Election 2022: Too Close To Call A Flip In The New Jersey House 7 Race

By Alan Wooten | The Center Square, The Center Square New Jersey

November 11, 2022

(The Center Square) – New Jersey Republican Tom Kean was close early Wednesday morning to gaining a measure of revenge and giving Republicans a seat toward control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

With about 5% of the vote remaining to be counted at 2 a.m., Kean led incumbent Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski in the 7th Congressional District race 52.3% to 47.7%. More than a quarter-million people cast votes in the precincts.

Kean lost to Malinowski in 2020 by 5,311 votes, 50.6% to 49.4%. In this election cycle, through Oct. 19, Malinowski’s campaign had twice the amount of money - $8.4 million to $4 million – to make its case with voters.

Kean, 54, wants to head to the Beltway with plans to “end wasteful spending”; a focus on supply chains and promotion of American industry; tax relief to the middle class; and energy independence to lower gas prices.

Kean (pronounced “kein” / KAYN) has earned battle stripes in the state Legislature. He followed two years in the Assembly with 19 in the Senate, rising to become minority leader in January 2008 and staying in that post until retiring this year. The tenure included a failed bid by former GOP Gov. Chris Christie to remove him.

Kean was born in Livingston, the son of former Gov. Thomas H. Kean Sr. and the grandson of former U.S. House Rep. Robert Kean. He earned his undergraduate at Ivy League Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire, and his masters from Tufts in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Malinowski, 57, is vying for a third term in Washington on a 10-point platform. It includes the economy; fair taxes; affordable health care; protection of women’s rights; advocating for seniors; 21st century infrastructure; safe communities; protection of children; fighting corruption; and protection of the environment.

Prior to his stint in Congress, he was in the Obama administration as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor from 2014-17. He stands on a record in the Beltway of fighting high costs of prescription drugs; protection of children from gun violence; environmental issues; and funneling money to the Gateway Tunnel and Portal Bridge projects.

Malinowski was born in Communist Poland and doesn’t hide the fact his mother paid “a corrupt official to get the passports that would allow us to come to America” when he was 6 years old. He was raised in central New Jersey, earned his undergraduate from Cal Berkeley, and his master’s in philosophy from St. Antony’s of the University of Oxford in England.

The focus of the work of The Center Square New Jersey is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.