Rep. Tom Malinowski is vulnerable in redistricting and his supporters know it.

That’s why dozens of pro-Malinowski witnesses have turned out to testify at otherwise sleepy meetings of the New Jersey Redistricting Commission. They’re desperately trying to prevent him from becoming a sacrificial lamb to save other, increasingly nervous Democratic incumbents.

It’s an aggressive approach that’s alienated some in his party. But Malinowski, one of the nation’s most endangered incumbents, doesn’t have much choice. In an election year where Democrats are facing headwinds to keep their five-seat House majority, the New Jersey congressman has the task of convincing Democrats on the commission to fight for every one of their incumbents in redistricting instead of cutting their losses by setting him up for defeat.

Yet his razor-thin 2020 reelection victory against Republican state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., Democratic jitters about the current political environment, Kean’s ties to Republicans on the redistricting panel and a scandal involving his own stock trades make Malinowski, who is seeking a third term, an obvious candidate to get thrown under the bus.

Malinowski, who represents central New Jersey’s 7th District, is likely facing a rematch next year against Kean, the scion of a centuries-old political dynasty whom he defeated in 2020 by a little over 1 percentage point — the closest reelection margin of any Democratic House member in the country.

“Making our district safe for the scion of any political dynasty would be unacceptable to the citizens of NJ7,” Malinowski supporter Miriam Kohler, a district resident, said during a virtual Redistricting Commission meeting on Nov. 20. “Please do not sacrifice us.”