NJ-7 · House

The district, in brief

New Jersey's 7th is described in the text as one of the wealthiest districts in the U.S., encompassing the New Jersey Highlands of Hunterdon and Warren counties. The lines are the map first used in 2022 and are not redrawn for this cycle. The facts record a 2024 House two-party margin of -5.51 for the Democrat; no presidential baseline is on file.

The incumbent is Republican Thomas Kean Jr., re-elected with 51.7% in 2024 and unopposed in his primary. His 117-day absence from Congress after a disclosed depression diagnosis became an issue in the campaign; he has continued campaigning since his return. The Democratic nominee is Rebecca Bennett, a healthcare executive and former Navy aviator, who won a four-way primary with 45.3% over Tina Shah (20.0%), Brian Varela (19.1%) and Michael Roth (15.6%). Seamus Patrick O'Toole (Stop Israel's Genocide) is also on the ballot. As of June 30, 2026 Kean had raised $4,892,807 with $3,634,205 on hand and Bennett $4,272,034 with $1,445,694 on hand.

The ratings table records the Cook Political Report (September 25, 2026), Decision Desk HQ (September 17, 2026), Inside Elections (June 11, 2026) and Sabato's Crystal Ball (September 16, 2026) all as 'flip'; Silver Bulletin is listed (August 23, 2026) with no ranking shown. Two general-election polls are recorded, both with Bennett ahead: StimSight Research (September 8–12, 2026) Bennett 47%, Kean 42%; Z to A Research (May 24–26, 2026) Bennett 47%, Kean 43%. The two candidates debated on September 27, 2026.

A paragraph quoting a model forecast from the day this brief was written is omitted; the current forecast is at the top of this page.

The facts, each beside its sentence

Not in the source: No presidential result on these lines is given in the text or the facts.; The ratings table shows 'flip' for four raters without stating the party the seat is expected to flip to.; Silver Bulletin appears in the ratings table with no ranking shown.; The model's basis says no district polls, but the text records two general-election polls (StimSight Research, September 8–12, 2026; Z to A Research, May 24–26, 2026).; The text does not say when Kean's absence from Congress occurred or when he returned.

Read from the district's section of Wikipedia's state page (CC BY-SA), archived as 40017e08a73c; written by claude-fable-5-1 (batch reader) on 2026-09-30 and checked mechanically: every quote occurs verbatim in the archived text, every number in the brief occurs in the inputs. No probability here is the reader's.

Who holds the seat now

Thomas H. Kean, Jr. (Republican), in this chamber since 2023, 2 terms. Committees: House Committee on Energy and Commerce; House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

From the congress-legislators dataset (CC0), archived as ae8cb9477c48. For a Senate race this lists both of the state's senators; the one whose term ends in the election year holds the seat on the ballot. For a House district redrawn for 2026 it is the member elected under the old lines with this number, who may be running elsewhere; the dossier above names who is running here.

How it has voted for president

A shift of 0.0 points toward the Democrats from 2016 to 2024. county returns placed on the current lines by 2020 block population; MEDSL county file (2016), an MIT-licensed county file (2020, checked against certified state results) and MEDSL precinct returns (2024). For a district split across counties this is an estimate, and where the state published the exact 2024 figure for these lines, that exact figure is the one the model uses.

Who are the voters?

Of about 548,532 adults 25 and over. In 2020 the district voted 51.9% Democratic (two-party) for president. With the same preferences and a 2022-style midterm turnout, it would vote 52.1% Democratic: the midterm electorate alone moves the margin 0.3 points toward Democrats. Group shares are estimated from how results vary across the state's census tracts (ecological inference, anchored to Pew's 2020 validated-voter figures) and calibrated to this district's actual 2020 vote; turnout is the Census survey's state rate by race and national rate by education, whose state samples carry margins of several points.

Not answered here: how each group will vote in 2026. These are 2020 preferences; this profile is description, not yet an input to the forecast.

The money

FEC bulk candidate summaries through June 30, 2026; $2,376,150 of independent expenditures for or against these candidates this cycle (FEC Schedule E, types 24E and 24A), which is the parties' and outside groups' own revealed view of whether this seat is in play.

The district in numbers

ACS 5-year 2023, the Census Bureau's own tabulation of this district (118th Congress lines). Unemployment is the BLS county series placed on the district by block population, not seasonally adjusted, so changes are same-month comparisons. Income, transfers and jobs are BEA county accounts placed the same way, compared with the average district. Every other figure is a named column of a named table in the Bureau's summary file, archived before it was read. This is what a reader knows about a district before looking at a poll; the model does not yet use it, and whether it should is a registered question.

Who is favoured, and by how much?

The 90% interval runs from -10.0 to +17.9 points, D-R. It is wide because this district has never been polled.

What is this built on?

A model trained on every contested House race 2012-2024 predicts this district's lean from its own record: presidential and House results on the current lines, incumbency, both candidates' prior offices, outside and party money before 1 October, demographics and public-assistance shares from the Census release before the election, local unemployment and income, and religious tradition. The national margin comes from presidential approval, the economy, the midterm penalty and the generic ballot corrected for its measured lean. Draws share national and state errors, so the seat total and this district come from the same simulation.

Not answered here: district polls, which are not yet folded in.

Why does the model say this?

Each figure is how far this district's predicted lean moves when that one feature is set to the typical value across 2026 districts, everything else held: total outside/party money: 6.6 pts toward the Democrat; outside money balance: 1.1 pts toward the Democrat; median hh income ($136,489): 0.6 pts toward the Republican; military jobs share (0.3%): 0.6 pts toward the Democrat; asian share (8.3%): 0.5 pts toward the Democrat.

How sure is it, and of what?

Total sd 8.53 points, made of the seat's own volatility 88%, correlated polling error 12%. The decomposition is stored with the forecast rather than reconstructed, so a probability whose dominant input is a placeholder is visibly that.

Not answered here: a nowcast. 'If ballots were cast today' needs something that observes today, and for a House district nothing does. Publishing the election-day figure under both labels would make one forecast look like two.

How was this number made?

Run 6f211e6f-2bdc-4dda-8f72-81fc628dab0b, house_district_prior/0.2.0, as of 2026-10-02. Promoted by a pre-registered gate: on 2016-2022 its Brier score was 0.036 against 0.049 for the previous method, and on a single 2024 run 0.023 against 0.032 (experiments/district_gate_result.md, with an independent review).