New Jersey's 7th congressional district includes all of Hunterdon and Warren Counties; and parts of Morris, Somerset,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, and Union Counties. The district is represented by Republican

Thomas Kean Jr. Thomas Howard Kean Jr. ( ; born September 5, 1968) is an American Republican Party (United States), Republican politician and the U.S. representative-elect from New Jersey's 7th congressional district. From 2001 until 2003, he was a New Jersey Ge ...

, who was first elected in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, 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, with the fifth-highest median income in the nation.

Counties and municipalities in the district

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.

Hunterdon County Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,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 Township, Washington Township and

Wharton Wharton may refer to: Academic institutions * Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania * Wharton County Junior College * Paul R. Wharton High School * Wharton Center for Performing Arts, at Michigan State University Places * Wharton, Ch ...

Somerset County (13): : Bedminster Township, Bernards Township,

Bernardsville Bernardsville () is a borough in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is nestled in the heart of the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 7,707,

, Branchburg Township, Bridgewater Township (part; also 12th), Far Hills, Green Brook Township, Hillsborough Township (part; also 12th),

Peapack-Gladstone Peapack-Gladstone (also written as Peapack and Gladstone) is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the United States Census, 2010, 2010 Census, the borough's popul ...

, Raritan,

Somerville Somerville may refer to: *Somerville College, Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford Places *Somerville, Victoria, Australia * Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia * Somerville, New Zealand, a subur ...

, Warren Township and Watchung Sussex County (10): : Andover Borough, Byram,

Fredon Fredon Township ( ) is a township in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 3,235, a decrease of 202 over the previous decade.Green Township,

Hopatcong Hopatcong ( ) is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Sussex County, New Jersey, Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 14,362, a decrease of 785 (−5.2%) from the 2010 ...

, Ogdensburg, Sparta, Stanhope, Stillwater, and Walpack Union County (12): : Berkeley Heights,

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...

, Fanwood, Linden (part; also 10th), Mountainside,

New Providence New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It is the location of the national capital city of Nassau, whose boundaries are coincident with the island; it had a population of 246 ...

, Rahway, Scotch Plains,

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

, Westfield and Winfield Township Warren County (22): :All 22 municipalities

History

In the 2012 general election, Republican incumbent Leonard Lance held his seat against Democratic challenger

Upendra J. Chivukula Upendra Chivukula (born October 8, 1950) is a Democratic politician who currently serves as a Commissioner on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities after serving more than 12 years in the New Jersey General Assembly, where he had been the De ...

. 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 Jun H. Choi (born May 17, 1971) is an American entrepreneur and politician and the former Mayor of Edison, New Jersey, a community of over 100,000 people and the fifth largest municipality in the state. He was sworn in on January 1, 2006 as the ...

announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination. 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.

Effect of 2000 redistricting

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 10 (ten) is the even natural number following 9 and preceding 11. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. It is the first double-digit number. The rea ...

and

11th 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first attested i ...

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 A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, Lance defeated Assemblywoman Linda Stender by a margin of 25,833 votes.

2018 election

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.New York Times
Primary results
accessed, June 6, 2018 Lance won the Republican primary with 74.9%, and 24,856 votes. In the

2018 election The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2018. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. Africa *2018 Djiboutian parliamentary election 23 February 2018 *2018 Sierra Leonean general elect ...

, Tom Malinowski,The Hill, Ben Kamisar, October 2, 2017
Obama State Department official to run for House in NJ
, Retrieved October 2, 2017 former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, was considered the front runner among the Democrats challenging Republican incumbent Leonard Lance.Ballotpedia
New Jersey's 7th Congressional District election, 2018
, Retrieved May 7, 2018 Malinowski was endorsed by Westfield teacher/attorney Lisa Mandelblatt and attorney Scott Salmon when they withdrew from the race in February 2018. Other candidates in the Democratic primary included lawyer Goutam Jois; 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. Lindsay Brown, a product manager at the '' New York Post'' and a self-described progressive, ran in the Republican primary against Lance.ABC News, March 29, 2018
House races offer Democrats best shot at claiming a chamber in Congress
, Retrieved May 17, 2018 Berkeley Heights banking executive Linda WeberJonathan D. Salant, May 14, 2017, NJ.com
Meet the newest challenger to N.J.'s Leonard Lance
Retrieved May 14, 2017 and environmental advocate David Pringle 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.Politic
"House Q4 FEC Reports,"
, Retrieved May 7, 2018 Malinowski won the seat in the election with 51.7% of the votes.

2020 election

Incumbent Tom Malinowski (D) ran in the Democratic party primary uncontested, winning 100% (80,334) of the vote. Challenger

(R) defeated Raafat Barsoom and Tom Phillips in the Republican party primary receiving 79.4% (45,395) of the vote. 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.

2022 redistricting and election

The New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission altered the boundaries of the district effective January 6, 2022

Although the district remains competitive, the district is more Republican than it was previously. Incumbent Tom Malinowski (D) faced 2020 challenger

once again in 2022. In the general election held on November 8, 2022, Kean prevailed, unseating Malinowski. It was one of 18 districts that voted for Joe Biden in the

2020 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 January: **C ...

while being won or held by a Republican in

Recent statewide election results

;Results Under Current Lines ''(Since 2023)'' ;Results Under Old Lines

Recent election results

List of members representing the district

References

Bibliography

* *
Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
{{coord, 40.60, -74.50, type:city_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title 07 Essex County, New Jersey Hunterdon County, New Jersey Morris County, New Jersey Somerset County, New Jersey Union County, New Jersey Warren County, New Jersey Constituencies established in 1873 1873 establishments in New Jersey