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A key New Jersey swing district is falling out of Republicans’ grasp on Tuesday night in a critical victory for House Democrats.
New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, which is where President Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course is located, is projected to be represented next year by former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett after she was projected to defeat Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J.
Kean, the son of former Garden State Gov. Tom Kean Sr., was seeking a third term representing the affluent area encompassing suburbs and exurbs of New York City.
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Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Rebecca Bennett. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Multiple election forecasts, including Fox News Power Rankings, projected he would lose to Bennett in what was expected to be an overall difficult year for Republicans trying to keep their congressional majorities.
Kean is known to keep a low profile on Capitol Hill. But he was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year over a four-month absence from Congress that he later revealed was due to his getting treatment for depression. He received some blowback, however, for not revealing the specifics of his issue until his return.
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Rebecca Bennett is a former Navy helicopter pilot who ran to represent New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“When I first informed the public that I was dealing with a medical issue, I was still trying to understand what was happening myself,” Kean said on the House floor when he returned.
“When I said I hoped to return in a matter of weeks, I believed it. Those were the best estimates the doctors could provide. But, as the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover, there is no timeline for healing. There is no timeline for recovery. Only the work of getting better one day at a time.”
He defended Trump’s economic record and war in Iran during his and Bennett’s first and only debate, while she criticized the president’s tariffs and blamed the Middle East conflict for the high gas prices Americans are grappling with.
Kean told Fox News Digital of his own record in August.
“I’ve been a really effective legislator who’s brought things back to the district, who’s listened to my constituents on their needs and their concerns, in contrast to my opponent, who has really been a very abject partisan,” Kean said.
Republicans across the U.S. have been sandbagged by Trump’s low approval numbers despite the president crisscrossing the country in the weeks before the election in a bid to turn out the base.
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey hosted the LIV Golf New York event. (Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Several House Republicans told Fox News Digital early Tuesday night that they had given up hope of keeping the majority.
“It’s a bloodbath,” one senior House GOP aide said.
And Kean’s district was one of the earliest in which GOP groups waved the white flag. Fox News Digital was told by multiple sources last month that the House GOP leadeship-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund and Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. were pulling their investments out of the district to triage races in other parts of the country.
A source close to Kean’s campaign brushed it off at the time, telling Fox News Digital the campaign was set for cash.
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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told attendees at a fundraiser for Kean that Fox News Digital attended in August, “We consider this a top three race, not just a top 10. That’s how important it is to us. It has a target on its back.”