The race for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, likely to be this year’s premier House election in New Jersey, is already very, very expensive.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) and the six Democrats running to unseat him collectively raised more than $9 million over the course of 2025, a gargantuan sum that blows away any prior off-year New Jersey fundraising totals. Given that fundraising typically picks up even further during the on-year, 7th district voters are set to be in for an extraordinarily pricey election.
Kean himself raised $3,246,540 over the course of 2025, including $677,359 in the 4th quarter. The two-term congressman, who has been the New Jersey GOP’s strongest congressional fundraiser every cycle since 2020, had $2,469,481 on-hand as of the end of the year.
That’s more than any of his Democratic opponents, but some of them are starting to nip at his heels. The Democratic field’s strongest fundraiser is former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, who entered the race earlier than any of her foes and has raised a total of $1,943,975 after four consecutive strong fundraising quarters.
Bennett has also spent more than any of her Democratic foes, though, and her $1,172,693 on-hand isn’t enough to make her the race’s best-funded Democrat; instead, it’s self-funding businessman Brian Varela, who reported $1,423,584 in his campaign account. Varela has raised $1,759,746 overall, two-thirds of which he gave or loaned to his own campaign.
Rounding out the top three is physician Tina Shah, who launched her campaign later than Bennett or Varela but still raised $1,020,012 during her two quarters in the race.
During the 4th quarter specifically, Bennett raised $552,434, Shah raised $416,202, and Varela raised $750,955, $550,000 of which was self-funded.
Former Small Business Administration official Michael Roth has reported raising $610,279 overall, $159,930 of it in the 4th quarter, but his campaign says there’s more that hasn’t been reported yet; Roth gave his campaign $400,000 after the filing deadline had passed, which puts him at over $1 million raised overall.
Climate scientist Megan O’Rourke raised $211,366 in Q4, but more than half of that total, $132,192, was self-funded; she’s raised $458,534 overall. And rounding out the field is criminal justice professor Beth Adubato, who raised $44,599 in Q4, a decent chunk of it self-funded, and $111,815 since launching her campaign.
There were also three other Democrats who exited the race during or shortly after the 4th quarter: former Summit Councilman raised $193,030 in total before bowing out in December, Somerset County Commissioner Sara Sooy (D-Bedminster) raised $43,709, and attorney Vale Mendoza raised $1,630.
