Michael Roth had not been getting all that much traction in his bid for the Democratic nomination in CD-7.

But when he finished a close second to Rebecca Bennett at the Morris County convention last month, his campaign got a boost.

Now he's been endorsed by five progressive organizations. They are:

Indivisible Garden State Values, Indivisible Lambertville/New Hope, Long Valley Indivisible, Indivisible Rahway, and Warren County Action Together Indivisible.

A statement from the organizations says the endorsement of Roth comes after "an intensive process by the organizations to engage and educate grassroots activists about each of the candidates through debates, forums, individual interviews, and questionnaires."

Each group then used ranked choice voting to reach a consensus.

"The result made it clear that all five Indivisible groups were aligned in supporting Roth," the statement said.

Said Lisa Ferraro of Invisible Rahway:

“We were looking for a progressive fighter who has the knowledge and solutions to back his vision. Michael Roth, with his work in Washington, is the one candidate with an understanding of the existing systems that created this crisis and the levers that can make the economy - and the government - work for the people.”
The Washington reference was to Roth's work as an executive with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Roth, Bennett, Brian Varela and Tina Shah are vying for the party's nomination to challenge Tom Kean Jr. in CD-7.

The district, which covers at least parts of Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties, is the most competitive in the state.

Team Kean has taken notice.

A recent fundraising solicitation from the Kean campaign reads:

"The map just changed. And NOT in our favor."

It noted that the Cook Political Report has put the district in the "toss-up" category.

As a point of reference, Kean won CD-7 by about 9,000 votes in 2022, and with more people voting in a presidential year, by about 23,000 votes in 2024.