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The most expensive congressional race in NJ history? This could be the one.
By
Mike Hayes
Published Oct 1, 2026
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Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images and Aristide Economopoulos for Gothamist
By
Mike Hayes
Published Oct 1, 2026
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It’s the kind of record that was bound to be broken. In 2024, New Jersey incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. was pitted against Democrat Sue Altman in what was eventually crowned the most expensive race for a congressional seat in New Jersey history. All combined, campaign spending in the state’s 7th Congressional District topped out at $26.3 million.
Now, political experts predict this year’s race for the same seat will be even pricier, with large sums pouring in during the race’s final stretch from national political organizations, President Donald Trump’s super PAC and even Elon Musk. In the coming days, new campaign filings for the third quarter of the year up to September will show which campaign has outraised the other.
“ Both parties realize that this is a crucial seat,” said Ashley Koning, director of Rutgers University's Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling. “It's not a surprise to me that we see this influx of money — especially from outside groups — simply because of how important the race is.”
Kean’s seat is New Jersey’s one, rare and surprising swing district. It typically leans Republican, but recent polling favors Kean’s challenger, Democrat Rebecca Bennett, in a race that will help determine which party holds Congress for the next two years.
Kean has so far led Bennett in funding overall. By the end of the last fiscal quarter on June 30 he had raised $4.89 million, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. But Bennett was close behind with over $4.2 million. And if you only compare the candidates’ fundraising efforts in the second quarter alone, she outraised him by more than $1 million.
Micah Rasmussen, director of Rider University's Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, said that even if Bennett can’t fully eclipse Kean’s stockpile, competing with him might be enough.
“You don't have to have every single dollar that your opponent has. You need to have enough to be able to communicate your message,” Rasmussen said.
Both campaigns are likely to funnel a surge of spending into TV and digital ads in the final weeks before the midterms.
“ This is when voters pay attention — that after-Labor Day stretch is when voters start tuning in and start really debating who to vote for,” Koning said.
Kean 'lapping' Bennett
One of those ads is a Kean campaign video that attacks Bennett's career in the healthcare industry. After serving in the military for more than 15 years, including a decade as a Navy helicopter pilot, Bennett worked as a product manager and director at Johnson & Johnson before joining several other companies focused on digital healthcare, women’s health and gastrointestinal health.
Kean’s ad tries to tie Bennett’s time in the industry to health insurers who refuse coverage for chronically ill patients who require continuous care. The ad does not make clear what role, if any, these companies played in coverage decisions.
Still from an ad from Republican Tom Kean, Jr.'s campaign for Congress that attacks Democrat Rebecca Bennett's work in the healthcare industry.
Tom Kean for Congress
The ad was paid for, in part, by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Maureen O’Toole, spokesperson for the NRCC, did not say how much the organization has spent thus far to run the spot. But she said Republicans are outspending Democrats in the district overall by a more than a 3-to-1 margin on broadcast and digital ads during a period that started on Aug. 1 and will continue through Election Day.
“Republicans are lapping Rebecca Bennett,” said O’Toole. “The momentum is with Tom Kean Jr., and he’ll be re-elected come November.”
According to ad tracker AdImpact, the GOP has $18.8 million in reserved broadcast and digital space compared to Democrats’ $5.8 million.
Kean spokesperson Harrison Neely told Gothamist that Kean has a “massive” spending advantage over Bennett.
“Our campaign will spend whatever it takes to get him re-elected,” Neely said.
Democrats have also identified New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District as a key race and are devoting money to elect Bennett. For example, VoteVets, a progressive group that supports Democratic service members in races around the country, is planning to spend $1.2 million to support her.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is also coordinating with Bennett to run ads. Eli Cousin, a spokesperson for the DCCC, said it’s spent $400,000 so far on Bennett’s behalf.
“The DCCC is all in on flipping this seat which is why we have already run ads boosting Rebecca's campaign, and we are confident she will have the resources needed to retire Kean Jr. in November,” Cousin said.
Trump money a liability?
Kean is also getting help from other sources with deep cash reserves.
Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., has pledged to spend $3.3 million to help Kean in the closing weeks of the campaign. And earlier this month, Elon Musk unleashed a new wave of support for Republican candidates — sending $90,000 each to eight campaigns, including Kean’s. In 2024, Musk spent over $1 million to help Kean win re-election.
New Jersey state Sen. Joe Pennacchio, the deputy Republican leader who served in the Legislature with Kean for over a decade, said the “infusion” of money is one reason he’s not worried about Kean’s re-election, despite his slumping poll numbers. A recent Stimsight Research poll gave Bennett a 5-point advantage.
“ I think that's going to help,” he told Gothamist when asked about the influx of outside money in support of Kean.
Still from a Rebecca Bennett for Congress ad featuring President Donald Trump.
Rebecca Bennett for Congress
Tracy DiFrancesco, GOP chair for Somerset County, one of the six counties in Kean’s district, said she’s “very excited” about Kean’s increased reserves.
“ New Jersey rarely gets money from outside while we give plenty to outside. So it's exciting that we can finally be in a race and be financially funded,” she said, although she expects Democrats to use Trump’s involvement in the race against Kean. The president’s approval rating in New Jersey sits at just 37%, according to the latest Morning Consult poll.
“New Jersey doesn't like Trump. Somerset County overall doesn't like Trump,” DiFrancesco said. “ I'm sure the Democrats will harp on the Trump factor because it works for them.”
Bennett has been working to tie Kean to Trump since she was competing in the Democratic primary, and her political allies have done the same.
“Donald Trump is an anchor around his neck,” said Peg Schaffer, Somerset County Democratic Committee Chair. “I think they're wasting their money.”
Recent election results have given Democrats a reason to be confident about their chances of toppling Kean. In last year’s governor’s race, New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District swung in the Democrats' favor when Mikie Sherrill won it by about 2 points over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who heavily embraced Trump and the MAGA movement.
Leroy Jones, New Jersey's state Democratic chair, said Trump’s spending shows Republicans are worried about Kean.
“ That is obviously desperation to try to keep that seat,” he said.
Rasmussen, the Rider University director, said the language Republicans are using around Trump’s MAGA Inc. money is evidence that even they see the president “is a potential liability.” Earlier this year, MAGA, Inc. launched a separate PAC called No Going Back to funnel money into the midterms.
“They're not calling it MAGA money,” Rasmussen said.
How money became a campaign issue
Bennett has consistently harped on Kean’s corporate donations as one of the reasons voters should kick him out of office.
“He has chosen time and time again to put his personal financial interest and the interest of his corporate donors over the needs of all of us in the district. We deserve better,” Bennett said during a debate between the two candidates on Sunday.
Elon Musk has pledged $90,000 to help Kean win re-relection.
Finn Gomez/Getty Images
Kean’s war chest includes corporate PACs affiliated with companies like Google, Johnson & Johnson and Merck, which have all donated tens of thousands of dollars to his campaign. Since 2025, Kean has reported receiving more than $1.2 million in “other committee contributions,” which includes corporate PACs, to the FEC.
Bennett has vowed not to take money directly from corporate PACs in accordance with a pledge created by the group End Citizens United, which refers to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that struck down limits on political spending by corporations and labor unions. But in a Tuesday social media post, Kean alleged that Bennett’s “receipts tell a very different story.”
“She accepts big money from the Democrat party machines and special interest PACs bankrolled by corporate money and radical dark-money groups,” he wrote on X.
Kean also singled out the funding Bennett has received from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which does receive funding from corporate donors, as an example of the corporate dollars helping fuel her campaign.
Neely, Kean’s spokesperson, insists Bennett “broke her pledge.”
“What began as a vapid campaign promise is now clearly a lie,” he said.
Neely cited 2026 donations to the DCCC from several corporate PACs associated with Pfizer, Eli Lilly, JPMorgan Chase and Deloitte.
Bennett’s campaign argues there is no evidence that the money the DCCC is getting from corporate PACs is going to her. While the DCCC has championed the pledge by candidates like Bennett not to accept corporate donations, the organization does not deny that it accepts money from a wide range of contributors including corporate PACs.
In response to Kean’s accusations, Carly Jones, communications director for Bennett’s campaign, said Bennett “isn’t taking a dime” from corporate PACs. And Bawadden Sayed, a spokesperson for End Citizens United, criticized Kean’s attacks.
“It’s rich of him to cry hypocrisy when he’s the sitting member of Congress and his campaign coffers are stuffed with corporate PAC money,” Sayed said. “As the organization that established the no corporate PAC pledge, we can unequivocally confirm that Rebecca Bennett is abiding by her commitment to reject corporate PAC money. Her FEC filings prove that.”
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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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