NJ-07: Competitive New Jersey House Race Is Testing Republicans' Future In The State

[RandySF]

A Republican with a familiar name is challenging a freshman Democratic Congressman in one of New Jersey’s more competitive races -- and testing whether the party can win back suburban districts where polling indicates Trump and the GOP are hemorrhaging support.

Republican State Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. is running against incumbent Congressman Tom Malinowski in the northern Jersey district that stretches from Union County’s wealthy New York City suburbs to Somerset and Hunterdon counties. It also includes the president’s Bedminster golf course.

But in an election that is largely a referendum on Trump, Kean Jr. is trying to walk a tightrope: Supporting the president while pitching himself as a centrist who can seek “common ground” in Washington. And he’s doing so in a district where backlash to Trump turned the Republican stronghold blue in 2018, unseating a longtime GOP Congressman.

“He's running against a tide here where he doesn't have the ability to overcome what these voters in this district see as a party that has become the arm of Donald Trump,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.




https://gothamist.com/news/competitive-new-jersey-house-race-testing-republicans-future-state

[Azathoth]

1. The Kean family is fairly well-liked in Jersey

They even have a public university named after them.

Kean is running a standard both-sides-are-to-blame-but-I'm-different campaign trying to appeal to moderate golf club Republicans -- ie want to pay no taxes, but would prefer a representative that isn't a racist Breitbarter with the cognitive function of a toddler.

[Klaralven]

2. Economist predicts that Malinowski will win

If Kean loses, he continues as state Senate minority leader.

In NJ, the GOP's role is to mediate between the Northern Democrats and the Southern Democrats.