Rep. Thomas Kean, R-N.J., signed a congressional disclosure form Friday acknowledging a series of stock trades during his months-long absence from Congress—as the mystery surrounding his disappearance deepens.
Rep. Tom Kean, Jr., R-N.J., participates in a House Transportation Committee hearing on Thursday, June 27, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Kean signed off on five stock trades between April 14 and May 17, according to the document obtained by NOTUS, which reported it’s the second time in two months he’s filed a congressional stock disclosure form—while missing more than 100 votes since he last voted March 5.
Kean—who is running for a third term in a competitive district Democrats hope to flip—has said he’s dealing with a personal health matter, but he and his staff have offered few details.
He hasn’t been photographed in public in weeks and no public sightings have been reported, and he’s canceled several planned appearances, including a speaking event Thursday at the Morris County Chamber of Commerce breakfast, according to The New York Times.
His neighbors in Westfield, New Jersey, said his house has appeared unoccupied since before he started missing votes, NOTUS reported last week.
Kean—in his first interview since his prolonged absence began—told The New Jersey Globe on Thursday his doctors are “confident” he will make a “full recovery” and that he anticipates he will “return to voting and to the campaign trail” within “the next couple of weeks.”
Kean reportedly reemerged on the political scene via phone last week when he began making calls to fellow Republicans in New Jersey to assure them his reelection campaign is moving forward, The New York Times reported, citing several officials who spoke to him.
“I don’t even know the details, and I respect that. It’s members’ personal privacy on whatever matters they’re dealing with,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday, adding he last spoke to Kean on the phone “a few weeks ago.”
Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., had also been absent from Washington for weeks until she voted Thursday for the first time since April 17. (Update: Wilson announced she will not be seeking reelection.) She released a statement, hours after Forbes and other outlets published articles about her absence earlier this month, that said she’s been unable to fly since having surgery on her left eye. She has said she still plans on running for reelection. Wilson, 83, was elected in 2010 and ran uncontested in her most recent primary in 2024. She represents a solidly blue district, but she’s being challenged in the August primary by small-business owner Christine Sanon-Jules Olivo.
Kean, 57, is running uncontested in the June 2 primary. He flipped the seat from blue to red when he was first elected to the House in 2022, and he won reelection in 2024 by six points. There are signs the district could shift back to Democrats’ control, including Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s win over Republican Jack Ciattarelli by two points there in November. Kean has a prominent political lineage dating back to the Revolutionary War. His father, Thomas Howard Kean, served two terms as New Jersey governor from 1982-1990, and his grandfather, Robert Kean, represented New Jersey in the House for 20 years. He is a descendant of the state’s first governor, William Livingston; the Stuyvesant family of Dutch colonial settlers who were original landowners in New York; and of John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts.
Rep. Frederica Wilson Retiring From Congress After Wave Of Absences (Forbes)
2 House Members Have Been Absent For Weeks, Missing Dozens Of Votes (Forbes)
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