Rebecca Bennett is challenging Republican Tom Kean in the Garden State’s swingy 7th district
Democratic House candidate Rebecca Bennett is campaigning on a promise to address the “climate crisis”—but only began doing so after she quietly sold off thousands of dollars in oil and gas industry stocks, financial disclosures show.
Bennett launched her campaign against Republican incumbent Rep. Thomas Kean in New Jersey’s swing Seventh Congressional District in February. Months later, in early June, she submitted a personal financial disclosure showing that she owned between $14,015 and $211,000 in various oil and gas stocks, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. Bennett dumped those stocks roughly six weeks later, her amended financial disclosure shows.
One day after doing so, she promised to secure investments in “climate-resilient infrastructure” as a congresswoman, writing, “We cannot waste time addressing the climate crisis.” By August, she added a new policy section to her campaign site, which calls to “address the climate crisis by investing in renewable energy.”
“Clean air and clean water are essential to our way of life in New Jersey, but environmental deregulation and defunding threaten our ability to preserve the resources we have,” the site reads. “With smart investments in renewable energy and real environmental stewardship, we can create jobs and lower energy costs while also tackling the climate crisis and ensuring New Jersey families have clean air and clean water for generations to come.”
The timing surrounding the stock selloff and climate-centered rhetoric suggests Bennett had concerns over how her investments could be portrayed in a crowded Democratic primary race. Bennett faces eight primary opponents, including three who have raised more than $150,000. One opponent, Michael Roth, has attacked Kean for “kneel[ing] to Big Oil.”
“Unlike Tom Kean Jr, Rebecca Bennett sold her stocks because she believes members of Congress should not own individual stocks, and supports a stock trading ban,” a spokeswoman for Bennett said.
In addition to her oil company investments, Bennett’s amended financial disclosure shows that the Democrat sold between $1,001 and $15,000 in Tesla stock. She has criticized Tesla owner Elon Musk for “causing chaos in government” and noted that “when billionaires buy influence, everyday people lose their voice.”
She also divested from health care giants such as Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter and Gamble, trimming what had been as much as $246,000 in health care holdings down to as little as $30,000. The move comes as Democrats rail against “Big Pharma”—a line Bennett has largely avoided, perhaps because she is a former health care executive for Johnson & Johnson.
Bennet’s race against Kean is slated to be one of the highest-profile House races in the country. President Donald Trump carried Kean’s district by 1 point in 2024, while Kean himself won it by more than 5 points, expanding on his 3-point win in 2022. Democrats see the seat as a prime pick-up opportunity in their quest to flip the House in 2026, and Republicans see it as a priority as they hope to build off of the gains they made in New Jersey in 2024.
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