Candidates make final push as Election Day 2026 nears

There is now one week until Election Day, and Democrats up and down New Jersey say their voters are ready to wrest control of Congress from the Republican Party.

Sen. Cory Booker (D), speaking at a get-out-the-vote rally at Stangl Factory in Flemington Monday night, said the biggest gap right now isn’t between the left and the right, but between the American people and the American dream.

“We are in crisis right now as a nation,” Booker said. “We are seeing the American dream slip away from us. But I believe that this election is the start of the process where we redeem the dream of America.”

Booker, who is seeking a third full term in the U.S. Senate next week against Republican Justin Murphy, urged the crowd to work over the next week to get Democrats elected.

“I want you to leave here walking out with some Jersey swagger. I want you to walk out of here saying, ‘What I do for these next eight days matter,’” he said. “When you stand up for what is just and right, no one stands in vain. And so we take back the House. We take back the Senate. The pathway to that goes right through our state.”

Over in Morris Township, Rep. Analilia Mejia (D) made a similarly grave pitch to voters as she debated Republican opponent Joe Hathaway at St. Elizabeth University.

“I urge you to make a decision that not only takes into account the now, but think about future generations and how we ensure that we have a nation that is free and just,” Mejia said.

Booker’s seat and all 12 New Jersey House seats are up for grabs on Nov. 3. Early returns look good for Democrats and have worried Republicans, who are seeking to retain majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives despite plunging job approval ratings for their leader, President Donald Trump.

The marquee race here is in the 7th Congressional District, where Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R) is seeking a third term against Democrat Rebecca Bennett.

Bennett, appearing in Rahway on Saturday on the first day of early in-person voting, said her focus if elected would be tackling the cost-of-living crisis, taking on D.C. corruption, and “putting country over party to move our country forward.”

Kean’s campaign has dinged Bennett, a healthcare executive and former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, as an out-of-touch millionaire. Bennett said Kean went negative because his own record is “abysmal.”

“He has voted to take healthcare away from tens of thousands of people in our district. He did nothing when Donald Trump pulled the funding for the Gateway tunnel. You know, he’s voted three times now for the war in Iran. And time and time again, he has chosen to side with Donald Trump and his administration instead of what we need in this district. And so instead of trying to run on his record, he’s trying to drag me down into the mud, and I think people can see through that,” she said.

Kean campaign spokesman Harrison Nealy, asked to respond, called Bennett a liar who has abandoned her principles and integrity “in an effort to win power.”

“Here are the undeniable facts: she made hundreds of thousands in corporate healthcare while partnering with companies accused of putting profits over patients, then repeatedly refused to state her net worth even though her own disclosure shows assets of up to $1.8 million,” Nealy said, adding, “Tom Kean Jr. has the record of an independent leader who is consistently delivering for his district on taxes, SALT relief, and Gateway funding.”

Republicans have cast their Democratic opponents up and down the state as tax-and-spend liberals who are too radical for the state. Hathaway, a councilman in Randolph, on Monday said Mejia’s rhetoric has “far more in common with ‘The Communist Manifesto’” than it does with solving problems in the 11th Congressional District.

“Her goals are far more aligned with the radical left who want to abolish the Senate, dismantle our courts, and eliminate our borders. Clearly this is dangerous ideology, but so is Miss Mejia’s voting record,” Hathaway said.

Down in the 3rd District, where incumbent Rep. Herb Conaway (D) faces a challenge from Republican Michael McGuire, McGuire has criticized Conaway for approving tax increases when he was a state lawmaker and accusing Conaway of hiding from his constituents during this year’s campaign.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” McGuire said. “He’s taking jobs. He’s shutting down bases. He’s raised gas taxes. He raised tolls. And he is going to be the Biden playbook in 2020 and hide in the basement. He can’t answer to that record.”

Chris Beardsley, 56, of Readington Township, was in Flemington Monday for the Booker and Bennett rally. Beardsley said he was confident Bennett and Booker would prevail, but “more concerned” about races in the rest of the country — and what would come after Election Day.

“My biggest concern really is, regardless of the actual election results, that people won’t respect them, and that we end up in some battles trying to swear people in,” Beardsley said.

Dana DiFilippo and Nikita Biryukov contributed.