A Republican challenger flipped a deep blue New Jersey congressional seat held by Democrats.
According to Politico, Thomas Kean Jr. was proclaimed the winner on Wednesday when Democratic Representative Tom Malinowski surrendered the 7th District election.
Associated Press figures published by The New York Times indicate that Kean received 52,3 percent of the vote. 47.7 percent of the vote was cast for Malinowski.
In the next Congress, the Democratic majority in New Jersey’s congressional delegation will decrease from 10-2 to 9-3.
This year, Malinowski was the only incumbent member of Congress from New Jersey to be defeated.
CBS News reports that Malinowski stated he would have won the election if not for the state’s redistricting procedure.
“There’s absolutely no question that we would have been winning, without question, that original district and even this district without 30,000 additional Republicans voters that were added last December,” Malinowski said.
Malinowski flipped the district in 2018’s blue wave and held on in 2020 with a one-point victory over Kean.
Fox News said that Kean is the former minority leader of the New Jersey state Senate and the son of former New Jersey governor Tom Kean.
“We took the campaign directly to the voters and talked about the issues they cared about. They’re talking about inflation issues. That was their concern. Border security, energy independence,” Kean told CBS.
“I would like to thank Tom Malinowski for his years of public service and his spirited campaign,” he stated in a tweet.
— Tom Kean (@KeanForCongress) November 9, 2022
More on this story via The Western Journal:
“Throughout this district and throughout this nation, we have been given an opportunity to change the course of history,” he said.
“I am incredibly grateful to the voters of the 7th District for their confidence. My solemn pledge to you will always be to serve with integrity, to listen, to learn, to earn this responsibility you’ve honored me with to steer this nation towards greater opportunity, security and prosperity.”