| State: | New Jersey |
| District Number: | 7 |
| Image Caption: | Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023 |
| Representative: | Thomas Kean Jr. |
| Party: | Republican |
| Residence: | Westfield |
| English Area: | 595.03 |
| Metric Area: | 1,541.13 |
| Percent Urban: | 85.81 |
| Percent Rural: | 14.19 |
| Population: | 775,400 |
| Population Year: | 2022 |
| Median Income: | $131,419[1] |
| Percent White: | 70.8 |
| Percent Hispanic: | 12.2 |
| Percent Black: | 4.8 |
| Percent Asian: | 8.3 |
| Percent More Than One Race: | 3.4 |
| Percent Other Race: | 0.6 |
| Cpvi: | R+1[2] |
New Jersey's 7th congressional district includes all of Hunterdon and Warren Counties; and parts of Morris, Somerset, Sussex, and Union Counties. The district is represented by Republican Thomas Kean Jr., who was first elected in 2022, defeating Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski.
The district, which has become more ethnically diverse over time, is one of the most affluent congressional districts in the United States,[3] with the fifth-highest median income in the nation.[4]
For the 118th and successive Congresses (based on redistricting following the 2020 census), the district contains all or portions of six counties and 93 municipalities.[5]
Hunterdon County (24):
All 24 municipalities
Morris County (12):
Chester Borough, Chester Township, Long Hill Township, Mendham Borough, Mendham Township (part; also 11th), Mine Hill Township, Mount Arlington, Mount Olive Township, Netcong, Roxbury, Washington Township, Wharton
Somerset County (13):
Bedminster, Bernards Township, Bernardsville, Branchburg, Bridgewater Township (part; also 12th), Far Hills, Green Brook Township, Hillsborough Township (part; also 12th), Peapack-Gladstone, Raritan, Somerville, Warren Township, Watchung
Sussex County (10):
Andover, Byram, Fredon, Green Township, Hopatcong, Ogdensburg, Sparta, Stanhope, Stillwater, Walpack
Union County (12):
Berkeley Heights, Clark, Fanwood, Linden (part; also 10th), Mountainside, New Providence, Rahway, Scotch Plains, Springfield, Summit, Westfield, Winfield Township
Warren County (22):
All 22 municipalities
In the 2012 general election, Republican incumbent Leonard Lance held his seat against Democratic challenger Upendra J. Chivukula.[6] In the 2010 general election, Democratic challenger Ed Potosnak challenged Lance, but Lance defeated Potosnak by a margin of 59% to 41%. For the 2012 election, both Potosnak and former Edison Mayor Jun Choi announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination.[7] [8] Choi dropped out of the race in December 2011 after redistricting left his Edison home outside the 7th District. Potosnak dropped out of the race in January 2012 to take a position as executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, leaving a momentarily empty field for the Democratic nomination.[9]
New Jersey's 7th district and the 12th district were redistricted after the 2000 census by a bipartisan panel. By consensus of the panel, the Democratic and Republican parties agreed to trade areas in the two districts to make them safer for their respective incumbents. It is likely that this tradeoff, which made New Jersey's 7th less competitive for Democrats, had an effect on the outcome of 2006 election, which was decided by approximately 3,000 votes. Areas of the former 7th district such as Franklin Township that had historically voted reliably Democratic were moved into the adjacent 12th district in order to shore up Democratic incumbent Rush Holt, while reliably Republican Millburn was removed from the 7th, and instead split between the 10th and 11th districts. Additionally, heavily Democratic Plainfield was moved from the 7th to the already Democratic-leaning 6th district. Despite the redistricting, NJ-07 was still the most competitive House district in New Jersey, and was the only one considered to be in play in 2006 by political pundits.
In 2008, Mike Ferguson (who had first been elected in 2000, replacing Bob Franks) did not seek another term. Linda Stender won the Democratic nomination unopposed, while Republican primary voters chose State Senator Leonard Lance in a field of eight candidates. In the general election, Lance defeated Assemblywoman Linda Stender by a margin of 25,833 votes.[10]
In the Democratic primary Malinowski prevailed with 26,059 votes and 66.8% of the vote. Jacob finished second with 7,467 votes and 19.1% of the vote.[11]
Lance won the Republican primary with 74.9%, and 24,856 votes.[12]
In the 2018 election, Tom Malinowski,[13] former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, was considered the front runner among the Democrats challenging Republican incumbent Leonard Lance.[14] [15] Malinowski was endorsed by Westfield teacher/attorney Lisa Mandelblatt and attorney Scott Salmon when they withdrew from the race in February 2018.[16] [17] Other candidates in the Democratic primary included lawyer Goutam Jois;[18] and social worker Peter Jacob, who was defeated by Lance in the 2016 election. Green Party of New Jersey member Diane Moxley also announced her intent to run for the seat.[19] Lindsay Brown, a product manager at the New York Post and a self-described progressive, ran in the Republican primary against Lance.[20] Berkeley Heights banking executive Linda Weber[21] and environmental advocate David Pringle[22] withdrew in March 2018.
During the fourth quarter of 2017, the Malinowski campaign raised $528,000 while the incumbent Lance raised $237,000. Jois raised $189,000 and Jacob raised $29,000.[23]
Malinowski won the seat in the election with 51.7% of the votes.
Incumbent Tom Malinowski (D) ran in the Democratic party primary uncontested, winning 100% (80,334) of the vote. Challenger Thomas Kean Jr. (R) defeated Raafat Barsoom and Tom Phillips in the Republican party primary receiving 79.4% (45,395) of the vote.[24]
Incumbent Tom Malinowski (D) defeated challenger Thomas Kean Jr. (R) in the general election by 1.2 percentage points for New Jersey's 7th Congressional District on November 3, 2020. The race was expected to be competitive, with New Jersey's 7th being one of 40 seats gained by Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.
The New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission altered the boundaries of the district effective January 6, 2022. https://www.njredistrictingcommission.org/adoption2022map.asp Although the district remains competitive, the district is more Republican than it was previously.
Incumbent Tom Malinowski (D) faced 2020 challenger Thomas Kean Jr. once again in 2022. In the general election held on November 8, 2022, Kean prevailed, unseating Malinowski.[25] It was one of 18 districts that would have voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election had they existed in their current configuration while being won or held by a Republican in 2022.
| Year | Office | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | President | Trump 50.8% – 45.2% | |
| 2017 | Governor | Guadagno 54.3% – 43.3% | |
| 2018 | Senator | Hugin 53.2% – 43.4% | |
| 2020 | President | Biden 51.0% – 47.4% | |
| 2020 | Senator | Booker 49.2% – 49.0% | |
| 2021 | Governor | Ciattarelli 55.8% – 43.4% |
| Year | Office | Results | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | President | Gore 54 – 43% | |
| 2004 | President | Bush 53 – 47% | |
| 2008 | President | Obama 51 – 48% | |
| 2012 | President | Romney 52.5 – 46.3% | |
| 2016 | President | Clinton 48.6 – 47.5% | |
| 2017 | Governor | Guadagno 52.2% – 45.5% | |
| 2020 | President | Biden 54.2 – 44.3% | |
| 2020 | Senate | Booker 52.1% – 46.3% | |
| 2021 | Governor | Ciattarelli 52.7% – 46.5% |
| Member | Party | Years | Cong ress | Electoral history | width=350 | Counties/towns | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District established March 4, 1873 | |||||||||
| align=left | Isaac W. Scudder | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875 | Elected in 1872. Retired. | 1873–1893: Hudson County | |||
| align=left | Augustus Albert Hardenbergh | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1879 | Elected in 1874. Re-elected in 1876. Retired. | ||||
| align=left | Lewis A. Brigham | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881 | Elected in 1878. Lost re-election. | ||||
| align=left | Augustus Albert Hardenbergh | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1881 – March 3, 1883 | Elected in 1880. Retired. | ||||
| align=left | William McAdoo | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1891 | Elected in 1882. Re-elected in 1884. Re-elected in 1886. Re-elected in 1888. Lost renomination. | ||||
| align=left | Edward F. McDonald | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1891 – November 5, 1892 | Elected in 1890. Died. | ||||
| Vacant | nowrap | November 5, 1892 – March 3, 1893 | |||||||
| align=left | George Bragg Fielder | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1893 – March 3, 1895 | Elected in 1892. Retired. | 1893–1895: Harrison, Hoboken, Jersey City, and Kearney (including present-day East Newark) | |||
| align=left | Thomas McEwan Jr. | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1899 | Elected in 1894. Re-elected in 1896. Retired. | 1895–1903: Hudson County (except Bayonne) | |||
| align=left | William Davis Daly | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1899 – July 31, 1900 | Elected in 1898. Died. | ||||
| Vacant | nowrap | July 31, 1900 – December 3, 1900 | |||||||
| align=left | Allan Langdon McDermott | Democratic | nowrap | December 3, 1900 – March 3, 1903 | Elected to finish Daly's term. Also elected to the next full term. Redistricted to the . | ||||
| align=left | Richard W. Parker | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1911 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1902. Re-elected in 1904. Re-elected in 1906. Re-elected in 1908. Lost re-election. | 1903–1913: Northern Essex County (excluding Irvington, Maplewood, Millburn, South Orange, and parts of Newark) | |||
| align=left | Edward W. Townsend | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1913 | Elected in 1910. Redistricted to the . | ||||
| align=left | Robert G. Bremner | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1913 – February 5, 1914 | Elected in 1912. Died. | 1913–1933: Southern Passaic County (Clifton, Haledon, Hawthorne, Little Falls, North Haledon, Passaic, Paterson, Prospect Park, Totowa, Wayne, and West Paterson) | |||
| Vacant | nowrap | February 5, 1914 – April 7, 1914 | |||||||
| align=left | Dow H. Drukker | Republican | nowrap | April 7, 1914 – March 3, 1919 | Elected to finish Bremner's term. Re-elected later in 1914. Re-elected in 1916. Retired. | ||||
| align=left | Amos H. Radcliffe | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1919 – March 3, 1923 | Elected in 1918. Re-elected in 1920. Lost renomination. | ||||
| align=left | George N. Seger | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1923 – March 3, 1933 | Elected in 1922. Re-elected in 1924. Re-elected in 1926. Re-elected in 1928. Re-elected in 1930. Redistricted to the . | ||||
| align=left | Randolph Perkins | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1933 – May 25, 1936 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1932. Re-elected in 1934. Died. | 1933–1967: Huntderon, Sussex, Warren, parts of Bergen and northern Passaic (Ringwood and West Miford) | |||
| Vacant | nowrap | May 25, 1936 – January 3, 1937 | |||||||
| align=left | J. Parnell Thomas | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 1937 – January 2, 1950 | Elected in 1936 Re-elected in 1938. Re-elected in 1940. Re-elected in 1942. Re-elected in 1944. Re-elected in 1946. Re-elected in 1948. Resigned upon being convicted of fraud. | ||||
| Vacant | nowrap | January 2, 1950 – February 6, 1950 | |||||||
William B. Widnall | Republican | February 6, 1950 – December 31, 1974 | Elected to finish Thomas's term. Re-elected in 1950. Re-elected in 1952. Re-elected in 1954. Re-elected in 1956. Re-elected in 1958. Re-elected in 1960. Re-elected in 1962. Re-elected in 1964. Re-elected in 1966. Re-elected in 1968. Re-elected in 1970. Re-elected in 1972. Lost re-election and resigned early. | ||||||
| 1967–1983: Western Bergen County | |||||||||
| align=left | Andrew Maguire | Democratic | nowrap | January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1981 | Elected in 1974. Re-elected in 1976. Re-elected in 1978. Lost re-election. | ||||
| align=left | Marge Roukema | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1983 | Elected in 1980. Redistricted to the . | ||||
Matthew John Rinaldo | Republican | January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1993 | Redistricted from the and Re-elected in 1982. Re-elected in 1984. Re-elected in 1986. Re-elected in 1968. Re-elected in 1990. Retired. | 1983–1985: Parts of Mercer (Princeton and Princeton Borough), Middlesex (Cranbury, Jamesburg, Monroe, North Brunswick, South Brunswick), Monmouth (Freehold, Freehold Borough, Marlboro, and Millstone), eastern Somerset, and Union | |||||
| 1985–1993: Parts of Essex (Millburn), Middlesex (Dunellen and Middlesex Borough), Somerset, and Union | |||||||||
| align=left | Bob Franks | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2001 | Elected in 1992. Re-elected in 1994. Re-elected in 1996. Re-elected in 1998. Retired to run for U.S. senator. | 1993–2003: Parts of Essex, Middlesex, Somerset, and Union | |||
Mike Ferguson | Republican | January 3, 2001 – January 3, 2009 | Elected in 2000. Re-elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004. Re-elected in 2006. Retired. | ||||||
| 2003–2013: Parts of Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, and Union | |||||||||
Leonard Lance | Republican | January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2019 | Elected in 2008. Re-elected in 2010. Re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Lost re-election. | ||||||
| 2013–2023: Hunterdon and parts of Essex (Millburn), Morris, Somerset, Union and Warren | |||||||||
| align=left | Tom Malinowski [26] | Democratic | nowrap | January 3, 2019 – January 3, 2023 | Elected in 2018. Re-elected in 2020. Lost re-election. | ||||
| align=left | Thomas Kean Jr. | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 2023 – present | Elected in 2022. | 2023–present: Warren, Hunterdon, and parts of Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union | |||