview with NJ Spotlight after she won the June primary. “It’s about really being able to go solve problems that we’re all facing.”
Republican Rep. Tom Kean, Jr.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Kean has also been dogged by questions about his protracted 116-day absence from Congress earlier this year, which has continued to raise concerns for voters. Kean said when he returned to Washington that he was being treated for depression. But during his time away, his campaign kept the public, media and his colleagues in the dark – saying only that he was dealing with a medical issue.
“ I certainly would have been more transparent on it if I were the member, as opposed to how he handled it,” Bennett said.
To help convince Republican voters out of defecting from the party this midterm season, Kean is outspending his Democratic opponent by a 3-to-1 margin, according to the ad tracker AdImpact. It shows the GOP has locked in nearly $19 million in broadcast and digital space compared to a relatively paltry $5.8 million for Democrats.
Kean’s attack ads, and those of his backers, have tried to tie unpopular healthcare industry practices like insurance denials with Bennett's time as an executive at companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Midi Health. The two-term incumbent has also worked to link Bennett with the left wing of her party. During the candidates’ one and only debate in September, he accused Bennett of refusing to denounce far-left members of her party conservative swing voters are unlikely to support.
“ My opponent right now couldn't even mention one member of Congress on her own side that she wouldn't vote for. She supports people who are openly antisemitic, who call Israel's justified actions genocide,” he said.
But Bennett has firmly positioned herself to the right of more progressive New Jersey Democrats like Rep. Analilia Mejia and Dr. Adam Hamawy, the party’s nominee in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, especially when it comes to issues that may alienate Republicans, like Israel’s war in Gaza and immigration enforcement in the United States.
“I don’t want to abolish ICE,” Bennett said in an interview with Gothamist. She has advocated for reforming ICE rather than eliminating the agency – while also saying that she supports “strong borders.”
Bennett has also treaded cautiously when it comes to the war in Gaza. When asked in an interview whether she would classify Israel’s actions a genocide, yes or no, she avoided the question.
“ We need to work towards a two-state solution in the Middle East,” she told Gothamist. “We need to work towards long-term stability in the region. But it's about making sure we have serious people at the table to make sure we're working towards that.”
Dennis Reznick from Bernardsville, New Jersey, is the type of independent voter Bennett needs to persuade. He said he believes Republicans would be better for New Jersey's property taxes, which are known for being astronomically high. But Reznick said taxes are just one factor he’s considering this year.
“Frankly, there's more important things to me,” he said, adding that he’s been troubled watching people struggle to afford health insurance and that Kean has been a “rubber-stamp” for the president's policies.
He donated a $1,000 check directly to Bennett at her campaign event.
While Bernards Township has long been a reliably red part of the district, its politics has shown signs of shifting. This year, the town elected its first Democratic mayor in its 266-year history, even as surrounding towns like Warren and Bedminster, where Trump owns a golf resort, remain solidly Republican.
Sue Squires, a former Republican from Bedminster who didn’t vote for Trump but did support both Bush administrations, said Bennett will need voters to “consider other people before we cast our ballot.”
“ I think the voters should vote with their brains,” she told Gothamist. “And they have to vote honestly and truthfully at what's right for humanity – and not what's right for a selective few.”
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Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
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