WASHINGTON, D.C. – Democrat Rebecca Bennett has made Congressman Tom Kean Jr.’s vote for the Republicans’ 2025 tax package a centerpiece of her campaign to flip New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District.
Republicans think there’s a fairly obvious problem with that strategy: the same legislation delivered one of the largest expansions of the federal SALT deduction in years.
Bennett, the Democratic nominee challenging Kean this November, has called the GOP tax law “awful” and “the complete opposite of what we should be doing as a country.” She has also repeatedly attacked Kean for supplying a decisive vote for the legislation.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is turning Bennett’s criticism back on her, arguing that opposing the overall package means opposing tax provisions that directly benefit residents of high-tax New Jersey.
The most politically relevant provision for Garden State homeowners is SALT.
The law increased the federal deduction limit for state and local taxes from $10,000 to $40,000 for tax year 2025. For 2026, the cap rises to $40,400, although the benefit phases down for higher-income taxpayers.
That’s no small matter in suburban NJ-07, which includes all of Hunterdon and Warren counties and portions of Somerset, Morris, Sussex and Union counties.
The Republican tax law also created temporary deductions for qualified tips and overtime pay. The tips deduction can reach $25,000, while the overtime deduction is capped at $12,500 for individuals and $25,000 for joint filers, subject to income limits and other eligibility rules.
The NRCC additionally touts the law as providing “no tax on Social Security.” More precisely, the legislation created an additional temporary $6,000 deduction for qualifying taxpayers age 65 and older; it did not universally eliminate federal taxation of Social Security benefits.
Bridgewater Mayor Matthew Moench joined the GOP counter-offensive this week.
“Anyone who says quadrupling the SALT cap is ‘awful’ clearly doesn’t know this community,” said Moench. “As Mayor, I’ve heard firsthand how crucial this tax relief has been for families across Bridgewater.”
“Knowing that Tom Kean Jr. helped deliver this relief and that Rebecca Bennett would’ve stood in the way of it paints a stark contrast,” he added.
Bennett’s broader argument is that the overall Republican legislation was bad policy despite individual tax provisions she may or may not support. But that leaves Democrats with a potentially uncomfortable question in one of America’s highest-tax states: if Kean’s vote was so “awful,” what exactly would Bennett have done differently on SALT?
With the two candidates scheduled to debate Sunday evening, voters may soon get an answer.
