Rebecca Bennett, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and aircraft commander, beat three opponents on Tuesday to win the Democratic nomination to run in November against Representative Thomas Kean Jr., a New Jersey Republican who has been missing from Congress for nearly three months.
The race is expected to be among the country’s most contested midterm matchups. Democrats see Mr. Kean’s seat in New Jersey’s Seventh Congressional District as a potential pickup as they seek to retake the House and check President Trump’s power in Washington.
Ms. Bennett was leading her closest primary opponent, Tina Shah, by roughly 27 percentage points when The Associated Press called the race in her favor an hour after polls closed.
Mr. Kean, 57, had no challenger in Tuesday’s Republican primary. But intrigue over an unexplained health condition that has caused him to vanish from public life since the middle of March has overshadowed much of the debate in recent months. He has missed more than 100 votes during his absence, at a time when Republicans hold a narrow House majority and are working to advance the president’s agenda ahead of the midterm elections.
“Where is Congressman Kean?” an editorial in the Leader, the local newspaper in Westfield, N.J., where Mr. Kean has lived for decades, asked on Thursday.
Ms. Bennett’s military background has led to comparisons with New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who also flew helicopters in the Navy. Ms. Sherrill cruised to a 14-point victory last year against her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, outperforming most pre-election polls.
Ms. Bennett, 39, has emphasized her military service, her role as a mother and her willingness to take on Mr. Trump, much like Ms. Sherrill did in her campaign for governor. Ms. Bennett’s campaign website features a photo of her in front of a gunmetal gray helicopter, wearing a wide grin and a pilot’s jumpsuit as she holds her newborn daughter.
Pat Ick, a Democrat who cast a ballot on Sunday during New Jersey’s six-day early voting period, said Ms. Bennett’s military service was a deciding factor.
“She’s a fighter,” said Ms. Ick, of Westfield. “She’ll fight for this country.”
The Seventh District is expected to be a key battleground in November.
The seat has flipped between Republicans and Democrats twice in the past decade. Mr. Kean ousted a Democrat, Tom Malinowski, to win the seat in 2022. Four years earlier, Mr. Malinowski had beaten Leonard Lance, a long-serving Republican.
The district was redrawn after the 2020 census to include more Republican-leaning towns, giving Mr. Kean a mathematical edge. He also has a big head-start on fund-raising, with about $3.4 million on hand.
But his lengthy absence from Congress and from the campaign trail could prove detrimental.
“I think maybe the damage is done for him,” said Bill Morrissey, a Republican who also lives in Westfield. Mr. Morrissey, 75, voted Tuesday for Mr. Kean. But he said Ms. Bennett was also appealing.
Mr. Kean, who cast a ballot last week by mail, did not re-emerge in person on Primary Day. But his office did release a statement in which he vowed to eventually be “completely transparent” about his health condition.
“I look forward to sharing my experience with the public,” he said, adding that he was “optimistic about the road ahead.”
But Mr. Kean also seemed to suggest that it could be several more weeks before he returned to public life.
“Right now I am focused on my recovery,” he said, “and under the advice of health care professionals I will transition from virtual work to in-person work within a matter of weeks.”
An independent poll by StimSight Research suggested that the No. 1 issue for voters in Tuesday’s Democratic primary was selecting the candidate best positioned to flip the seat from red to blue to blunt Mr. Trump’s power in Washington.
Deborah Enix-Ross, a lawyer and a past president of the American Bar Association, said choosing a Democrat likely to appeal to independent voters was her foremost concern as she cast a ballot on Sunday. (The district includes 213,297 voters who are not registered with either party — only about 4,000 fewer than the number of registered Republicans.)
“Do I have to love everything about a candidate? ‘No,’ ” Ms. Enix-Ross said outside a polling location in Union County, N.J. “I’m thinking long term.”
Ms. Bennett, who until 2016 was a registered Republican, spent 13 years in the Navy and was seen as the most moderate of the four Democratic candidates. She led the primary field in fund-raising, but as the general election gets underway she has far less left to spend than Mr. Kean: about $760,000, according to her most recent campaign filing.
Spending by outside interest groups is expected to be brisk.
Last month, a new political action committee with ties to Republicans began running negative ads that sought to undermine Ms. Bennett while elevating her opponents, who were considered less likely to beat Mr. Kean in a head-to-head matchup. The PAC, Real Change, was formed last month in Nebraska and spent roughly $650,000 to discredit Ms. Bennett.
It’s a strategy that was also used in other competitive primary races across the country as the parties jockeyed for every competitive advantage in the race for control of the House.
Ms. Sherrill, in response to the ads, scolded Republicans. “Stay out of Democratic primaries,” she said in a statement.
Ms. Bennett filed a cease-and-desist order against the PAC and responded with an ad of her own.
“MAGA is spending big,” the ad states, “spreading lies about Rebecca Bennett because they know she’s the only Democrat who can stop Donald Trump.”
Mr. Trump himself weighed in on Monday on social media, urging Republicans to head to the polls.
The president claimed that Mr. Kean had been “working tirelessly” to advance the Republican agenda.
“Tom Kean has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
The message offered no information, however, about where the congressman was.
Davaughnia Wilson contributed reporting.
