Republican Kean's Challenge To Malinowski Headlines New Jersey's Election Day

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

November 7, 2022

(The Center Square) — The race in the 7th Congressional District for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives headlines Election Day in New Jersey.

Incumbent Democrat Tom Malinowski faces Republican Tom Kean in one of 12 congressional races. This midterm cycle in the Garden State does not have a U.S. Senate race, nor regular races for governor or either body of the state Legislature; there are special elections for District 28 of the state Senate and District 12 of the state House.

Democrats are in 10 of 12 seats for New Jersey at the U.S. House. Projections have that changing by one.

In the House 7 contest, Kean has been pegged by polling site FiveThirtyEight to flip the seat red since the summer. Monday morning, his projected vote share lead was 51.9% to 48.1%, the website said.

Another political tracking site, Real Clear Politics, also forecasts the seat going red. President Joe Biden won the state in 2020 by 4 percentage points.

New Jersey is forecast to have two other Republican winners — incumbent Rep. Jeff Van Drew against Democratic challenger Tim Alexander in the 2nd, and four-decade incumbent Rep. Chris Smith against Democratic challenger Matthew Jenkins in the 4th. Van Drew was a Democrat until changing parties in December 2019, about a month after winning election and just 15 days prior to taking his oath.

Democrats have incumbents running and projected to win in District 1 (Rep. Donald Norcross), District 3 (Rep. Andrew Kim), District 5 (Rep. Josh Gottheimer), District 6 (Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.), District 9 (Rep. Bill Pascrell), District 10 (Rep. Donald Payne Jr.), District 11 (Rep. Mikie Sherrill) and District 12 (Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman).

In District 8, Democrat Robert Menendez Jr. has overwhelmingly polled ahead of Republican Marcos Arroyo, according to FiveThirtyEight. Democratic Rep. Albio Sires, serving the district since 2013, said in December he would not seek reelection this year.

Smith has held a seat since 1981, Pallone since 1993. Malinowski, Van Drew, Kim and Sherrill began serving in 2019; the other five incumbents joined the House between 2013 and 2017.

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