Rebecca Bennett has made congressional stock trading a line of attack against Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Now, her own investment history is part of the fight in the three-way November 3 election.
Incumbent Congressman Tom Kean Jr. is the Republican nominee; former Texas Republican Rebecca Bennett is the Democratic nominee; and Democrat Seamus OToole, a producer at MSNOW, is running as an anti-genocide independent.
The challenger’s financial disclosures list former holdings in technology giants, oil companies, aerospace manufacturers and a gold mining firm — a corporate cross-section that puts her finances under scrutiny as she campaigns on accountability.
Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot and health care executive, says she sold her individual stocks in 2025 and shifted into funds. But her disclosure also shows that moving away from individual shares did not eliminate investments concentrated in particular industries.
An amended report filed July 23, 2025, covering January 2024 through May 5, 2025, lists Agnico Eagle Mines, Howmet Aerospace, Parker-Hannifin and RTX, along with Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. The former individual holdings appear with no remaining asset value.
The same filing lists an Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF, and funds focused on biotechnology, banking, utilities and infrastructure. Those investments complicate any description of her revised portfolio as consisting entirely of broad-market funds.
The distinction matters: Selling individual stocks removes direct stakes in specific companies, while an industry-focused fund preserves exposure to a particular sector. The filing documents that investment history; it does not, by itself, establish misconduct or show that Bennett’s policy positions were influenced by her holdings.
Bennett’s campaign says her divestment demonstrates a commitment to preventing conflicts before entering Congress. She has pledged to support a ban on congressional stock trading if elected.
Kean has challenged Bennett’s portrayal of herself as middle class, pointing to her financial disclosure and income. Her campaign has dismissed those attacks as a distraction, but Seamus O’Toole is the only contender who is not a millionaire.
O’Toole is a registered Democrat in Clark who voted in five of the last six general elections, and he is running as an independent with the slogan “Stop Israel’s Genocide” on the same ballot that features the Republican nominee and incumbent Rep. Tom Kean Jr.; Rebecca Bennett, a Texas-raised former Republican who changed her registration in 2016, who won the Democratic nomination by gaining establishment support and spending more money than her rivals.
O’Toole received 1,132 votes as a candidate for the Clark Board of Education in 2024.
He is a Segment Producer working on The Briefing with Jen Psaki, an MSNBC program hosted by the former White House press secretary and political advisor who served under both the Obama and Biden administrations.
Her attacks on Kean center on transactions reported during his tenure, including his nearly four-month absence from Congress this year. Kean said he was hospitalized for depression and maintains that an independent financial manager handles his investments without his involvement.
That creates a substantive difference between the candidates: Bennett’s former individual holdings predate any congressional service, while Kean’s disclosures concern investments held while he exercises legislative power.
Stuart Green, a Rutgers Law School professor who has advocated restrictions on congressional stock trading, told the New Jersey Monitor that moving individual holdings into index funds can create a strong barrier between a lawmaker’s investments and information obtained through public office.
But investing money in funds that profit from AI data centers, corporate polluters, and military contractors still reveals something about a candidate’s character.
With Election Day approaching, the dispute has widened beyond who bought or sold a stock. Both candidates are asking voters to trust their judgment — and their financial records are becoming part of that test.
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