Rebecca Bennett is the kind of Democrat — combat-tested, pragmatic, pro-Israel — who moderates hope can be a balm to a battered Democratic brand, especially in competitive swing districts. The Navy veteran is hoping that her military background — which included stints as a helicopter pilot over the Strait of Hormuz and as a test pilot — will help her clinch victory over incumbent Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, one of those purple districts.

Bennett, a Democrat, told Jewish Insider in a recent interview that national security, alongside affordability and health care, would be one of her core focuses if she’s elected.

“There’s two key areas in this bucket that I think about,” Bennett said. “One is, how are we preparing the United States and our allies for 21st-century conflicts? … And then the other piece of it is, what are we doing to support our veterans and military families, both when they’re serving and then when they come home?”

Bennett, 37, brings a personal perspective to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, having flown missions over the Strait of Hormuz to ensure the safe travel of an aircraft carrier strike group through the region.

“I really felt like I just needed to do everything I could to really fight for this country, because I love it, and I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Bennett said.

While she was in the Navy, Bennett deployed to the Middle East with an aircraft carrier strike group in support of the war in Afghanistan, an experience she said showed her “how important Israel is as an ally, both from an intelligence perspective, but just how important Israel is as an ally for the United States. And so I will say it’s really shaped my worldview.”

She said she also worked with the Israeli military and Israeli contractors while serving as a test pilot. Bennett has never visited the Jewish state, but said she wants to.

“I just feel very strongly that Israel has a right to defend itself and has a right to exist, and that the United States needs to be able to support Israel, and it shouldn’t be partisan,” Bennett continued. “I think we should be supporting Israel as an ally, regardless of political party.”

Bennett said she supports continuing U.S. aid to Israel without restrictions or conditions.

Speaking to JI shortly after ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas fell apart last month, Bennett said she was disappointed by the development, emphasizing the need to free the hostages and end the war in Gaza.

“I think this is why it’s so important that we have serious, experienced leaders that are at the table having these conversations,” she continued.

In the long term, Bennett said she supports a two-state solution, adding, “it’s incredibly important that we make sure that Israel is safe and secure.”

Asked about the U.S. strikes on Iran, Bennett said that she believes that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, but said that she didn’t want to weigh in directly on the U.S. strikes without having access to the intelligence that prompted them. She added that the strikes highlight the need for “serious people” in power who understand the consequences of U.S. policies.

Going forward, she said the U.S. should lean on diplomacy when possible to de-escalate the conflict with Iran and move it further away from nuclear weapons capacity, “but it’s also necessary to make sure that we have all options on the table when we’re having these types of conversations.”

In her own district, Bennett said she’s seen and heard about the impact of rising antisemitism. The day before her interview with JI, Bennett said she had spoken to a mother who was worried about sending her children to a Holocaust museum after the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in May.

“It is just unacceptable that this is what’s happening in our country,” Bennett said. “I just want to make sure that is very clear.”

She said that leaders have an “obligation to try to bring down the temperature” on the rhetoric in this country, pointing as well to the shootings of Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota. She said that such rhetoric must be taken seriously and denounced without hesitation.

“That’s something that I do feel very strongly about, because I think everyone has the right to feel free in this country,” she continued. “And I never want a mom to be worried about sending their kid to a Holocaust museum.”

Bennett told JI she joined the Navy to give back and noted that her husband is also a veteran. After her time in the military, she earned her MBA and worked in the healthcare field. She became politically active as a volunteer after her military service, and said she felt called to step up after the 2024 election.

“I really felt like I just needed to do everything I could to really fight for this country, because I love it, and I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Bennett said.

Bennett said she’s running for Congress to “to stand up and fight for the version of the country that we want to live in and the version that I want to leave for my daughters in the next generation” as another form of service to the country.

She said her military background and experience with leadership in difficult environments it conveyed — as well as her role as a mother of two, and her time in the private sector  — gives her the right profile to take on Kean.

She argued that military veterans like herself are “uniquely positioned” to win over independent voters — who she said make up around a third of the district — who might not otherwise vote for a Democrat.

During her interview with JI, Bennett made reference during to a group of Democratic women from the national security field who helped Democrats flip seats in the 2018 election, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA).

Bennett is reportedly a member of a group chat, the “Hellcats,” of Democratic women veterans running for competitive House seats.

New Jersey’s 7th is a swing district, represented by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) prior to Kean. President Donald Trump won the district over Kamala Harris by two points, 50-48%, in the 2024 presidential election.

Bennett led the Democratic field in fundraising as of the close of the second quarter, with close to $1 million raised and $670,000 on hand. She’s trailed by businessman and political activist Brian Varela, who raised $693,000 and has $622,000 on hand; former Biden administration official Michael Roth who raised $302,000 and has $225,000 on hand; and Democratic activist Greg Vartan, who raised $150,000 and had $79,000 on hand.

All of them have a gap to close with Kean, who has raised nearly $2 million this cycle and has $1.5 million left on hand.

In a Democratic Party that has lost its grip on the working class — long its base of support and wellspring of its values — Brian Varela is offering a way back home.

Varela, a small business owner and New Jersey political activist vying for the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, is leaning in to his working-class Colombian roots, suggesting that the Democrats need candidates, like him, who are better connected to the middle-class voters in his district.

“I think that one of the things that the national Democrats really messed up on last year was not understanding what the working-class voter was going through,” said Varela, both of whose immigrant parents worked blue-collar jobs. “And that’s why, while national Democrats were talking about how great the economy was, working-class voters did not understand. I understood that because I’ve lived it. And I think that being able to have that background that is very much aligned with a lot of the people in the district puts you in a unique position, not just to understand them, to represent them.” 

With that moderate pitch as a first-generation American who has made good, Varela, 36, has firmly established himself as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District with his recent announcement of a $700,000 fundraising haul in his first three months in the race.

Varela, who self-funded around half of that total, is one of several Democrats, including former Biden administration official Michael Roth, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett and local Democratic official Greg Vartan, aiming to defeat Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), in a district Kean won by five points in 2024.

Varela has been active for years in various capacities in New Jersey politics: He started as a press intern for Republican Gov. Chris Christie in 2010, later running as a Democratic candidate opposing the party machine against now-Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and subsequently leading the New Jersey chapter of the Forward Party, the centrist third party founded by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

“I consider myself more of a moderate,” Varela told Jewish Insider in an interview. “I do believe that we do need to be tight around budgets, and we can’t just go and haphazardly be cutting programs, but we do need to understand that we cannot allow the deficit to continue increasing. But at the same time, I think that there are some great programs that may seem like social programs, but are actually more programs that are going to help us grow our economy.”

He said he also supports “economic populist” programs like growing the middle class through universal childcare, and investing in research and development, infrastructure and education — particularly in skilled trade programs in high schools and trade schools.

He said his life story and the hardships he faced growing up separate him from the Democratic field — as well as from Kean, whose father was the governor of New Jersey and whose grandfather also served in Congress — and align him with the voters in the district, adding that Democrats need candidates who are better connected to the working class.

Varela said that Israel has been a “strong ally for us, and I think it’s important to make sure that we are there for Israel, that we help Israel with their ability to defend themselves.”

He said he supports continued U.S. aid to Israel, as well as aid to Gaza, and supports a two-state solution in the long term. He said that bringing the conflict in Gaza to a close will require “root[ing] out Hamas entirely,” ending attacks from both sides and bringing “all shareholders to the table” including the United States, the United Nations and surrounding countries.

Varela said he did not have sufficient information to weigh in on the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran, but said that it’s “absolutely critical” that Tehran not obtain a nuclear weapon and that he would support renewed diplomatic efforts floated by the Trump administration.

To address rising antisemitic attacks and other incidents at home, Varela said that the U.S. needs to step up hate crimes enforcement, specifically voicing support for legislation raising the penalties for such activity.

“As a society, as an American culture, any hate crime performed is ultimately destroying our fabric, destroying the future of our country, and we need to be unequivocally and unapologetically at the front lines of combating this kind of hate,” Varela said.

Varela said he entered the race because “I think we need a fighter, and I’ve been a fighter my whole life,” from working full-time to cover his schooling costs to supporting his family when his mother got sick, struggling with financial difficulties, raising his younger brother and building a childcare business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But we navigated that and fast forward to now, we built the business with over 100 employees,” Varela said, adding that his company has been recognized locally and nationally for its growth.

He added that he thinks that Congress needs more leaders from different backgrounds and more “humble beginnings,” and said, “I can bring a serious diversity of perspective to representation, and not just the Congress, to our party as a whole.”

He said that Kean is “disconnected … from his voters” and doesn’t understand the impacts of legislation cutting assistance programs like the recently passed budget reconciliation bill.

Varela’s fundraising places him second in the Democratic primary, behind Bennett, who has raised $914,000 total, and ahead of Roth, who has raised $303,000 total and Vartan, who has raised $157,000.

Bennett closed the quarter with $672,000 on hand, Varela with $622,000, Roth with $225,000 and Vartan with $79,000.