Tom Kean Jr. or Rebecca Bennett? We pick this candidate | Editorial

By: USA TODAY Network New Jersey Editorial Board

Voters in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District will choose between an incumbent and a moderate challenger.

In New Jersey’s most hotly contested congressional race, victory will be found in the pragmatic, political center.

For years, that territory belonged to the 7th Congressional District’s incumbent, Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.

But 2026 is different. With Kean in lockstep with President Donald Trump on the Iran war, tariffs, cuts to health care programs and other issues, the mantle of moderate in this race belongs to his challenger, Democrat Rebecca Bennett.

For that reason — and to provide much-needed balance to Trump’s chaotic governance — we recommend that voters send her to Washington.

Bennett, a health care executive and former U.S. Navy pilot, earns our endorsement with a detailed platform focused on affordability, as well as an outspoken critique of Washington gridlock rooted in her 15 years of military service. A Bridgewater mother of two young daughters, Bennett, 39, would bring valuable insights from her time in the armed forces and business, as well as the fresh perspective of a young parent.

Kean, 58, offers a quarter-century of experience in state and federal government. Over the years, he has earned a bipartisan reputation on issues such as the environment and support for Ukraine. He knows the district well.

But beyond the tax relief he touts in Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill — financed, it should be noted, by deep cuts to social services — we see few new ideas in his campaign to tackle the cost-of-living crisis facing many New Jerseyans.

Kean appears content to run on Trump’s playbook. That’s not good enough at a time when nearly two-thirds of Americans say the country is on the wrong track and an equal share of state residents say it’s getting harder to afford the basics, according to a recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll.

The 7th is a district built for moderation. It sprawls across five counties, from conservative rural townships in western New Jersey through diverse, affluent enclaves in the east. It’s one of handful of swing districts around the country likely to decide control of Congress in the Nov. 3 midterms.

So voters have a critical choice: Kean is a career public servant with deep ties to the district. The son of a legendary New Jersey governor, he is the status-quo choice. Bennett offers generational change — and a more robust platform to take on the challenges facing New Jersey families.

Kean is the more seasoned legislator. But Bennett, with her engineering and military training, showed a reassuring grasp of policy nuance in a meeting with editorial board of The Record and NorthJersey.com. She spoke knowledgeably about regulatory red tape in health care, the slow pace of energy development and the mechanics of expanding service on the Raritan Valley rail line.

Kean’s absence from Congress epitomizes a larger problem

Our endorsement is based not only on résumés and policy differences. It also reflects a concern about how Kean sees the responsibilities of the job.

Kean, who lives in Westfield, made national news this spring when he vanished from the public eye with little explanation for four months, missing more than 100 votes. He later revealed he had been hospitalized for depression. We don’t believe voters should hold that against him. In fact, Kean deserves credit for discussing his condition publicly and raising awareness about mental health struggles.

But the episode also epitomized a lack of transparency that has become a defining feature of Kean’s time on Capitol Hill: The congressman rarely takes questions from journalists and does not hold in-person town halls for constituents, instead hosting virtual events where the questions and attendance can be more tightly controlled.

We invited Kean to meet with our editorial board this fall. His campaign did not respond to repeated calls and emails. Bennett met with us for an hour to discuss her political philosophy and agenda.

In the most egregious example of his play-it-safe strategy, Kean refused to state a position for months as local officials fought a Trump administration plan to open an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Roxbury Township. Despite pleas from the town’s all-Republican council, Kean didn’t come out against the center until a Sept. 27 debate, weeks after a lawsuit had already put the proposal on hold. Bennett declared her opposition in February.

Taxes and health care

Bennett proposes a federal day care benefit that would cap family costs at 7% of income. On energy, she wants utility reforms to make data centers pay higher electricity rates. Like Kean, she supports an “all-of-the above” energy strategy, including expanded renewables and nuclear power.

The easiest way to make life more affordable in the district, Bennett says, is to undo the costliest parts of the Trump agenda. She would reverse more than $1.2 trillion in cuts slated for Medicaid, Obamacare and other programs. She also breaks with many progressive Democrats in opposing Medicare for all, saying she wants to let people who like their commercial coverage keep it. Bennett instead favors a public insurance option to provide a government-backed alternative to private insurers.

Kean says he played a key role in getting Republicans to raise the SALT cap, the limit on federal deductions for state and local taxes. Trump capped the deduction at $10,000 in his first term. The Big Beautiful Bill raised it to $40,000 and includes a host of other breaks, Kean notes: an expanded child tax credit, no taxes on tips and Social Security, and an increase in the standard deduction, among others.

That is real money in the pockets of 7th District residents. It is also paid for with historic cuts to health care funding, food benefits and other programs for the most vulnerable. Kean argues he protected Medicaid by supporting new work requirements to root out waste, fraud and abuse. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that such changes will ultimately increase the ranks of uninsured Americans by 10 million over the next decade — and add $3.4 trillion to the national debt.

Kean cites SALT relief as proof he can stand up to his party, along with his resistance to Trump’s attempts to cancel the Gateway tunnel project. He was hardly the only New Jersey politician in those fights, however, and it’s unclear how much of a leadership role he played.

Tariffs, trade and Iran

Foreign policy and trade offer more differences — and more signs of Kean’s deference to the president’s agenda.

At the debate, which was sponsored by the New Jersey Globe and Rider University, Kean defended the president’s tariffs, which have driven up costs, as necessary to restore U.S. manufacturing. He insisted the executive branch has authority over such fees, despite this summer’s Supreme Court ruling that the president had usurped Congress’ powers.

Kean also voiced full support for the Iran war, an unambiguous commitment to defend Taiwan and unconditional backing for Israel’s military actions since Hamas’ 2023 terror attack.

Bennett argues that the Iran conflict began without a clear objective or strategy and favors bringing allies together to negotiate a settlement. She said sending American troops to war should be a last resort and that aid to Israel should be judged by U.S. interests and the standards applied to other allies. She declined to say whether Israel is currently meeting those standards, however, and what she would do if it fails that test.

Rebecca Bennett has our endorsement

Both candidates have lobbed personal attacks. We find them distractions at best. Kean’s suggestion that Bennett is an out-of-touch millionaire is bizarre coming from a congressman with a net worth of $10 million, and his contention that she made money off denying care to patients is misleading, blaming her for decisions she had no hand in. Bennett’s claims that Kean traded stocks while in Congress ignore that he has ceded decisions on investments to an outside portfolio manager.

Bennett did admit to avoiding church for a time because she disagreed with Trump voters in the congregation, but there’s no evidence this kind of pettiness defines her. It’s hard to malign the character of a veteran who put herself in harm’s way for her country.   

Our chief concern with Bennett concerns costs. Lifting the SALT cap entirely, which Bennett supports, would cost $1.2 trillion, according to a University of Pennsylvania estimate. Restoring the GOP health care costs would add about the same. At the same time, Bennett rightly calls the government’s $40 trillion debt a national-security crisis. She’ll need to be open to compromise on her agenda.

In this race, the policy contrasts matter; so does a more basic question of what a representative owes to constituents: Will he explain himself and listen to voters when the stakes are highest?

Bennett has the stronger case on both fronts and, therefore, our endorsement.