Host: The midterms now less than two months away, and the balance of power is up for grabs in Congress. One race garnering national attention is New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, where former Navy helicopter pilot, healthcare business leader, Rebecca Bennett, is trying to unseat Congressman Tom Kean Jr., and flip the seat blue. Now, this race is in the national spotlight, after Congressman Kean spent several months away from Washington, saying after his return only that he was hospitalized and treated for depression. Well, since then, he has largely ducked the media. We’ve extended numerous invitations for him to appear on the show, and they have yet to accept. […] And joining me now is the challenger in this race, Democrat Rebecca Bennett. Thank you so much for being here.
Rebecca Bennett: Thank you so much for having me.
Host: We have a lot of ground that we want to cover today. I’m glad that you could spend some time with us in the studio. As of last month, we had Cook Political Report, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, both had the race as a toss-up in this district right now. What’s your game plan these last, I guess it’s just a little bit more than seven weeks now? And what are you hearing from the voters?
Rebecca: […] what I hear most from people on the ground is really two things: One, we have got to tackle the cost of living crisis that we’re facing right now. Whether that’s health care prices, utility prices, childcare, eldercare, all of those things are just so expensive and people are really feeling squeezed. And also, we need to take on the corruption in Washington. You know, I’m not taking any corporate PAC money. I’ve divested all my individual stocks because I want people to know that I practice like I play. And ultimately, this is about fighting for the version of the country that we want to leave for my daughters and the next generation.
Host: You have a debate coming up at the end of the month. What do you hope this will reveal to voters?
Rebecca: Yeah, I think there’s a really clear contrast in this race between, you know, myself—I’m a servant leader, I’ve spent my entire life in service to this nation. And the reason why I’m doing this is because I want to be able to serve everyone that lives in the 7th District. And, you know, contrast that with my opponent, Tom Kean Jr., he promised that he was going to put his assets in a blind trust, that did not happen. He went on to become one of the most prolific stock traders in Congress. He’s taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate PAC money. And so I am doing this because I want to fight for every family as hard as I fight for my own kids, and he’s doing this to enrich himself personally.
Host: We should point out that your team expressed willingness to appear on a debate on News 12. We extended the same invitation, obviously, to Congressman Kean Jr.’s team, and we’ve heard nothing. It’s been radio silence from them about this as well. […] I want to get your reaction to that, but also to a post on X from Congressman Kean that many of my peers in the New Jersey press corps would likely disagree with and take issue. He said, “I do the most local press engagements of any NJ Member of Congress. Meanwhile, my opponent [Rebecca] stays hidden from voters behind a campaign script.”
Rebecca: … I think this is a very clear look at what he does, not what he says. You know, he called the cops on the New York Times. You mentioned that he failed to agree to do a debate here. I challenged him to six debates in six counties, he did not respond to me. And here I am, talking to you. And so I think it’s very clear that I’ve been out on the ground listening to people. I refer to my leadership as deckplate leadership because that’s how I was trained in the military: You’ve got to show up, you have to listen, you have to hear what the issues are to be able to address them. And so that’s how I’ve been running this campaign and that’s how I’m going to represent this district.
[…]
Host: Rebecca Bennett, thank you so much for being here in studio. We appreciate your time. And once again, we want to put out the invite once again to Congressman Tom Kean Jr. to come in. This is one of many invites. We do hope that we will see him in studio as well. Again, Rebecca, thank you so much for coming into the studio.
