Rebecca Bennett Flips New Jersey's 7th District, Defeating Rep. Tom Kean Jr.

Democrat Rebecca Bennett defeated Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, flipping a Republican held seat, Reuters reported. The Associated Press and NBC News called the race at about 9:48 p.m. ET, NorthJersey.com reported.

Bennett is a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot. Her win took one of the seats Democrats targeted in New Jersey, and it was recorded as the party's second House flip of the night.

The count at the call

When AP and NBC called the race at about 9:48 p.m. ET, Bennett had 140,552 votes to Kean's 87,575, with 65 percent of votes tallied, NorthJersey.com reported. The Wall Street Journal put the shares at that stage at 61 percent for Bennett to 38 percent for Kean, with 65 percent of the vote reported.

The AP results feed later listed the race as Called with Bennett at 162,150 votes and Thomas Kean at 105,472, with 76.7 percent of precincts reporting. The later feed numbers are a further count of the same race, not a different result. The call did not change as the count grew.

The second flip of the night

The Wall Street Journal described the result as another House flip and reported Bennett's win in the New Jersey seat during its live coverage. Reuters also reported the flip of Kean's district. It was Democrats' second House flip of the night, the Journal reported.

Each flip counts twice in the arithmetic of the chamber. It adds a seat to one party and removes a seat from the other, in a year when Democrats needed a net gain of three seats to take the House majority.

Who Bennett is

Bennett, 39, lives in Bridgewater, New Jersey, with her husband and two children, Fox 5 New York reported from AP background material. She is a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, Reuters reported.

Before her first campaign for elected office, Bennett worked in digital health, health care technology and pharmaceutical companies, Fox 5 New York reported. This race was her first campaign for elected office, and it ended with a seat in Congress.

The incumbent she beat

Kean was the most vulnerable Republican in New Jersey's congressional delegation, Reuters reported. He flipped the seat himself in 2022. President Donald Trump carried the district by 1.2 percentage points in 2024, a narrow margin that marked the seat as contested ground.

Reuters reported that Kean disappeared from public view for months in an election year and disclosed this summer his battle with depression. Those facts were part of the record of the race as Reuters reported it on election night, and they frame how a seat held since 2022 changed hands on Tuesday.

The district result is final as a call by AP and NBC, with counting continuing past the call. The AP feed's later snapshot, 162,150 votes for Bennett to 105,472 for Kean with 76.7 percent of precincts reporting, held the same winner the call had named at 9:48 p.m.