N.J. Dems sacrificed Tom Malinowski. Can abortion rights save him?

Rep. Tom Malinowski is already written off by much of the New Jersey political establishment.

The 56-year-old two-term Democrat was reelected in 2020 by just 1 percentage point over his Republican opponent, then-state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. That was before reports surfaced that Malinowski failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock trades, resulting in an ongoing House ethics investigation.

And it was before New Jersey Democrats sacrificed Malinowski in redistricting, drawing his 7th Congressional District to be more friendly to Republicans in order to shore up other potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbents.

Then came the draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

There’s been plenty of talk about how backlash to the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion could give Democrats a much-needed midterm boost. If that happens, Malinowski may have a better chance at saving his seat.

His initial 2018 victory in what was then a historically Republican district was widely attributed to the shift among suburban women toward the Democratic Party during the Trump era. Many of those well-heeled areas, despite the new boundaries, remain part of his district.

“This is now much more real,” Malinowski said in a phone interview. “It’s just a draft opinion. Then there will be a decision. Then there will be [state anti-abortion] laws passed. And then there will be enforcement of those laws. And all of this is going to happen before November.”