Trump is causing a midterm headache for this New Jersey congressmember

Tom Kean Jr. faces the same problem as every other vulnerable Republican in the midterms: Donald Trump.

But the president is making it extra hard for Kean, a soft-spoken House member who has a cavalcade of Democrats seeking to oust him in his wealthy suburban New Jersey district, which includes the Bedminster golf course that doubles as a summer retreat for Trump.

It seems immaterial to Trump in his war against blue-state Democrats over immigration and more. The administration just purchased property in a Republican town for his aggressive immigration efforts and last month paused funding for a new tunnel linking New Jersey and New York, which is crucial for commuters in Kean’s district.

Both moves put Kean, a scion of New Jersey’s most famous political family, in a bind.

Even people close to the two-term congressmember acknowledge that Kean has not separated himself from a president who is deeply unpopular at home — especially in a year where Republicans are trying to hold their razor-thin majority in the House.

“It was already going to be tough because midterms are tough for the party in power. And I think on issues like this, Tom would be safe to carve a little space between him and the president,” said Mike DuHaime, a veteran strategist of many Republican campaigns.

But DuHaime, a longtime friend of Kean, acknowledged that the congressmember’s brand of behind-the-scenes advocacy may not work now. “I don’t know that it has been enough yet. Since Tom has gone to the national level, he has been less prone to kind of stick out from the majority,” he said.

Kean's balancing act

New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District is winnable by either party. In 2024, Kean won reelection by five points and Trump carried the district by 1. But in 2025, when Democrat Mikie Sherrill won a landslide victory in the governor’s race over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, she carried the district by a little more than 1 point.

Like many Republicans in swing districts, Kean, who is running for his third term, finds himself in a balancing act when it comes to how closely to run with the president. While he is not one of Trump’s most vocal defenders in Congress — and has taken credit for negotiating with him to restore property tax deductions — Democrats have repeatedly sought to tie the two together, including pointing to votes Kean has made in support of tariffs. Trump endorsed Kean for the first time this cycle.

“Tom Kean Jr. has a tougher voting record than he did last cycle,” said Rebecca Bennett, one of several Democrats competing to challenge Kean. “This is the first time he’s running with a Republican president in office.”

Kean consultant Harrison Neely pushed back on the criticism, saying that he “leads, focuses on results over rhetoric, and puts the needs of New Jersey first every time."

"Congressman Kean will be reelected because voters see an independent leader who delivers results,” Neely said in a statement. “He has stood up for New Jersey and fought for middle class tax relief including fully restoring the SALT Deduction, held his ground to keep the Gateway Tunnel moving, and delivered tens of millions of dollars and counting for first responders and community projects across the district.”

National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Maureen O’Toole echoed that sentiment, saying he “has always put New Jerseyans first” and accusing Democrats of lying about Kean’s record. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Democrats last year won Assembly seats long held by Republicans in two districts that partially overlap with Kean’s. That includes the 21st District, which Kean represented for two decades. His successor, Republican state Sen. Jon Bramnick, who unsuccessfully ran for governor last year with an anti-Trump platform, watched both his Republican running mates lose to Democrats.

“It’s so obvious when you look at the poll of Trump, you look at the Jack Ciattarelli catastrophe, you look at losses in my district that we haven’t lost in decades,” Bramnick said, stressing he was commenting on Trump hurting Republicans in New Jersey generally and not specifically on Kean. “I’ve got Republicans who tell me ‘You’re just anti-Trump.’ No, no no. I am anti-losing.”

'Trying to soften the blow'

During the gubernatorial race, Trump threw a wrench into Ciattarelli’s messaging by announcing that the Gateway project — which centers on replacing of the decaying century-old rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York City — was “terminated.” Since then, his administration has sent mixed messages on its future and has fought to hold up its already-appropriated funding, leading to Sherrill and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul successfully taking him to court to release the money.

But as the Trump administration continues to fight to freeze the funds, Kean has offered only mild criticism, saying he sympathizes with Trump’s concerns about potential cost overruns — the latest in a string of shifting justifications for the funding freeze. “Where I differ is that I believe Gateway is too important to delay and that we can advance the project while still protecting taxpayers,” he said.

It’s unclear how long the fight over Gateway funding will last — potentially making it less salient of an issue in the campaign come November, as opposed to in the gubernatorial race when such debates happened right as voters hit the polls. But a potentially more enduring issue also hovers over NJ-07.

ICE last week purchased a massive warehouse in Roxbury, a heavily-Republican town in the district, to use as a detention center. Left-leaning residents had shown up to town council meetings en masse to protest the purchase during the weeks of rumors that led up to it, and the town’s all-Republican government also opposed it on the grounds that it would strain local infrastructure. Shockingly, the town’s government criticized Kean for failing to stop it, saying in a joint statement that he “did not engage to the level we had hoped to provide the advocacy our residents deserved."

Days later, Kean introduced legislation to create a grant program for the Department of Homeland Security to reimburse local governments for expenses related to federal facilities.

“The overwhelming majority of residents, along with the state and the country, support getting criminal illegal migrants off our streets and stopping the flow of Fentanyl,” Kean said in a statement. “We need to, and will, keep a level head as we continue to work constructively to deliver results.”

Brian Varela, another Democrat running to challenge Kean, pointed out that by introducing the bill, Kean is “not even coming out against the detention center.”

“He’s just trying to soften the blow and improve his image coming out of all this,” Varela said.

The ICE facility is especially politically troubling for Kean, said pollster Patrick Murray, who sees a “pincer movement” of heightened Democratic enthusiasm in the district’s denser eastern suburbs and potentially depressed Republican enthusiasm in its exurban western portions. Trump’s approach to immigration is largely unpopular among New Jerseyans, according to a recent survey conducted by the Stockton Polling Institute.

“Republican voters are feeling the negative impacts of the Trump administration and he’s not standing up to it. That’s going to cost him,” Murray said.