Democrat Rebecca Bennett Projected to Flip New Jersey's 7th District, Home to Trump's Bedminster Club

On Tuesday night, a swing district in New Jersey that holds President Donald Trump's Bedminster golf course slipped out of Republican hands. Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot and the Democratic nominee, was projected to defeat Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, a result that handed House Democrats an important win.

Kean was seeking a third term. He is the son of former Gov. Tom Kean Sr., and he represents an affluent area made up of suburbs and exurbs of New York City. Several election forecasts, among them the Fox News Power Rankings, had projected he would lose to Bennett in a year widely expected to be hard on Republicans trying to hold their congressional majorities.

Kean has a reputation for keeping a low profile on Capitol Hill, but this year he drew attention for a four-month absence from Congress. He later said he had been receiving treatment for depression. He took some criticism for not disclosing the specifics until he returned. Speaking on the House floor after his return, he said that when he first told the public he was dealing with a medical issue, he was still trying to understand it himself. He said he had believed his hope of returning within weeks, because those were the doctors' best estimates. But as the more than 48 million Americans being treated for the illness have learned, he said, there is no timeline for healing or recovery, only the work of getting better one day at a time.

The campaign itself featured one debate between Kean and Bennett. Kean defended Trump's economic record and the war in Iran. Bennett criticized the president's tariffs and blamed the Middle East conflict for the high gas prices Americans are dealing with. In August, Kean told Fox News Digital he had been an effective legislator who brought resources back to the district and listened to constituents, and he contrasted that with his opponent, whom he called a very abject partisan.

The national backdrop was not kind to him. Republicans across the country have been hurt by Trump's low approval numbers, even though the president crisscrossed the country in the weeks before the election trying to turn out the party's base. Early Tuesday night, several House Republicans told Fox News Digital they had given up hope of holding the majority. One senior House GOP aide put it bluntly: "It's a bloodbath."

Kean's district was among the first where Republican groups signaled retreat. Multiple sources told Fox News Digital last month that the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is aligned with House GOP leadership, and MAGA Inc., which is aligned with Trump, were pulling their investments from the district in order to triage races elsewhere. A source close to Kean's campaign dismissed that at the time, saying the campaign had the money it needed.

The party had once framed the seat as a priority. At an August fundraiser for Kean that Fox News Digital attended, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Republicans considered it a top-three race, not merely a top-10 race, and that it had a target on its back.

With Bennett projected to win, the seat adds to the evidence of a broad Republican setback in the House, where members are already conceding the majority. What remains to be seen is how many other competitive seats follow the same path as the night goes on.