Noticias

A group of local Democratic officials in the Hunterdon County borough of Flemington is endorsing businessman Brian Varela for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, wading into a crowded and murky Democratic primary that features no fewer than seven other contenders.

Varela, who hopes to unseat Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) next November, received endorsements from Flemington Council President Tony Parker and Councilmembers Brandon Arias, Jeremy Long, Susan Englehardt, and Trent Levitt, who is also the borough’s Democratic municipal chair – five out of the six elected Democrats in the 4,876-person borough, one of the few blue spots in Republican-leaning Hunterdon County.

“Brian is exactly the fighter we need representing New Jersey’s 7th District in Congress,” Levitt said in a statement. “He has that rare combination of principled leadership and genuine charisma that can bring people together and get things done for NJ-07. I’m proud to give him my strongest possible endorsement because I know he’ll be a relentless advocate for all of us in Washington.”

The batch of endorsements is evidence that Varela is beginning to successfully make headway outside of Morris County, where he’s lived for the last two years and serves as the chairman of the local Democratic Party’s Hispanic Caucus. Earlier this summer, Varela snagged endorsements from 17 local Democratic politicians in Morris County, representing a big chunk of the Democratic party rank-and-file in the county’s conservative western half.

That’s far more local endorsements than any other 7th district Democratic candidate has received thus far; former Summit Councilman Greg Vartan has gotten a handful of local backers in Summit, where he remains the Democratic municipal chairman.

Local endorsements may help Varela, whose prior run for Congress in 2022 was in an entirely different part of the state, build out his connections and name recognition across the 7th district. They also will likely be a boost during next spring’s county convention season, when candidates will compete to receive endorsements from the district’s six county parties.

Those endorsements, however, may mean far less now that the county organizational line is gone, and some county parties may decline to make any endorsement at all (three of them did just that in this year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary). Initially crowded Democratic contests for the 7th district in 2018 and 2024 were both whittled down to one main contender long before Primary Day, but with county parties’ power significantly weakened, there’s no guarantee of any similar winnowing this cycle.

Besides Vartan and Varela, also running in the Democratic primary for the 7th district are climate scientist Megan O’Rourke, former Small Business Administration official Michael Roth, attorney Vale Mendoza, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, criminal justice professor Beth Adubato, and physician Tina Shah. The district, held by Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski until Kean beat him in 2022, may host one of the country’s most competitive House races next year.

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