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WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Editorial Headline: “Tom Kean Jr., NJ’s cowering candidate for Congress.” [Star-Ledger, Editorial, 2/13/22]
Kean “Deftly Avoided Questions About How He Would Have Voted On […] The Certification Of The 2020 Presidential Election Results.” “Kean has also deftly avoided questions about how he would have voted on Trump’s impeachment, the certification of the 2020 presidential election results, or the creation of a special commission to investigate the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.” [New Jersey Globe, 1/12/22]
Moran Op-Ed Headline: “Kean embraces Trump’s cult, tarnishing the family name.” [NJ Advance, Tom Moran Op-Ed, 7/15/21]
Insider NJ: “Fundamentally, Kean Stands With Trump.” “When Tom Kean, Jr., announced his candidacy, the featured guest was Kevin McCarthy. Kean invited McCarthy to be there. […] Then Kean doubled down on the Big Lie about the 2020 election. […] Even though Kean almost certainly received more mail in votes in 2020 then Tom Malinowski did. […] Fundamentally, Kean stands with Trump. Leadership? Lockstep? As a real (and not a reality show) Republican, I don’t claim to know Kean’s mind. But I do know what this isn’t. It isn’t anything Kean – or his father, whose personal integrity is sorely missed – can be proud of.” [Insider NJ, 3/14/22]
January 2022: Kean Voted Against Protecting The Right To Freedom Of Reproductive Choice. Kean voted against S49, which “codifies the constitutional right, which has been recognized by the New Jersey Supreme Court, to freedom of reproductive choice, including the right to access contraception, to terminate a pregnancy, and to carry a pregnancy to term.” S49 passed the Senate 23-15 and passed the Assembly 46-22. [S49, 1/10/22]
Tom Kean Jr. is an out of touch career politician so desperate to avoid losing federal election for the fourth time, he is aligning with MAGA Republicans and their radical agenda.
Tom Kean Jr. Won’t Defend Abortion Rights – He’ll Join MAGA Republicans to Attack Them
Throughout his career Tom Kean Jr. has shown he cannot be trusted to protect reproductive rights. Knowing that Roe was in jeopardy and with Republicans aiming to ban abortion nationwide and criminalize it state by state, Kean voted against codifying a woman’s right to choose in New Jersey. Kean even supported the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote a recent draft to overturn Roe v. Wade altogether.
In his previous runs for office anti-abortion groups spent tens of thousands of dollars to elect Kean.
With a history of voting to restrict abortion rights and defund Planned Parenthood, it’s clear Tom Kean Jr. will not stand up to his party for women in New Jersey. He believes it threatens his support from ultra-MAGA Republicans obsessed with banning abortion instead of dealing with critical issues like the economy.
Tom Kean Is An Out-Of-Touch Career Politician Who Has Used His Position For His Own Benefit.
Tom Kean Jr. is an out of touch, silver-spoon trust fund baby who has lived off his father’s name and success his entire life. He has spent his career fighting for the interests of himself and his donor class over working-class New Jersey families. His political career is one of riding the coattails of a bigger fish – Bush, Christie, Trump – and then hoping they will drag him to political victory. In a long career in Trenton, he spends little to no time in his campaigns talking about anything he has done for the people of New Jersey.
Kean Jr., who lives off his family trust funds, has no idea what New Jersey families are facing. After losing his first congressional campaign in 2000, Kean was appointed to his first two positions in politics – his career is based on political favors for him, the son of a former governor.
Kean Jr. always votes with his wealthy friends, even at the expense of New Jersey’s working families. He voted against a tax on millionaires in New Jersey that would fund middle class tax relief. Kean Jr. also voted against guaranteeing paid sick leave and paid family leave for New Jersey workers and even voted sixteen times against property tax relief for middle-class New Jerseyans.
Kean Jr. opposed the Affordable Care Act and voted against expanding Medicaid and protecting consumers from surprise medical bills – as he owned up to $2.3 million in United Health Group from which he collected tens of thousands of dollars annually.
During his time in power, Kean Jr. has taken campaign donations from special interest groups and done their bidding. He took money from telecom companies before sponsoring a bill that was called, “a sweetheart deal for telecommunications companies” that raised prices and hurt consumers.
Kean Jr., who was personally invested in tobacco companies and took their campaign contributions, voted for legislation that benefited those companies directly.
Kean Jr. and his political allies have attacked others for stock trades during the pandemic – but Kean Jr. bought and sold nearly $200,000 in stocks as he personally profited off the pandemic. Kean’s trades were not illegal, but they show the craven hypocrisy of a career politician who attacks his political opponents doing the same thing he did. Kean has continued to trade stocks throughout his congressional campaign.
Kean’s Loyalty to MAGA Republicans Has Led Him To Take Positions That Are Out Of Step With New Jersey
Tom Kean Jr. is not his father – he’s a sheep, aligning with radical MAGA wolves to win this election at all costs. Openly tagging himself as someone who “supports the Trump agenda” and “no matter what Trump does, Kean has his back.”
Kean Jr. kicked off his campaign with Trump apologist and white nationalist enabler Kevin McCarthy. He’s backed by the MAGA GOP leadership’s outside groups and Republicans who voted to overturn the election – all intent to elect Kean Jr. to enact their radical agenda – ban abortion nationwide, repeal health care protections for millions of Americans, oppose much needed infrastructure funding for roads, bridges and the Gateway Tunnel in New Jersey, and throw out millions of votes to overturn elections when they don’t like the outcome.
Kean Jr. can’t be trusted to stand up to MAGA extremism because his record shows he won’t. Kean, New Jersey’s “cowering candidate for Congress,” has consistently dodged questions about whether he would have supported the MAGA Republican effort to overturn the 2020 election and whether he agrees with MAGA Republicans who view the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol as “legitimate political discourse.” Kean even skipped a vote denouncing Trump for his role in inciting the riot.
Kean Jr. has tied his political fortunes not to New Jersey, but to these dangerous MAGA Republicans. In Washington, he’ll be working for them, not New Jersey.
PATH TO VICTORY
In highly educated, suburban districts like NJ-07, Republicans are finding it increasingly harder and harder to win. 52.0% of residents in the district have college degrees, making the district 19 points more college educated than the country as a whole. As a result, in 2020, President Biden improved on Hillary Clinton’s margin by 9 points, carrying the district by a 4-point margin with 51.9% of the major-party vote – his largest improvement among congressional districts in New Jersey. Democrats found success down ticket as well, with Senator Booker also winning NJ-07. In Somerset and Hunterdon Counties, which make up a sizable share of the district, Governor Murphy improved on his vote performance between 2017 and 2021, showing how little room Republicans have to grow here. As voters who have run away from Trump and other MAGA Republicans learn more about Tom Kean Jr.’s extremist views, two-term incumbent Tom Malinowski should be well-positioned to defeat him yet again.
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