{"id":549,"date":"2026-06-02T16:13:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=549"},"modified":"2026-06-02T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:13:29","slug":"4-democrats-compete-to-run-against-new-jersey-republican-whos-been-missing-for-months-with-personal-medical-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=549","title":{"rendered":"4 Democrats compete to run against New Jersey Republican who\u2019s been missing for months with \u2018personal medical issue\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>New Jersey\u2019s 7th District, which includes suburban towns and rolling farmland \u2014 and one of President Donald Trump\u2019s golf clubs \u2014 is the\u00a0state\u2019s highest-profile primary. Four Democrats are competing to take on Kean, whose aides have said he plans on seeking a third term.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=547\">\u2018This administration cooked up a sham deal\u2019: New York sues Trump administration for refunding foreign company $1 billion to end offshore wind project<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kean\u2019s absence \u2014 his last vote was in early March \u2014 has supercharged interest in the seat, which Democrats view as key to winning control of the narrowly divided House and Republicans recognize as important to defend. Voters in the district have ousted two incumbents during midterm elections over the past decade.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Democratic voters are deciding between Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot whose background mirrors Gov. Mikie Sherrill\u2019s, Michael Roth, a former Small Business Administration official, Tina Shah, an intensive care unit doctor, and Brian Varela, a businessman with backing from progressive groups.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign has been hotly contested, with each candidate bringing in seven figures in fundraising and walking a line between appealing to the party\u2019s base and to more independent general election voters.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett\u2019s campaign has come under fire from a political action committee that\u2019s spent about $650,000 in the primary, attacking her from the left. Bennett said in an interview she believes the group, whose donors haven\u2019t been disclosed, is Republican-backed and aiming to weaken her candidacy because they fear her in the general election.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrats are leaning into the\u00a0rising costs\u00a0of groceries and gasoline caused by\u00a0the Iran war\u00a0and Trump\u2019s\u00a0sweeping tariffs. They\u2019re casting blame at Republicans and Kean in particular, who they say is a bad fit for the district, pointing to his support for the president\u2019s\u00a0signature tax cut legislation.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kean\u2019s absence has raised eyebrows. Kean posted on X last month that he\u2019s dealing with a \u201cpersonal medical issue\u201d and is expected to return soon, though he provided no details on what the issue is and his staff and political aides have declined to elaborate.<\/p>\n<p>The district was redrawn after the most recent census to become more favorable to Republicans, but it\u2019s gone back and forth in recent years. Kean ousted incumbent Democrat Tom Malinowski in 2022, who defeated Republican Rep. Leonard Lance in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=545\">New jobs report shows 7.6 million jobs added in April as layoffs and people quitting their jobs both fell<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Also being watched Tuesday is a Republican Senate primary. The party has been adrift in New Jersey since last year when its Trump-backed candidate for governor lost by double digits. Voters face a four-way race between attorney Justin Murphy, surgeon Robert Lebovics, Army veteran Richard Tabor and former TV reporter Alex Zdan.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The winner will face Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, who is running for a full third term.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>More House seats could have noteworthy campaigns in the fall.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jeff Van Drew is seeking a fifth term in southern New Jersey\u2019s 2nd District. He was originally elected as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party during Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Bonnie Watson is retiring from the heavily Democratic 12th District, where a crowded primary field is vying to succeed her.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Adam Hamawy, a surgeon and Army veteran, has shot to prominence with endorsements from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressives. Some of his opponents recently began criticizing him over his connection to Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiring to blow up the United Nations and other New York-area landmarks.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hamawy was a defense witness in the sheik\u2019s trial but wasn\u2019t accused of wrongdoing. He has condemned violence and distanced himself from the sheik during the campaign. Abdel-Rahman died in federal prison in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans are picking their nominee in northern New Jersey\u2019s 9th District, choosing between attorney Tiffany Burress and Clifton City Councilwoman Rosie Pino, to take on first-term Democratic Rep. Nellie Pou. Pou\u2019s margin of victory in 2024 was narrower than her long-serving predecessor, Rep. Bill Pascrell, and coincided with Trump winning a county in the district.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=544\">Hundreds of teens are flooding job ads to work at ice cream shops and swimming pools as they grapple with the worst summer job market in 80 years<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Kean Jr. hasn&#8217;t cast a vote in nearly three months and won&#8217;t explain why. In New Jersey&#8217;s most competitive district, that silence became the campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>4 Democrats compete to run against New Jersey Republican who\u2019s been missing for months with \u2018personal medical issue\u2019 - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=549\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Democrats compete to run against New Jersey Republican who\u2019s been missing for months with \u2018personal medical issue\u2019 - Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Kean Jr. hasn&#039;t cast a vote in nearly three months and won&#039;t explain why. 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