Thursday, October 15, 2026
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New Jersey’s 7th District

U.S. House · NJ-7

Election day November 3, 2026 · forecast of October 15, 2026

Our forecast gives the Democrats a 73% chance of winning, with an average lead of 6.8 points.

Competitive. Chance of a final gap under 5 points: 44%.

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 52.1%

    Rebecca Bennett

  • Republican 47.8%

    Thomas H. Kean Jr., incumbent

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

Compared with the average

Democrat Republican Other
NJ-7 52.1%47.8%0.0%
National averageUnited States 54.5%−2.4 44.2%+3.6 1.2%−1.2

Simple average of the 435 districts, not weighted by population.

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Polls in this district

2 polls, 3 scenarios

Each poll as the pollster published it; these are not the Vote-Scope projection. When a pollster tests several ballots (with or without a given candidate), each one is shown as a scenario.

Local profile

Latino citizens aged 18 and over10.4% (± 0.3)

Share of all citizens aged 18 and over (ACS 2020–2024 estimate). Not a share of registered or actual voters.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, citizen voting-age population by race and ethnicity, ACS 2020–2024, 119th Congress districts

Current member

Thomas H. Kean Jr. · Republican

Primary results

Held June 2, 2026 · Certified official result · Official source

Democratic primary Rebecca Bennett 45.3% 27,525 votes
Republican primary Thomas H. Kean Jr. 100.0% 35,080 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Republican Incumbent

    Thomas H. Kean Jr.

    source
  • Democrat Challenger

    Rebecca Bennett

    source
  • Other Challenger

    Leguia, Lana

    General-election qualification remains to be verified.

Previous election (2024)

The Republicans won by 5.4 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 6.8 points.

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • NJ-11 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-12 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-10 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-5 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-8 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-9 Democrat, safe seat

Watch list

The tightest races

The smallest projected gaps between the top two.

  1. AZ-2Republican52%5.7-point gap
  2. KY-6Republican53%5.8-point gap
  3. VA-1Republican58%5.8-point gap
Forecast updated