Brian Varela Makes His Case in NJ's 7th District Primary

Brian Varela made his closing argument in Sparta on Sunday, and it wasn’t a policy platform. It was a biography.

Wrapping up a meet-and-greet in the Sussex County township, the Democratic candidate for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District fielded a direct question: why pick him over Rebecca Bennett, the candidate who has secured endorsements from Democratic committees in Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, and Union counties?

Varela complimented his primary opponents, Bennett, Michael Roth, and Tina Shah, before getting to the point.

“The one thing that I think no one will disagree with, is that right now, we need a fighter,” he said. “I fought to pay my way through school. I fought to keep my family afloat when my mom got sick. I fought to raise my younger brother when she passed. I fought to build a business from scratch during COVID.”

Varela is running as the progressive in the race, which means he’s positioning himself as the candidate least comfortable with the party establishment. He’s earned Democratic committee endorsements in Sussex and Warren counties. It’s a narrower map than Bennett’s, though the county line’s collapse has softened the practical difference. Five years ago those committee endorsements were harder currency. They still matter, but they don’t dominate the way they once did.

On policy, Varela wants Medicare for All, describing it as a goal rather than a first-term promise. He supports overturning the Citizens United ruling, banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks, and reversing federal cuts to SNAP and green energy programs. On those energy cuts, he didn’t mince words: “You’re literally gutting the jobs of tomorrow.”

The 7th District covers at least parts of six counties, Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren, making it one of the more geographically sprawling districts in the state. Varela will need to compete across all of it to beat both Bennett in June and, if he wins the primary, Republican incumbent Tom Kean Jr. in the fall.

CD-7 primaries tend to compress ideological differences. In a Democratic field, nobody’s going to argue that health care isn’t a right, so the race tilts toward character arguments and candidate toughness. Varela knows that, and he’s leaning into it.

“You need someone who is going to claw for every single freakin inch,” he told the Sparta gathering. “And I’m that person.”

Varela got a boost last week from the results in the neighboring 11th District, where progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia won her primary by a wide margin. He’s careful not to read too much into it, noting that CD-11 is significantly more urban than CD-7 and that the two districts don’t share the same electorate.

“I wouldn’t take it as a sign that ‘we got this,’” he said. “But it can’t hurt. If anything, it does show there is a split among voters.”

He went further: “I think it makes a stronger case for a bold campaign.”

That’s the bet Varela is making, that CD-7 voters are in the same mood as CD-11, that the progressive lane is wide enough, and that a candidate who can tell a convincing personal story of hardship and resilience will land better than one who arrives with more organizational infrastructure but a less urgent biography. Bennett’s committee network is real and was assembled the hard way. Whether it translates into primary votes without the county line machinery behind it is the central question in this race. The New Jersey legislature eliminated the county line ballot format in 2024, and both campaigns are operating in different terrain than their predecessors.

Varela’s next step is proving that Sussex County was not a one-day show, and that he can compete at the same pitch across Morris, Somerset, and Union, where Bennett’s endorsements run deeper and the organizational ground is less favorable to a self-described outsider.