(Bloomberg) — Republican Thomas Kean Jr. ousted US Representative Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, ABC and NBC said, in a closely watched congressional race where stock trades and loyalty to Donald Trump were leading issues.
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The GOP win in the Garden State dealt a blow to Democrats, who had picked up the seat in 2018, when Malinowski defeated incumbent Republican Leonard Lance. It avenged a 2020 loss to Malinowski for Kean, 54, whose father, Thomas Kean, served as governor for two terms in the 1980s.
Kean was leading the race with 52.3% of the vote to Malinowksi’s 47.7% as of 12:41 p.m. on Wednesday, with 95% of votes counted, according to Associated Press.
Both candidates addressed their campaign parties around midnight, with Kean pledging to to steer this nation “to greater prosperity and greater affordability.” As Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” blasted through the speakers, he thanked Malinowski for his “spirited campaign” and “years of service.”
Malinowski appeared at his Garwood, New Jersey, campaign party, to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” and applause from several hundred supporters. “We were not supposed to be still standing at 11:45 p.m. on election night,” he said. “There is no question that we would be winning hands down in the original district.”
On Wednesday, Malinowski congratulated Kean and said he was encouraged by Democrats’ showing across the US.
“While we did as well or better than in 2020 in the communities I have represented these last four years, and I expect the results to tighten further as all votes are counted, the new district proved too much of a hurdle to overcome,” he said in a statement.
In redistricting last year, Republicans gained an advantage in Malinowski’s territory, giving the party new reason to spend money there in its quest to undo the Democrats’ narrow House majority. New Jersey has 12 House seats, 10 of them occupied by Democrats.
The race, in a wealthy belt that runs through the state’s center, was New Jersey’s most competitive. Malinowski’s two terms in the 7th Congressional District were seen as evidence of the state trending more blue. In 2018, he broke the GOP’s 38-year stranglehold on the seat.
The state has a Democratic-controlled governor’s seat and legislature, and has voted Democratic for president since 1992. Acolytes of Republican Donald Trump, though, have made gains in state and local races in New Jersey’s more rural areas.
A year ago, the Senate president, a Democrat who was the highest-ranking lawmaker, lost to a New Jersey truck driver and Republican newcomer. Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, was almost defeated for a second term last year by Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli.
Read More: Murphy Ekes Out Win as NJ Governor, Survives GOP Challenge
Ethics Probe
Malinowski, 57, a Ringoes resident born in Poland, had diplomatic roles in the presidential administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Malinowski is under an ethics investigation related to stock trades. In June, he told the congressional ethics office that he had “not put enough pressure on myself” to make disclosure deadlines from January 2019 through March 2021, a step that he called “simply careless.” A broker, and not Malinowski, had done the buying and selling, the congressman said. His holdings now are in a blind trust.
A Kean ad criticized the Malinowski trades, saying he had “betrayed the trust of the people.”
A vote to compel more trading disclosure by members was postponed by the House until after the midterm elections. Republicans targeting Democrats’ seats have made a campaign issue of alleged violations of congressional stock-trading laws.
In August, after several members of Congress — but not Malinowski — were cleared of failing to disclose their stock activity, the National Republican Congressional Committee called Malinowski’s buying and selling a “pandemic stock-trading spree.” It used Malinowski as an example for voters to “help retire Nancy Pelosi,” referring to the Democratic Speaker of the House.
Kean, who lost to Malinowski by 1 percentage point in 2020, shied away from the media for this campaign. A Malinowski television ad portrayed Kean as a member of “the MAGA crowd” — a reference to Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan.
Kean’s abortion record also was at play: In October, Kean had declared himself a supporter of a woman’s right to choose, and then days later issued a statement in favor of a 20-week termination ban, except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life or health of the mother or fetus.
Malinowski as of late October had $2.8 million in his campaign account, more than double what Kean had, according to Federal Election Commission reports. The House Majority PAC has paid for almost $1.5 million in television ad spending.
Kean’s campaign, though, also got a boost from outsider spending groups including the Congressional Leadership Fund and the National Republican Congressional Committee. By Oct. 26 they had spent more than $4.1 million combined opposing Malinowski, according to OpenSecrets.org.
(Corrects second paragraph to say Democrats picked up the seat in 2018, not 2020.)
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