Rep. Tom Malinowski (D) is projected to lose his reelection bid to former state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R) in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, flipping the Garden State seat red.
CNN and ABC News called the race.
The victory by Kean, a former minority leader of the state Senate, put an end to Malinowski’s four-year tenure in Congress. He was first elected to the House in the 2018 blue wave that ushered in a Democratic House majority.
Malinowski’s loss does not come as a total surprise — the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated the seat “lean Republican.” But it is a key pickup for Republicans in their quest to take control of the lower chamber.
Kean challenged Malinowski in 2020 but narrowly lost to the incumbent by 1.2 percentage points. While Malinowski won, the results that year raised eyebrows because the Democrat underperformed compared to Biden, who beat then-President Trump by 9.9 percentage points.
New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District became more red following redistricting this year, moving from a plus-four Democratic lean to a plus-three Republican lean.
Malinowski was a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Frontliner program this cycle, which works to support members of Congress running in the most competitive races.
The race largely focused on inflation and abortion, similar to other elections across the country. Inflation consistently polled as a top issue to voters, and abortion was top of mind for Democrats after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade over the summer.
Malinowski also received criticism for an ethics investigation involving his stock trades. In September 2021, the Office of Congressional Ethics said in a report that it found “substantial reason to believe” the New Jersey Democrat failed to disclose stock transactions as is required by ethics rules and federal law.
The committee, however, has not yet put out a decision on the issue, according to the New Jersey Globe.
Updated at 1:57 a.m.