Representative Thomas Kean Jr., one of the most vulnerable Republican members of Congress, has missed more than a month’s worth of votes in Washington and has been absent from his New Jersey district as he deals with what aides have described as a personal medical issue.
The last vote Mr. Kean cast was on March 5. His extended absence comes as the House speaker, Mike Johnson, is reliant on a razor-thin majority to advance legislation vital to President Trump before the midterm elections in November.
Mr. Kean, 57, is also in the throes of a re-election campaign in one of the country’s most closely watched and competitive House races. Four Democrats are vying to replace him in the Seventh Congressional District, and primary ballots have already been mailed.
Harrison Neely, a campaign spokesman, said that Mr. Kean was “dealing with a personal medical issue” and would be “back to a full schedule soon.”
Mr. Neely declined to provide details about the nature of the health issue or estimate when Mr. Kean would return to public life in Washington and New Jersey.
“He’s going to be totally fine,” Mr. Neely said.
But Republican lawmakers and political consultants in New Jersey said that their concerns for Mr. Kean, a former state lawmaker, had grown in the last two weeks as calls and texts from friends had gone unanswered.
Representative Jeff Van Drew, a Republican who represents a district in South Jersey, said in a text message on Thursday that he had no information about Mr. Kean’s situation.
In Washington, the lack of clarity about Mr. Kean’s medical issue was fueling rampant speculation about his health and his campaign plans, as well as heartfelt worry.
“We may not always agree, but he’s a good man, and I wish him nothing but the best,” said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat who has worked closely with Mr. Kean as a fellow member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
Mr. Kean hails from a storied political family, but has never been one for the limelight. He avoids talking to most reporters and prefers tele-town halls to live ones.
His great-grandfather was a senator, his grandfather served in the House and his father, with whom he shares a name, was a popular former governor known for his moderate views while in the State House from 1982 to 1990. Kean University in North Jersey is named for the family.
Dan Scharfenberger, Mr. Kean’s chief of staff in Washington, and Noelle Berriet, his congressional spokeswoman, did not reply to messages asking about the congressman’s absence. Representatives for Mr. Johnson, the House speaker, and Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican majority leader, did not reply to requests for comment.
National Democratic officials see Mr. Kean’s district as one of the party’s best pickup opportunities in November as it seeks to win a majority in the House. Well before Mr. Kean began missing votes in Washington, Democrats in New Jersey had been aggressively targeting his seat.
“The political climate nationally is one that’s good for Democrats, particularly in the Seventh District,” said LeRoy J. Jones Jr., the chairman of the state’s Democratic Party. “It gives us an opportunity to score a blue win come November.”
Mr. Kean is running unopposed in the June 2 primary, and aides have said nothing to suggest that he plans to abandon his re-election bid. If he were to drop out after winning the primary, Republican Party leaders from each of the six counties that make up the Seventh Congressional District would select a nominee to replace him on the November ballot.
Mr. Kean was elected to the House in 2022, ousting a two-term Democrat, after the largely suburban district was reconfigured to include more Republican-leaning towns; he was re-elected in 2024 by about five percentage points.
Voters in the district supported Mr. Trump in 2024 by a small margin, but the president’s popularity in New Jersey has waned. In November, Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, beat her Republican opponent by nearly 15 points after a campaign that focused heavily on attacking Mr. Trump. In Mr. Kean’s district, Ms. Sherrill outperformed by about two percentage points.
Then, last week in a special House election, Analilia Mejia, a progressive Democrat, trounced her Republican opponent by 20 percentage points in a district adjacent to Mr. Kean’s.
Mr. Kean had maintained a nearly perfect voting attendance record during his two terms in the House, a streak that ended the week of March 16, when he began missing votes, as first reported by the New Jersey Globe.
He continued to miss votes after Congress returned to Washington after a two-week recess this month.
One of the votes he missed was for legislation he had sponsored. Mr. Kean had broken in February with many of his fellow Republicans and voted against an air traffic safety bill that failed by a single vote after the Pentagon pulled its support for the bill.
His opposition to the bill, which had cleared the Senate with broad bipartisan support and was backed by every other member of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, illustrated the challenges he has faced as he struggles to balance his loyalty to a party dominated by Mr. Trump with the district’s large percentage of moderate voters. There are roughly 20,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in the district, but the second-largest group of voters are unaffiliated with either major party.
Mr. Kean’s congressional office has continued to churn out news releases in his absence. His social media accounts have also remained active, although none of the online posts appear to show him at recent events. On Wednesday, a post on Mr. Kean’s X account touted movement on two national security bills that he introduced, but was not present to vote out of committee, prompting more than a dozen derisive comments.
Other public officials who have experienced health crises have similarly had to navigate a desire for privacy with a responsibility to be transparent with voters.
Representative Donald Norcross, a South Jersey Democrat, issued regular media updates last spring when he was hospitalized for a serious gallbladder infection and missed key votes in Washington. But in 2024, when Representative Donald M. Payne Jr., a Democrat also from New Jersey, was hospitalized with a serious illness, aides initially offered limited information about his condition.
New Jersey’s 12-member congressional delegation has been significantly reshaped over the last several years by resignations and deaths.
Mr. Payne and Bill Pascrell Jr., a Democrat, died in 2024 while in office. Ms. Mejia was sworn in on Monday to a seat Ms. Sherrill vacated soon after she was elected governor.
Ms. Mejia’s arrival in Congress not only narrowed the Republicans’ already slim majority, but also served to refocus attention on Mr. Kean’s absence.
Tracey Tully is a reporter for The Times who covers New Jersey, where she has lived for more than 20 years.
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