Your Democratic Nominee

Honored and grateful.

Photo by Ryan Murphy for AP Photo.

Tuesday night, after winning the Democratic nomination to become New Jersey’s next Congresswoman from the 7th District, I delivered this speech to a crowd of more than 200 people. I’m sharing it here because what I said that night is what I’m carrying into November.

Here’s my speech:

Hey everyone! First of all, I want to thank you all so much for being here with me tonight and for coming along on this wild ride for the last 16 months. To the voters, thank you. You put your faith in me and I am not going to let you down. I am so proud to be our Democratic nominee for Congress in our district, the 7th District of New Jersey. To my family, Alex, Rosie and Millie, thank you so much. You guys have been troopers. I love you so much and I could not do this without you. Also, Alex, I did not get you an anniversary present either, so I’m sorry.

I also want to thank some of our local electeds here so to our chairwoman Peg Schaffer, Senate President Nick Scutari, Chairwoman Darcy Draeger, and Chairman Michael Drulis, thank you all for your leadership.

And to the incredible army of local elected officials and leaders, thank you all so much for building this team and this momentum, thank you for everything that you’ve done.

To our brothers and sisters in organized labor, FMBA and Eddie Donnelly, I don’t know where you are Eddie, but thank you so much for everything that you’ve done for us, for CWA District 1, thank you for stepping up and being in this fight, and for all of our brothers and sisters in labor that supported our campaign, thank you.

We also have a ton of other organizations that have also helped, like New Politics and VoteVets and so many other organizations and members that have supported us, so thank you all for your leadership as well.

To the hundreds of volunteers that are part of this campaign, you showed up! We made over half a million voter contacts.

We knocked on 21,000 doors. We made over 110,000 phone calls, and we sent over 340,000 texts. I know the texts are annoying - sorry, guys. I personally have broken at least two phone numbers, so I promise it’s really me when I’m texting you.

And to our team, led by our campaign manager, and my deputy campaign manager, Om and Madison, you guys have put so much sweat equity in.

I am so proud to have the team that I do. Thank you for everything that you’ve done. Please take the night off and I’ll see you in the morning at 8 am.

I’m just kidding, 8:30’s fine.

And finally, to our friend, Tom Kean Jr.: we are coming for you.

Tom Kean Jr., wherever you are - you have failed this district.

You were the deciding vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill, which is going to take healthcare away from tens of thousands of people in our district. You were nowhere to be found when Donald Trump started yet another forever war in the Middle East. You were nowhere to be found when DHS tried to put an ICE detention facility in Roxbury. And you were nowhere to be found when Trump held up the funding to Gateway Tunnel. Simply put, you are a coward. You are failing us and you do not deserve to represent us in Washington.

We deserve better. And here’s the thing: you’ve all heard me say this. We cannot just be anti-Trump and anti-Kean. We have to be for something.

We have to solve the problems that we are all facing in our everyday lives. And that means tackling our childcare crisis, and make sure we have housing, and that we have clean air and water to drink, and that we have access to affordable healthcare. And we are going to solve these problems and hold this administration accountable.

But let’s be clear. This is not going to be an easy path. We all know this. This is one of the most competitive races in the country. And we’ve already seen a little bit of what MAGA is going to do with this race with the dark money, misleading attacks, and flat-out lies.

So I want to congratulate the Republican Party for lighting $650,000 on fire over the last 2 weeks.

Because you know what that tells us? They know that I am our best shot at flipping this seat in November.

And here’s one thing that I know. If this group of badass American patriots can get a political outsider, a 2010 Honda Accord-driving, Navy veteran mom to win in one of the most competitive primaries in the country, we are going to flip this seat in November.

You guys have also probably heard me say this. The harder we work, the luckier we get. And we make our own luck on this team. And I’ve been doing hard things my whole life. From becoming the 18th female Navy test pilot in the history of the Navy, to building an award-winning career in healthcare, hard does not scare me. And you all know that. I’ve always thrown myself at the biggest, hardest problem. And I know everyone in this room feels the exact same way.

So here’s my promise to you. I am gonna wake up every day and work harder than I’ve ever worked in my life to fight for you and your family as hard as I fight for my own kids.

Because together we are going to flip this seat.

And we are going to take back the House.

And we are going to make sure we leave this country better off than we found it.

So to everyone here, from the bottom of my heart, sincerely thank you so much. I would not be here without each and every one of you here today.

And to Tom Kean Jr., Donald Trump, and the MAGA Republicans, we are ready for this fight. Bring it on. Let’s go.

This campaign is powered by people like you — neighbors who believe we can build a better future for every family in New Jersey’s 7th District.

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Paid for by Rebecca Bennett for Congress. Rebecca Bennett is a former member of the United States Navy and current member of the Air National Guard. Use of her military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense or any other department, agency or service of the United States Government