District 7 Primary Election 2026: Brian Varela

DISTRICT 7, NJ — District 7's Congressional primary election on June 2 has four democratic candidates running for one open seat.

Brian Varela is one of the Democratic candidates running in the primary.

Additionally, Tina Shah, Michael Roth, and Rebecca Bennett are all running in the primary for the democratic ticket.

Are you running for office in District 7? Contact Alexis Tarrazi at alexis.tarrazi@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate's profile and submitting campaign announcements to Patch.

Brian Varela

Age: 37

Town of residence: Long Valley

Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District

Party affiliation: Democrat

Family: Wife, three-year-old daughter

Education: Kean University, UNC Chapel Hill (MBA), Seton Hall (current)

Occupation: Entrepreneur and small business owner

Previous or current elected appointed office: None.

Campaign website: www.varelaforcongress.com

Why are you seeking election to Congress?

I'm running for Congress because I know what it means to fight.

I fought to pay my way through school with Pell Grants when my parents couldn't afford to send me. I fought to keep my family afloat when my mom got sick and my parents lost their business. I fought to raise my 13-year-old brother when my mom passed two years later. And I fought to build a small business from scratch and keep it open through COVID. Today that business is a network of affordable childcare centers across New Jersey that employs over 100 people.

That's why I understand what families in NJ-07 are going through. Childcare costs more than rent. A single hospital bill can wipe out years of savings. Wages haven't kept up with groceries, let alone housing. And Washington isn't built to fix any of it, because both parties take corporate money and then act surprised when nothing changes.

I'm running to change that. I was the first candidate in this race to sign the no corporate PAC pledge, and I don't take AIPAC money or foreign lobbying money either. My median donation is around ten dollars because this campaign is funded by the people I'll actually answer to.

If you send me to Congress, I will fight for three things. Affordability, starting with universal childcare and real action on housing, transit, and the cost of living. Healthcare as a right, with Medicare for All as the goal and immediate action on drug prices and insurance company abuses. And defending our democracy by dismantling Trump's ICE, ending the corruption in Washington, and protecting every American's right to vote.

Tom Kean Jr. votes with his party and against this district. NJ-07 deserves better.

I want my daughter, and every child in this district, to grow up with more rights and more opportunities, not fewer. That's the fight I've lived, and it's the fight I'll take with me to Congress.

What issues do you feel need to be tackled in the district?

The number one issue I hear at the doors across all six counties is the cost of living. Families in NJ-07 are working harder than ever and still falling behind.

Affordability is brought up in conversations all the time. Childcare in New Jersey costs more than in-state college tuition. Parents are leaving the workforce, or going into debt, just to keep their kids cared for while they go to work. I've run childcare centers for years, so I know what it takes to fix this, and I'm running on universal childcare because no family should have to choose between a paycheck and their kid. Housing costs are crushing young families and seniors on fixed incomes alike. We need real federal investment in housing supply, protections against corporate landlords buying up single-family homes, and property tax relief that actually reaches the middle class. We also need to bring down the cost of groceries, gas, and everyday goods by going after price gouging and rolling back the tariffs that are driving up what families pay at the register.

Healthcare is another big issue. People in this district are rationing insulin, skipping appointments, and going bankrupt over medical bills. My long-term goal is Medicare for All, because healthcare is a right, not a privilege. In the short term, we need to take on the pharmacy benefit managers driving up drug prices, cap out-of-pocket costs, expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing, and end the insurance company practices that deny care to people who've paid their premiums for years.

Defending democracy is something that this Congress is not fighting for. Trump's ICE is terrorizing families in this district, including legal residents and US citizens. I was the only federal candidate in New Jersey to call for Kristi Noem's impeachment, and on day one I will fight to dismantle Trump's ICE and rebuild immigration enforcement that actually follows the Constitution. We also need real anti-corruption reform in Washington: Overturn Citizens United, a ban on congressional stock trading, term limits, a lifetime ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists, ranked choice voting, and federal protections for the right to vote.

Last but not least, NJ-07 has one of the largest senior populations in the state. Social Security and Medicare are earned benefits. We need to strengthen them by making the mega-wealthy pay their fair share into the system.

All of these come back to the same problem, which is a Washington that works for corporations and donors instead of working people. That's what I'm running to change.

What sets you apart from your challengers?

First, I'm not the candidate the establishment was planning on. I didn't come up through DC. I'm not a corporate Democrat. And even with insiders throwing their weight behind someone else, our campaign has overperformed at every convention and outworked the field on the ground. That's because the coalition we're building is real, and it's growing every week.

Second, I'm running a campaign that isn't bought. I was the first candidate in NJ-07 to sign the no corporate PAC pledge. I refuse money from AIPAC and from foreign lobbying interests. My donor file is clean of the corporate industries and special interests that have spent decades writing our laws for their own benefit, from Big Pharma to the defense industry to the surveillance contractors profiting off Trump's deportation machine. Not every candidate in this race can say the same. The person you send to Congress will answer to whoever funded their campaign. I'll answer to the voters of this district. My median donation is about ten dollars.

Third, I'm the candidate who can actually beat Tom Kean Jr. in November. Kean didn't win this district by running up the score with his base. He won by peeling off the voters Democrats can't afford to lose: young people, men, and Hispanic voters. He cannot run that playbook against me. I'm a young Hispanic small business owner who employs over 100 people, who built something from scratch, and who pulls votes from independents and from voters both parties have written off. I've built the broadest coalition in this race: more than 80 local Democratic leaders who bucked the establishment, SEIU, Make the Road Action NJ, Mayor Ras Baraka, former Senate President Steve Sweeney, and former DNC Chair and Labor Secretary Tom Perez. No one has built a coalition like ours, and in a district that is moving by a point or two each year, that is critical to our success in November.

NJ-07 deserves a representative who isn't bought by corporate interests, who wasn't picked by the establishment, and who can actually win in November. That's the case I'm making in this primary.

Is there anything you would like to share about yourself or your campaign?

Two things.

The first is about this campaign. We started this race with no name recognition, no party-boss blessing, and no corporate money. What we had was a story that resonates with working families across NJ-07, and a willingness to outwork everyone else. Twelve months later, we've knocked on tens of thousands of doors, built the largest grassroots coalition in this race, and turned a campaign nobody in DC took seriously into the one that can actually win this seat back for Democrats. None of that happened because of me. It happened because of the volunteers who gave up nights and weekends, the small donors who chipped in ten or twenty dollars, and the local leaders who decided to back a first-generation American small business owner instead of waiting for permission from the establishment. Whatever happens on June 2, that coalition is going to keep fighting for this district.

The second is about me. I'm the son of Colombian immigrants who came to this country with nothing and built a life here through hard work. I'm a Pell Grant kid who put himself through college. I'm a small business owner who has made payroll every two weeks for years, including through a pandemic that closed a lot of businesses like mine for good. And I'm a dad. Everything I do in this campaign, and everything I will do in Congress, comes back to the country I want my daughter to grow up in. One where a working family can afford childcare, see a doctor without going broke, and trust that their government answers to them and not to the highest bidder.

I'm asking for your vote on June 2 because I want to go to Washington and fight for that country. I can't do it without you.