Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and Democrat Rebecca Bennett have agreed to one debate this fall heading into the midterm elections. Bennett wants five more.
Bennett, a first-time congressional candidate looking to unseat the incumbent Kean in New Jersey’s most competitive House district, told Gothamist she’s “challenging” Kean to debates hosted in each of the five remaining counties that make up New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. The candidates have already agreed to face off in Union County on Sept. 27.
”What I've heard consistently over the last 18 months is that Tom Kean Jr. does not show up. He doesn't listen. He's not there for us. And so, I'm not going to be like that,” Bennett told Gothamist in a phone interview Tuesday night.
She said that her team had not yet engaged the Kean campaign about the additional debates. Kean’s campaign did not respond to Gothamist’s request to comment on Bennett’s multi-debate challenge.
The Kean-Bennett race is one of the most closely watched campaigns in the country this midterm election season. It’s currently New Jersey’s one true swing district in Congress.
Kean and the Republicans enjoy a roughly 3% registered voter advantage compared to Democrats in the district, equating to about 20,000 more possible votes. But the race was turned upside down this year after Kean’s mysterious 100-plus day absence from Congress. Recently, Bennett has surged ahead of Kean in fundraising — outraising him by more than $1 million last quarter.
Despite Kean’s protracted disappearance, he easily won the Republican nomination in June, running uncontested. On June 30, he returned to the House floor to reveal that his absence was due to a “long-term” hospitalization for depression. Kean said his doctors fully supported him continuing his re-election campaign.
“I'm glad he got access to the care that he needs. I hope he is still on the path to recovery, and getting access to the care that he needs. But his record is terrible,” Bennett said of her opponent.
Bennett criticized Kean’s support of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful” bill, saying “ tens of thousands of people in our district are losing access to their health insurance.” She also chided Kean for not intervening when Trump held up funding for the New Jersey-New York Gateway Tunnel Project.
Kean has kept a light public campaign schedule since returning to Congress after his hospitalization. The night of the House floor speech, he held a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. His Instagram feed also shows him appearing at a July 4 parade in the district. But he’s yet to do an extensive interview with the press or schedule a town hall, including the telephone town halls he’s held in the past.
Kean’s campaign has repeatedly ignored Gothamist’s requests for information about his public schedule heading into the midterms.
Bennett said she has a “jam-packed schedule” of event appearances, door-knocking, and canvassing this weekend.
“We are just going to be in every corner of this district outworking everyone else to be able to make sure that we're flipping this seat in November,” she said.
