New Jersey Republican Tom Kean Jr. is eyeing a 2022 repeat match against Democrat Rep. Tom Malinowski after losing narrowly in 2020.
Kean, 52, started calling supporters to discuss his campaign plans, the New Jersey Globe reported. A campaign announcement is expected on July 14.
Kean, the minority leader of the New Jersey state Senate and the son and namesake of a popular former Republican governor, last lost to Malinowski — who served as assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration— by a margin of just over a 1 percentage point.
Kean first ran for the House in 2000, about a decade after his father, Thomas Kean, finished up two terms as governor. The younger Kean lost in the Republican primary to Mike Ferguson, who then went on to become a House member for eight years.
He tried again in 2006, running in a more Democrat district, losing in a strongly Democrat year, the Washington Examiner reported.
House Democrats in 2020 lost over a dozen seats, and Republicans need to flip five districts in November 2022 to take the gavel the following January, the news outlet noted.
And though Malinowski defeated 10-year Republican Rep. Leonard Lance in 2018 by 16,100 votes, he faced headwinds in his second term, the news outlet reported. An ethics complaint was filed against him over failing to disclose up to $1 million in more than 100 stock trades related to medical companies involved in the pandemic response, Business Insider reported.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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