Kean wins the closely fought NJ House race

He hung on to his chair, but just barely.

First-term Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Democratic challenger fended off Sue Altman in New Jersey most hotly contested US House race in Tuesday’s elections.

The Associated Press called the race shortly after midnight, with Kean leading by about 7 percentage points and 93% of the votes counted. Hours earlier, Kean declared victory and Altman appeared to accept defeat.

Backed by national Republican funding, including from a PAC launched by the former president Donald Trump‘s billionaire supporter, Elon Musk, Kean won a second term in the political purple 7th Congressional District.

In doing so, he countered Altman’s aggressive grassroots campaign, which portrayed him as a press-shy Trump supporter thinly disguised as a moderate.

Kean’s campaign, meanwhile, portrayed Altman as a “radical” in a steady stream of ads, repeatedly emphasizing her progressive bona fides, including previous comments she made about defunding the police, for which she has since apologized.

At 10:36 p.m., Kean burst into the ballroom of the Old Mill Inn in Basking Ridge during his watch party and announced, “We won!”

A crowd of hundreds cheered him on as Kean spoke of the urgent need to tackle inflation and affordability by cutting ‘wasteful government spending’.

He also said the country must work to secure its southern border, fight human trafficking and stand with its allies, including Israel and Ukraine.

“That is essential for the future of this world,” Kean said, supporting the two nations locked in separate wars. “America must remain a beacon of freedom and democracy worldwide.”

Kean thanked Altman for running a “spirited campaign” as his father, former Governor Thomas Kean, stood beaming nearby, holding a bouquet of flowers.

Kean’s victory was important for Republicans seeking to maintain their majority in the House of Congress amid a bitter campaign season and a polarizing presidential race.

In New Jersey, Democrats — who hold a nine-to-three seat advantage in the state’s congressional delegation — appeared on track to maintain that lead Tuesday. With all twelve seats on the ballot, the incumbent party or the incumbent party won or led their races.

Reflecting the national debate, Altman made reproductive rights and a threat to democracy the central issues of her campaign.

As Kean began pushing for victory around 10:20 p.m., participants in Altman’s watch party at the Bridgewater Manor in Bridgewater began to quietly leave.

And at 10:48 p.m., Altman said that many Americans “had their hearts broken on our way through this beautiful, beautiful country.”

“This indecisive country, this divisive country, this polarized country – this country with its deeply flawed history against racism and sexism, but also with its incredible hope – it is a beacon to others around the world,” she said.

Altman also highlighted progressive wins in the state this year the elimination of the decades-old design of the state’s primary ballots known as the “county line,” and the indictment of former Senator John S. Robert Menendez.

Democratic US Representative Andy Kim – who led the lawsuit against the line – won his election Tuesday night to claim the Senate seat once held by Menendez, which will make him the first U.S. senator of Korean descent from any state.

“We took on an incredible challenge in this race, one that we should be very proud of,” said Altman. “We have turned a page in New Jersey because it is no longer business as usual. We chose Andy Kim tonight.”

The race drew national attention as both parties battled for control of the House of Representatives, which is currently held by Republicans.

It was also a revealing look at Jersey in the deeply divisive political drama unfolding across the country, featuring a nail-biting presidential race and other tense battles for control of Congress.

Kean, the Republican incumbent, portrayed himself as a moderate who still supports Trump. To him, the swing district’s problems were clear: the economy and crime.

He is the former Republican leader of the Senate and, as the son of Tom Kean – a hugely popular former governor of New Jersey – he had the invaluable advantage of name recognition.

But his campaign also received unwanted attention. Kean was accused of avoiding both the press and his voters recent refusal to speak to an NJ Spotlight reporter. Video of him refusing to answer several questions while in an elevator and in the hallways of the U.S. Capitol went viral.

Kean’s campaign subsequently granted interviews with him to several news outlets, including NJ Advance Media.

Altman is a longtime leader of the progressive advocacy group New Jersey Working Families Alliance and a former teacher basketball star at Columbia University. Some remember her most for who she was dragged outside of a 2019 Statehouse hearing on police tax breaks after she and others protested an expected appearance by Democratic power broker George Norcross.

Altman waged an aggressive grassroots campaign, positioning himself as the opposite of Kean’s reluctance by sweeping the entire district. She also hammered him on reproductive rights, including abortion and IVF, and made the threat to democracy a central theme of her campaign.

At the last minute – and after some criticism from progressives – the House Democrats’ campaign fund committed spending about $4 million in the last two weeks of the election to give her a boost.

Meanwhile, Kean has raised about $5.4 million this cycle, according to the research group OpenSecrets. National Republican groups have poured huge sums into the race on his behalf, with GOP groups making the allocations approximately $7.7 million only on advertising.

Musk’s PAC also spent money to ensure Kean and other Republicans had enough money to participate in the election.

When Altman launched her campaign last year, Democrats privately wondered whether the fiery advocate was too progressive for the purple district. She told NJ Advance Media that the issue has not been raised and that her views are largely the same as those of the Democratic Party.

The seat in the House of Representatives has bounced back and forth between the parties. The Republicans held power for years. But in 2018, Tom Malinowski, a Democrat, ran for the open seat and won, turning it blue. Kean challenged him two years later but lost a tight race.

The two faced off again in 2022, with Kean wins and bringing it back to the GOP after redistricting made things redder for him.

Democrats wanted to redraw the district and hoped they would get a boost from the increasingly polarizing Trump atop the Republican ticket.

The number of registered Republicans in the 7th District exceeds the number of registered Democrats by fewer than 20,000 voters, but even greater is the number of unaffiliated voters in the district, which stands at more than 222,000, according to the report. state voter registration data.

The 7th District has a little bit of everything: rural areas in Warren and Sussex counties, including more than two dozen Republican-leaning cities added in 2022; solidly blue cities in Union County such as Rahway and Linden; and large swaths of affluent suburbs in several counties, where voters of both parties may not take kindly to Trump.

NJ Advance Media Staff Writers Jelani Gibson And Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

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Brianna Kudisch can be reached at [email protected].