By Brian Varela

Polls open Tuesday at 6 a.m. in New Jersey's 7th District. Voters will decide whether Rep. Tom Kean Jr. gets two more years in Congress. They should choose Rebecca Bennett.

In May 2025, the House passed last year's federal budget bill by a single vote, 215-214. Kean voted yes. One more no vote would have stopped it.

He voted for it again on final passage that July.

What that vote costs

The first Medicaid cuts from that law took effect in New Jersey on Oct. 1. Work requirements begin in January.

NJ FamilyCare, the state's Medicaid program, covers about 1.8 million children, seniors, people with disabilities and working adults. According to the state's human services commissioner, as many as 350,000 of them could lose coverage. That is about one in five people enrolled.

Most of the people at risk are already doing what the law asks. In testimony last month, the state Department of Human Services said most of those who lose coverage will still be eligible. They will be dropped over new paperwork rules.

Arkansas showed how this works. About 18,000 people there lost coverage in 2018, the first year of its work requirement. Harvard researchers found that nearly all of the adults the rule targeted were already working or should have been exempt.

Kean defended his vote by pointing to the state and local tax deduction, which the law capped at $40,000. The old $10,000 cap was set to expire at the end of 2025.

If Kean wanted full relief for 7th District homeowners, he could have voted no and let the cap expire. Instead, he is calling a smaller break a win and hoping voters don't notice the cap drops back to $10,000 in 2030. That is gaslighting, a move Republican incumbents have picked up from President Trump as they struggle to defend their own records.

Bennett says she would reverse the Medicaid cuts and restore the Affordable Care Act tax credits that lowered premiums until they expired last year.

A representative you can find

Kean has not held an in-person town hall since taking office in 2023. He holds telephone town halls instead.

When the Trump administration froze Gateway tunnel funding last year, Kean blamed Democrats. He did not promise to challenge the president over the tunnel until the race's only debate on Sept. 27. By then a federal judge had already ruled the freeze unlawful.

Bennett held town halls in all six counties of the district. She asked for six debates, and the district got one.

On Oct. 19, the Courier News endorsed Bennett. Its editorial said Kean keeps his distance from ordinary voters and the press.

Make a plan for Tuesday

If you have not voted yet, here is how to make it count:

• Vote at your polling place between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Anyone in line at 8 p.m. can still vote.
• Find your polling place at Vote.NJ.Gov.
• Take a mail ballot to a county drop box or your county board of elections by 8 p.m. Polling places cannot accept it.
• Mail it only if it will be postmarked by Tuesday. It must reach the county by Nov. 9.

I ran for this seat because the 7th District deserves a representative who protects families' health care and answers to the people who live here. I believe Rebecca Bennett will be that representative.

Kean could have stopped the Big Terrible Bill with one vote. Bring a neighbor and cast yours for Rebecca Bennett on Tuesday.

Brian Varela is a former Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey's 7th District, the son of Colombian immigrants and a New Jersey child care provider.

Reach him at brian@brianvarela.com or @Varela4NJ on X and Threads.