New Jersey District 7 debate: Kean and Bennett clash on cost of living and Israel

Republican congressman Tom Kean Jr. and Democratic challenger Rebecca Bennett faced off on September 27 in the race’s only debate for New Jersey’s District 7, held at the Hamilton Stage of Union County’s Performing Arts Center in Rahway and sponsored by New Jersey Globe and Rider University, as NorthJersey.com reports.

The Cook Political Report rates the race a “toss-up,” while the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics said on September 16 that the race leans toward the Democrats.

Kean spoke about his nearly four-month absence from Congress and his diagnosis with depression, which he made public on June 30 in the House of Representatives.

Bennett accused Kean of three votes in favor of what she called an “unnecessary war in the Middle East” and of home heating costs, while defending the two-state solution for Israel. Kean responded that Israel “is fully justified” and that the United States “should stand behind it in every way.”

According to Bennett, the cost-of-living crisis — prices, childcare, housing and energy — is voters’ number-one concern. Kean spoke out against the proposed warehouse in Roxbury.

An early-September InsiderNJ/StimSight poll gives Bennett 47% to Kean’s 42% among 498 likely voters; Kean’s approval rating is just 37%, with 60% disapproval.

The district covers Hunterdon County, Warren County and parts of Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Union counties. Donald Trump won the district in 2024, while Governor Mikie Sherrill won it in 2025.

Bennett is a former US Navy helicopter pilot — like Sherrill — originally from Texas, living in Somerset County, a graduate of Cornell and Wharton, who moved to New Jersey in 2019 for work in the healthcare sector.