Former Navy pilot and healthcare professional Rebecca Bennett ’09 will face incumbent Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) for New Jersey’s seventh congressional district after comfortably winning the Democratic nomination on June 2.
Kean has not been seen in public for almost three months due to a medical issue — an aide said in May that there are “no cameras where Tom is.” Despite his continued absence, Kean was endorsed by President Donald Trump and won his primary unopposed.
The purple seventh district is New Jersey’s most competitive and is on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s target list, which sets Democrats’ priorities for the upcoming midterms.
In 2024, Kean beat Sue Altman, a Democrat who served as Sen. Andy Kim’s (D-N.J.) chief of staff, by about 5%.
Bennett has centered her campaign around healthcare and affordability, and said she entered the race because Democrats were “craving leadership” during Trump’s second go-around.
“I felt this calling to lean in, because I love this country and want to fight for the version we want to live in and leave for my daughters,” she told The Sun in October.
Bennett — who attended Navy training camp a mere week after graduating from Cornell with a degree in chemical engineering — retired from active duty in 2019.
She then earned her Masters in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and worked at healthcare companies Midi Health, which focuses on menopausal health, and Oshi Health, which specializes in gastrointestinal care.
The former Navy pilot aimed her victory speech at Kean, calling him a “coward” for failing to stand up to Trump.
“Tom Kean, Jr., wherever you are,” Bennett told the crowd at her election watch party, “you have failed this district. You were the deciding vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill, which is going to take healthcare from tens of thousands of people in this district.”
Kean was also “nowhere to be found” when Trump began his war in Iran, threatened funding for the Gateway Tunnel between New Jersey and New York and attempted to place an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Roxbury, Bennett said.
“If this group of badass American patriots can get a political outsider — a 2010 Honda Accord-driving Navy veteran mom — elected,” Bennett closed, “we are going to flip this seat in November.”
Atticus Johnson is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the off-campus news editor for the 144th board.
