Democratic nominee to take on Tom Kean Jr. has the race to herself — for now

After her landslide primary victory Tuesday in New Jersey's highly competitive 7th Congressional District, Democrat Rebecca Bennett is in an enviable position for a swing seat challenger.

She has the race all to herself, at least for a little while. Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. has been out of public view with an undisclosed illness since he last voted on March 5. And some Republicans are worried about his future and whether he can hold onto the seat in November's midterms, where Democrats are favored to reclaim the House.

Bennett has not said much about Kean's absence.

"I sincerely wish him well. I hope he has a good recovery. But he's absolutely failed this district, so we're going to hold him accountable for his voting record," Bennett sad in a phone interview Wednesday. "It wasn't like he was doing anything for us when he was showing up for work versus when he was not."

But Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot who works for a telehealth company, doesn't really need to talk about it. Kean's near-silence has elevated his absence to a national news story, and one of the top political narratives in New Jersey.

It's an inauspicious start for the two-term Republican in a district Democrats are targeting as one of the top flipping opportunities in the nation, with Kean off the campaign trail and with no firm timeline to return five months ahead of the election.

Kean in a statement Tuesday said he's "more energized than ever to keep fighting for the people of New Jersey's 7th District." President Donald Trump formally endorsed him Monday, saying he was "working tirelessly" for the district. And Harrison Neely, a Kean spokesperson, referred to a previous statement in which he said "Rebecca Bennett's silly attacks and name-calling will not fool anyone. Congressman Kean has a proven record of delivering results as an independent leader."

While early June is usually a quiet time for campaigning, Republicans are getting nervous. Despite Kean's insistence that he's running for reelection through written statements and a few phone calls with party leaders, some New Jersey Republicans won't be completely convinced until he shows his face.

Morris County Republican Chair Laura Ali, whose county overlaps Kean's district, acknowledged in a phone interview Wednesday that she's heard of Republicans who "would want to be" considered to replace Kean and "have made their intentions quite clear."

"Yeah, I am nervous. Of course I am. Because it's a very unsettling situation," Ali said

Kean left Ali a phone message two weeks ago as he called several Republican leaders to reassure them he's running for reelection. He said in an interview with New Jersey Globe — the only media hit he's done since March — that he planned to return to voting and the campaign trail in "the next couple weeks." But that was two weeks ago. In a statement Tuesday, Kean said he planned to be back "within a matter of weeks."

"Is he coming back ? I hope he is. He's saying he is. I've got to give him the benefit of the doubt. But he's got to come back quickly. The campaign started today," Ali said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson projected calm to reporters Wednesday in Washington.

"It's not a scandalous thing at all. People deal with health issues, maybe that's a news flash for you, but even members of Congress get sick as well, right?" Johnson said.

Johnson said Kean shared the specifics of his health condition with him, but he declined to disclose it at Kean's request.

"What he's dealing with is something very common, and not a big, not a big thing … But when he explains it, it will all makes sense, and there's nothing untoward about it at all," Johnson said.

Bill Palatucci, New Jersey's Republican National Committee member who's from Kean's hometown of Westfield, said despite the speculation, there's no real talk in the district of running anyone else.

"Is there any scuttlebutt from Republicans in the district to make a change, or is there a change coming? The answer to that question is no," he said.

Kean, who, unlike Bennett, faced no primary opponents, has a big cash advantage with $3.4 million in the bank. Bennett had $776,000 as of mid-May, with weeks left to go in the primary. But the race is expected to be a top priority for Democrats nationally, which could supercharge her fundraising and put millions in super PAC spending behind her.

Democrats welcomed Trump's support for Kean. The president carried the district by one point in 2024, when Kean won reelection by 5 points. But that was a particularly good year for Republicans in New Jersey. A year later, Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill squashed Republican optimism about inroads in this deep-blue state when she beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli by 14 points.

Kean's biggest asset is his name. His family is one of New Jersey's most prominent political dynasties, and his father is the most popular former governor of the modern era. But the Kean brand was built on bipartisan appeal and minority voter outreach. Tom Kean Sr. chaired the 9/11 commission, won over 60 percent of New Jersey's Black vote in his landslide 1985 reelection and in 1988 wrote a book called "The Politics of Inclusion." It's a far cry from the divisive rhetoric Trump has wielded on race and immigration.

"It just shows that Tom Kean Jr. has been in lockstep with the national Republican Party and he's more worried about what Trump cares about and what his donors think than what the voters of this distinct care about," Bennett said of the Trump endorsement.

And Bennett appears to have had some help establishing her moderate bona fides from Republicans themselves.

Real Change PAC, which has yet to disclose its donors but is widely suspected to be a Republican operation, sought to hurt Bennett with Democratic primary voters by emphasizing that she had "stopped short" of calling to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, contrasting her with her opponents' more left-leaning positions on the issue.

And Sherrill, who, like Bennett, ran her campaign last year heavily on her service as a Navy helicopter pilot, may also step in to help.

"The governor is quite familiar with the need to have a Democratic majority in Congress, and I see no situation where she is not locked and loaded on this," said Democratic State Chair LeRoy Jones, a longtime ally of Sherrill's.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.