Insider NJ/StimSight Poll Finds Bennett Leads the Democratic Field in New Jersey’s 7th District; Primary Voters Say Ousting Kean is Their Top Consideration
Among the four Democratic candidates vying to take on Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th District, Rebecca Bennett has built a clear lead among likely primary voters. She currently has 31% of the initial vote choice to 17% for Brian Varela, 16% for Tina Shah, and 15% for Michael Roth.
About 1-in-5 primary voters say they are not decided on whom to support, but the vast majority of this group are leaning toward a candidate. When “leaners” are taken into account, Bennett’s vote share grows to 36%, compared to 20% for Varela, 19% for Shah and 19% for Roth.
Self-described moderates (42%) and somewhat progressive Democrats (45%) prefer Bennett, while Varela has a nominal lead among very progressive voters (27%). Bennett garners more support among men (44%) than women (32%), which is largely related to the fact that Democratic men are less likely to describe themselves as very progressive.
Half (52%) of NJ7 Democratic primary voters say that choosing someone who can defeat Kean in November is a top consideration in their vote choice. While no more than a quarter of this electorate feel definite about the chances of any of these four candidates, a majority think that each of them can probably emerge victorious. Bennett (75%) has an edge over Roth (64%), Varela (57%) and Shah (56%) at being seen as someone who can beat Kean.
“Unseating Tom Kean and standing up to MAGA is ‘Job One’ for a decisive bloc of primary voters in this district. Progressive policy issues, which have featured in other Democratic House primaries in the state are taking a back seat in the Seventh,” said Patrick Murray of StimSight Research, who conducted the poll for Insider NJ.
Among other issues on Democratic voters’ minds in NJ7, more than 4 in 10 (43%) say that nominating someone who will defend democracy and voting rights is one of their top priorities, followed by fighting Trump (37%). Fewer primary voters in this competitive – and relatively affluent – district name policy issues as one of their top considerations, including universal health care (27%), making household bills more affordable (24%), shutting down ICE (19%), ending military support to Israel (17%), or protecting Social Security (17%).
In other poll findings, Bennett’s name is the most familiar to primary voters. She receives an overall 55% favorable rating from her fellow Democrats with just 14% having an unfavorable view of her. The other candidates are given ratings – largely positive – from about 6 in 10 voters for Shah (48% favorable and 14% unfavorable) and Varela (46% favorable and 10% unfavorable) and half for Roth (40% favorable and 10% unfavorable).
The poll was conducted before negative ads were recently launched against Bennett. Murray said, “Obviously, we could not test the ads’ impact because of the timing. However, when Democratic voters are mainly concerned about picking the most viable candidate for November, arguing that Bennett doesn’t pass a progressive purity test may not the most effective stratagem.”
The survey was sponsored by Insider NJ and conducted by StimSight Research on May 17-20, 2026 with a sample of 400 likely Democratic primary voters in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. The sampling margin of error for this poll is +/-4.9 percentage points.
