Congress

Trump is causing a midterm headache for this New Jersey congressmember

Published

4 months ago

March 2, 2026

Tom Kean Jr. faces the same problem as every other vulnerable Republican in the midterms: Donald Trump.

But the president is making it extra hard for Kean, a soft-spoken House member who has a cavalcade of Democrats seeking to oust him in his wealthy suburban New Jersey district, which includes the Bedminster golf course that doubles as a summer retreat for Trump.

It seems immaterial to Trump in his war against blue-state Democrats over immigration and more. The administration just purchased property in a Republican town for his aggressive immigration efforts and last month paused funding for a new tunnel linking New Jersey and New York, which is crucial for commuters in Kean’s district.

Both moves put Kean, a scion of New Jersey’s most famous political family, in a bind.

Even people close to the two-term congressmember acknowledge that Kean has not separated himself from a president who is deeply unpopular at home — especially in a year where Republicans are trying to hold their razor-thin majority in the House.

“It was already going to be tough because midterms are tough for the party in power. And I think on issues like this, Tom would be safe to carve a little space between him and the president,” said Mike DuHaime, a veteran strategist of many Republican campaigns.

But DuHaime, a longtime friend of Kean, acknowledged that the congressmember’s brand of behind-the-scenes advocacy may not work now. “I don’t know that it has been enough yet. Since Tom has gone to the national level, he has been less prone to kind of stick out from the majority,” he said.

Kean’s balancing act

New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District is winnable by either party. In 2024, Kean won reelection by five points and Trump carried the district by 1. But in 2025, when Democrat Mikie Sherrill won a landslide victory in the governor’s race over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, she carried the district by a little more than 1 point.

Like many Republicans in swing districts, Kean, who is running for his third term, finds himself in a balancing act when it comes to how closely to run with the president. While he is not one of Trump’s most vocal defenders in Congress — and has taken credit for negotiating with him to restore property tax deductions — Democrats have repeatedly sought to tie the two together, including pointing to votes Kean has made in support of tariffs. Trump endorsed Kean for the first time this cycle.

“Tom Kean Jr. has a tougher voting record than he did last cycle,” said Rebecca Bennett, one of several Democrats competing to challenge Kean. “This is the first time he’s running with a Republican president in office.”

Kean consultant Harrison Neely pushed back on the criticism, saying that he “leads, focuses on results over rhetoric, and puts the needs of New Jersey first every time.”

“Congressman Kean will be reelected because voters see an independent leader who delivers results,” Neely said in a statement. “He has stood up for New Jersey and fought for middle class tax relief including fully restoring the SALT Deduction, held his ground to keep the Gateway Tunnel moving, and delivered tens of millions of dollars and counting for first responders and community projects across the district.”

National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Maureen O’Toole echoed that sentiment, saying he “has always put New Jerseyans first” and accusing Democrats of lying about Kean’s record. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Democrats last year won Assembly seats long held by Republicans in two districts that partially overlap with Kean’s. That includes the 21st District, which Kean represented for two decades. His successor, Republican state Sen. Jon Bramnick, who unsuccessfully ran for governor last year with an anti-Trump platform, watched both his Republican running mates lose to Democrats.

“It’s so obvious when you look at the poll of Trump, you look at the Jack Ciattarelli catastrophe, you look at losses in my district that we haven’t lost in decades,” Bramnick said, stressing he was commenting on Trump hurting Republicans in New Jersey generally and not specifically on Kean. “I’ve got Republicans who tell me ‘You’re just anti-Trump.’ No, no no. I am anti-losing.”

‘Trying to soften the blow’

During the gubernatorial race, Trump threw a wrench into Ciattarelli’s messaging by announcing that the Gateway project — which centers on replacing of the decaying century-old rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York City — was “terminated.” Since then, his administration has sent mixed messages on its future and has fought to hold up its already-appropriated funding, leading to Sherrill and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul successfully taking him to court to release the money.

But as the Trump administration continues to fight to freeze the funds, Kean has offered only mild criticism, saying he sympathizes with Trump’s concerns about potential cost overruns — the latest in a string of shifting justifications for the funding freeze. “Where I differ is that I believe Gateway is too important to delay and that we can advance the project while still protecting taxpayers,” he said.

It’s unclear how long the fight over Gateway funding will last — potentially making it less salient of an issue in the campaign come November, as opposed to in the gubernatorial race when such debates happened right as voters hit the polls. But a potentially more enduring issue also hovers over NJ-07.

ICE last week purchased a massive warehouse in Roxbury, a heavily-Republican town in the district, to use as a detention center. Left-leaning residents had shown up to town council meetings en masse to protest the purchase during the weeks of rumors that led up to it, and the town’s all-Republican government also opposed it on the grounds that it would strain local infrastructure. Shockingly, the town’s government criticized Kean for failing to stop it, saying in a joint statement that he “did not engage to the level we had hoped to provide the advocacy our residents deserved.”

Days later, Kean introduced legislation to create a grant program for the Department of Homeland Security to reimburse local governments for expenses related to federal facilities.

“The overwhelming majority of residents, along with the state and the country, support getting criminal illegal migrants off our streets and stopping the flow of Fentanyl,” Kean said in a statement. “We need to, and will, keep a level head as we continue to work constructively to deliver results.”

Brian Varela, another Democrat running to challenge Kean, pointed out that by introducing the bill, Kean is “not even coming out against the detention center.”

“He’s just trying to soften the blow and improve his image coming out of all this,” Varela said.

The ICE facility is especially politically troubling for Kean, said pollster Patrick Murray, who sees a “pincer movement” of heightened Democratic enthusiasm in the district’s denser eastern suburbs and potentially depressed Republican enthusiasm in its exurban western portions. Trump’s approach to immigration is largely unpopular among New Jerseyans, according to a recent survey conducted by the Stockton Polling Institute.

“Republican voters are feeling the negative impacts of the Trump administration and he’s not standing up to it. That’s going to cost him,” Murray said.

Congress

Senate Republicans exclude Democrats’ food aid demand from farm bill

Published

11 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans’ farm bill proposal rejects Democrats’ demands to delay a planned shift of some food aid costs to states, according to three people familiar with the plans — jeopardizing hopes of winning bipartisan support for the package.

Democrats say they will oppose a farm bill that doesn’t push back a requirement that will soon force some states to pay for some Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a provision included in the domestic policy megalaw Republicans passed last year.

Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) gave Senate staff and industry representatives a private preview of his farm bill text Monday afternoon ahead of a planned public release of the discussion draft at 2 p.m. Tuesday, according to the people, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss the not-yet-public plans.

Boozman will need some Democratic support to guarantee the bill can clear the 60-vote threshold on the Senate floor.

A GOP spokesperson for the Agriculture Committee said Boozman had “developed a discussion draft that can earn the bipartisan support needed for Senate passage.” The spokesperson added that Boozman will continue talks with senators and industry representatives while “finalizing text and moving toward a markup.”

The draft legislation also excludes some Republican and agriculture industry priorities, such as provisions that would allow year-round sales of E15 fuel and block states from creating certain animal welfare and pesticide labeling laws, according to the three people.

Senators from both parties are already eyeing how they might amend the bill to include their priorities. That could muddy the legislation’s path forward by generating a number of conflicts during the committee’s markup ahead of a potential floor vote on the package.

Some GOP senators whose state budgets would be hard hit by the change have privately indicated that they would support delaying the provision, which is set to begin October 2027.

Those senators and anti-hunger advocates argue the SNAP cost-share plan will kick people off the program and lead to benefit cuts. Democrats also note that many states will already receive delays or exemptions to the cost-share requirement due to high or low payment error rates.

Boozman said in an interview last month that he was “open to listening” to Democrats’ argument, but contended it could complicate his efforts to craft a budget-neutral bill.

The Senate’s version largely mirrors the House’s, which passed with 12 Democratic votes in April. Boozman is aiming to mark up his bill between the chamber’s Fourth of July and August recesses.

Congress

Senate Republicans say it’s time to give Trump a reality check

Published

11 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Donald Trump is about to come face to face with one of his frequent punching bags: Senate Republicans.

They might just be in a mood to punch back.

The president was invited to GOP senators’ Wednesday lunch to push for his No. 1 priority, the GOP election bill known as the SAVE America Act. But several outgoing Republicans who have clashed with Trump said Monday they will be there to deliver a reality check: The bill isn’t passing, and it’s time to move on.

“I’m going to be there front and center,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters. “It will be important if it actually is a constructive exchange of different opinions, and hopefully we can all get on the same page. Right now, we’re not in a great place.”

Cornyn, who recently lost his bid for a fifth term to a Trump-endorsed challenger, reiterated the votes just aren’t there to pass the elections bill: “I’ve been around here long enough and been through enough battles and counted enough votes to know that it doesn’t just magically occur, no matter how much you wish it would happen.”

Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — who are also departing the Senate in part due to Trump — said Monday they, too, will be at the closed-door lunch and urged Trump to turn the page on the SAVE America Act.

“I’m a co-sponsor, but it doesn’t have the votes, and so it’s time to talk about something else,” said Cassidy, who also lost to a Trump-backed primary opponent.

Trump was invited to the Wednesday lunch by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who oversees the weekly gathering as GOP steering committee chair, at a tenuous moment. Senate Republicans have grown frustrated with Trump’s fixation on the elections bill, are openly questioning parts of his Iran deal and worry that his habit of blindsiding them with sudden policy U-turns is making it harder to preserve their majority in November.

Scott’s invitation comes as the elections bill has emerged as a perennial headache for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, whom Scott informed of the invite after it was extended. Thune and other members of the GOP conference insist it doesn’t have the votes to pass and have begged Trump to focus on more attainable priorities.

Same goes, they say, for other Trump demands — killing the 60-vote filibuster threshold for legislation, for instance, and ending the “blue slip” practice of giving home-state senators a say on some presidential nominees.

“None of those are going to happen here, and we need to be honest with the president,” Tillis said. “So why don’t we spend more time being productive about how we communicate, when we communicate, and get some of these very pressing issues done?”

But Trump has shown he will not relent, especially on the SAVE America Act — a bill that would impose new proof-of-citizenship and identification requirements for U.S. voters in its base form, with the president demanding still other controversial provisions added on top of that.

In a Truth Social post late last week, Trump name-checked Thune and urged the Senate to nix the filibuster and approve the bill: “Anybody who doesn’t want to Terminate the Filibuster is a FOOL, a very stupid one, at that!”

Several GOP senators, including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have objected to the precedent the bill would set by nationalizing election procedures. Test votes on the bill have not garnered more than 48 supporters, though a narrower bill focused on voter ID won 50 votes. That’s still far short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a certain Democratic filibuster.

Asked late last week about Trump’s comments, Thune said a majority of Senate Republicans have long-held views against nixing the filibuster.

“It’s not a question of what I want to do or don’t want to do,” he said. “It does always come back to the math. And … there just aren’t the votes to do it.”

Thune said Monday that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the election bill comes up but predicted it would be a “back and forth” between Trump and GOP senators over multiple subjects, including the brewing Iran deal and the stalemate over a key surveillance law and future of the director of national intelligence post.

He added that “hopefully” the discussion would include “celebrating some of our successes, talking about the path forward.”

The GOP election bill has become a consistent friction point within the party and within the Senate GOP conference. Senate Republicans largely support the bill but believe the party needs to turn its focus to Democrats, rather than fighting each other, with just months to go until the midterms.

Republican senators have kvetched for months about how they believe Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is setting unrealistic expectations for the bill’s passage. Lee posted on X over the weekend that he spoke with Trump and “he’s as convinced as I am that we can get this done if the Senate’s willing to do the hard work.”

Cornyn called out Lee Monday, saying that he “is contributing to this fantasy that somehow it’s going to happen.”

Lee responded that the election bill isn’t a fantasy but “a plan to avoid a nightmare — one that’s coming soon unless we act.”

Senate Republicans agreed to take up the voting bill earlier this year, in part after leaders privately reassured wary GOP senators that the debate wouldn’t result in an attempt to skirt the 60-vote filibuster. But the weekslong debate failed to break the stalemate on the bill, and Senate Republicans ultimately placed it on the back burner as other legislative deadlines piled up.

Conservatives, however, hadn’t forgotten about the bill, and now they want the Senate to continue to vote on it.

Scott — who came in third in the leadership contest Thune won after the 2024 election— sent a letter to his fellow Senate Republicans Monday, a copy of which was obtained by Blue Light News, saying that he wanted to have “robust conversations” this week about what the party should be focused on before the midterms. That, he said, should include voting on the SAVE America Act or narrower voter ID legislation.

“We need to make a clear distinction as to who the good guys are and who the bad guys are,” Scott wrote in the letter. “We need to show voters that we are listening to them and will fight for their priorities whether any Democrats vote with us or not.”

Congress

Senate passes housing affordability bill

Published

12 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate on Monday overwhelmingly passed a long-awaited bipartisan housing bill, which is expected to set the legislation on a glide path to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature as soon as this week.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which passed 85-5 and contains almost 60 individual provisions, aims to tackle housing affordability and boost housing supply and homeownership. Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) voted “no.”

The legislation now moves on to the House, which could take up the bill for final passage as soon as Tuesday.

The legislation has become a pillar of Congress’ overall response to affordability concerns that have emerged as a key issue this midterm election year.

Despite broad, bipartisan support for the bill in both the House and Senate, the two chambers went back and forth on the legislation for months. Primary friction points developed over language establishing new restrictions on large Wall Street investors purchasing single-family homes, a ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a digital currency and a slate of community banking deregulation initiatives, among other measures.

The bill was able to move forward last week after the four lawmakers leading the legislation — Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — came to an agreement. The White House also announced support for the final version of the bill, which contains Trump’s top priority of limiting Wall Street’s footprint in the housing market.