By James J. Devine
Investing in fossil fuels should disqualify any politician seeking a Democratic nomination, but Rebecca Bennett owns stock in ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Phillips 66, but she is considered the fundraising frontrunner in New Jersey’s competitive 7th Congressional District.
Bennett flew Navy helicopters for 15 years, much of it fighting in America’s oil wars, and today she is ready to make peace with the Trump administration’s support for fossil fuel projects over renewables and the Republicans’ justification for the war against Iran.
A Texas native, Bennett views increased energy costs for consumers as a potent election-year issue to use against Republicans, instead of the catastrophic crisis that requires consumers to change their behavior to stop destroying the planet.
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Today, as the big money front-runner for the Democratic nomination in New Jersey’s competitive 7th Congressional District, she is also sitting on a financial stake in the companies that profited from those oil wars.
The Democratic Party faces a defining question in the 2026 midterms: What is the price of the pursuit of electability?
In New Jersey’s 7th, the answer is playing out in a candidate’s personal portfolio.
Bennett, a former MH-60 Seahawk pilot and aircraft commander whose service included missions supporting Navy SEAL teams and maritime patrols in the Persian Gulf, is the prohibitive favorite in the Democratic primary to take on Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Her military résumé is impeccable. Her campaign website, however, is light on policy specifics, offering recycled language about incentivizing renewable energy—language that commits her to nothing.
What her financial disclosures show is another story entirely. Bennett holds stock in ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Phillips 66, four of the largest fossil fuel companies on the planet.
Evidence from internal documents, congressional investigations, and journalism indicates that Big Oil engaged in a decades-long campaign of deception and political influence buying to delay action on climate change.
Companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron knew about the risks of climate change as early as the 1960s and 70s, yet they chose to pay to spread disinformation, lobby against regulations, and promote false solutions to protect their profits.
For a party whose base views the climate crisis as an existential threat, the question is simple: Should investing in the companies driving that crisis disqualify a candidate from carrying the Democratic banner?
The answer, in an era of billionaire influence and corporate capture of the party establishment, appears to be no.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren stood at the National Press Club in Washington in January and delivered a warning to her own party. Democrats, she said, faced a choice between “offending big donors” and “delivering for working people.”
A party that chooses the donors, she declared, “is a party that is doomed to fail—in 2026, 2028, and beyond.”
Warren was not speaking about New Jersey’s 7th District specifically, but she might as well have been.