For nearly three months, Republican Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey has been a ghost––he has not made public appearances, stepped onto the House floor, or cast a vote since March 5.
In that time, Kean has offered very little information about his absence. On April 27, he said in a statement that he was addressing “a personal medical issue” and that “my doctors continue to assure me that my recovery will be complete and that I will be back to the job I love very soon,” but offered no further detail.
“I want to thank my constituents and colleagues for their patience,” he said at the time, stressing that “I take my responsibilities very seriously.”
Then, last week, Kean gave his first interview since the start of his prolonged absence, telling the New Jersey Globe that he would come back to work “in the next couple of weeks.”
“My doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery,” Kean said during the phone interview. “I understand the need for public transparency, and I appreciate the support of my constituents.”
TIME has reached out to Kean’s office for comment.
As well as being a member of Republican’s current, razor-thin majority in the House, Kean sits in a swing seat in New Jersey’s seventh congressional district, which the Cook Political Report rates among the most competitive in this year’s high-stakes midterm elections. Kean’s seat could prove crucial in the GOP’s battle to retain House control, which has made his absence a significant point of concern for the party.
Kean, who is unopposed in the Republican primary for his seat on June 2, confirmed in his interview with the Globe last week that he is still running for reelection. He told the New Jersey outlet that he is in contact with his congressional office every day, and has been staying on top of goings-on in Congress and his district.
Kean has also recently been speaking with some Republican officials in his state. The New York Times reported that Kean made calls last week to Carlos Santos, Union County’s Republican chairman, and Joe LaBarbera, Sussex County’s Republican chairman.
When LaBarbera asked what Kean needed, the Congressman responded, “just your prayers,” according to the Times. Santos told the outlet that Kean “sounded healthy.”
Other county leaders also received calls from Kean, the Times reported.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that he spoke to Kean on a call “a few weeks ago.”
But the New Jersey Congressman’s colleagues on Capitol Hill appear to be in the dark when it comes to the specifics of his absence.
“I don’t even know the details, and I respect that. It’s members’ personal privacy on whatever matters they’re dealing with,” Johnson said.
As well as being missing from Congress for more than 75 days, NOTUS reported last week that Kean’s neighbors in New Jersey had not seen him and said that his home had been dark for a number of weeks.
In addition to the recent calls Kean has made to other Republicans and to the press, however, NOTUS reported that he signed a congressional stock transaction form last Friday, which according to the outlet showed that he made five trades in April.
NOTUS additionally reported that Kean made stock trades leading up to the public statement in which he shared that he was dealing with a “personal medical issue.”
The Democratic primary candidates in the race for Kean’s seat have all commented on his absence. Some have been more vocal than others, publicly chastising him for his opaqueness ahead of what is expected to be a competitive general election race.
“If you were missing work, you would tell your boss, and Tom Kean Jr.’s boss is the people. He did not tell us. That’s it. And in the time that he did not show up for work, he has raised more than $600,000 just from corporate PACs alone. That tells you who his boss is,” said Democratic candidate Michael Roth. “It is time that we get a member of Congress who will show up.”
Tina Shah, another candidate in the race for the Democratic nomination, knocked Kean for relying on his team to carry on communications rather than speaking himself.
“What we are being assured is that his team is carrying the torch, but we elected Tom Kean Jr., not his team,” she said.
Rebecca Bennett, who is also vying to take on Kean and flip his seat, has struck a more restrained tone when speaking about the Congressman’s absence, highlighting that he has long been somewhat of a reserved political figure who avoids the limelight.
“He is never around, he’s not on the ground, he doesn’t meet with voters, and he doesn’t meet with constituents,” she said to The Washington Post. “And so, to me, this is just an extension of how he’s been in office from the beginning.”
Kean flipped his seat in the House when he was first elected in 2022 by a less-than-three-point margin. He widened that edge in 2024, winning reelection by more than five points.
Kean, the son of former two-term New Jersey governor Thomas Howard Kean and grandson of former long-time New Jersey Rep. Robert Kean, previously served as the minority leader in the state Senate and a lawmaker in the state House before his election to Congress.
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