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Megan O’Rourke, who resigned her position as lead climate scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture after President Donald Trump attacked her work, raised more than $175,000 in her first day as a candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district — an impressive haul as the latest entrant into a growing field of Democrats seeking to take on two-term Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield). 

“We knew early support and resources would be crucial to establishing a foothold in this primary, and I’m so grateful for everyone who has chipped in to be part of this campaign from my hometown, from the science community and beyond,” O’Rourke stated. “As a scientist, you never go in without a plan, and that’s exactly how we’re approaching this campaign. This is my home and these are my people, and I couldn’t be more proud of the campaign we’re building to advocate for local families and workers.”

Her fundraising relied exclusively on donors and not on personal funds.

O’Rourke is the seventh Democrat to join the race to oust Kean, joining former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, former Biden administration official Michael Roth, businessman Brian Varela, physician and former Obama and Biden administration official Tina Shah, former Summit Councilman Greg Vartan, and Valentina “Vale” Mendoza, an attorney from Rahway.  Beth Adubato, a college professor and former News 12 reporter, said earlier this year that she plans to get in the race, but she hasn’t yet launched her campaign.

Bennett has raised $913,847 for her campaign so far. Varela has brought in $693,883 (with the help of $400,000 in self-funding). Roth has raised $302,880, and $157,021 for Vartan.  Shah entered the race after the Q2 filing deadline but announced that she raised more than $260,000 in just one day as a candidate.

A former university professor and Blairstown native, O’Rourke joined President Joe Biden’s administration in 2021 as a top official of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), overseeing roughly $200 million in funding annually.   She’s also a former union steward with the American Federation of Government Employees, worked as a Brookings Congressional Fellow and as a tenured associate professor at Virginia Tech.  She served in Cambodia as an environment advisor for USAID.

O’Rourke, 46, joins the race with an interesting life story: she grew up as the youngest of four children in a family that struggled financially, and put herself through college, eventually earning a Ph.D. from Cornell University while starting a small farm business with her husband; they raised three kids on less than $30,000 a year, relying on federal programs like Medicaid, WIC and Head Start to make ends meet.

Kean a former minority leader of the New Jersey State Senate and the son of a popular former governor, unseated Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) in 2022 in an expensive contest, four years after Malinowski unseated a five-term Republican in Trump’s 2018 midterm.

The district was more Democratic when Malinowski first won it — Democrats on the Congressional Redistricting Commission sacrificed Malinowski in 2022 in order to shore up neighboring seats – but it remains highly competitive, with Trump carrying it last year by a tiny 49% to 48% margin. National Democrats, who poured around $5 million into last year’s race, have identified the 7th district as a top target for 2026.

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