WESTFIELD, NJ – Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-New Jersey, spent nearly four months mysteriously absent from Congress in the spring, and Washington was buzzing with speculation as to why. After his June reemergence and explanation that he had been in treatment for depression, political observers wondered if questions about his ability to do his job would harm his bid for reelection.
“No one is campaigning saying ‘Kean was hospitalized for depression and shouldn’t be re-elected’ but there is a well-established finding in political science showing that perceptions that the incumbent isn’t doing their job is just about the most powerful attack a challenger can make,” Dan Cassino, a political science professor and pollster at Fairleigh Dickinson University
in New Jersey, said.
Now, four weeks out from the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Kean's seat in the House of Representatives is one on a list of toss-up districts that Democrats seem poised to flip blue. His Democratic opponent, Rebecca Bennett, is leading Kean by five points, according to a Insider NJ/StimSight poll released Sept. 14.
But Kean's absence seems to be a small factor for voters in the New Jersey swing district, who told USA TODAY that they sympathize with their representative − even if they aren't voting for him.
New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District is usually a swing district
The district − home to President Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club − stretches from New York City suburbs to more rural parts of the state near Pennsylvania. It has been competitive in recent election cycles: Democrats held it from 2019-2023, and before that Republicans represented the district for over a decade. Kean flipped the seat back to the GOP in 2022 after the state redistricted following the 2020 Census. The new district was considered more Republican-leaning after the shift.
In 2024, Kean beat Democratic challenger Sue Altman by nearly five percentage points and Trump won the district, but Democrat Mikie Sherrill carried it in the state’s 2025 gubernatorial election.
Most voters express sympathy for Kean
Among New Jersey voters USA TODAY spoke with in affluent Westfield, historic, semi-rural Flemington Borough and the middle-to-upper class community of Somerville, the sentiment was mixed. A handful of voters said they did not know about the representative's absence from Capitol Hill and some did not even know that an election was coming up.
One Republican woman and 30-year Flemington resident, who would not share her name, told USA TODAY that Kean's depression experience makes her want to vote for him more, because Kean could relate to something that a lot of people experience.
“Tom," a Democrat from Raritan Township who would only give his first name, said that he does think many voters are aware of Kean’s absence and shared that his wife attended a rally raising complaints about it outside the district’s congressional office in the spring. Tom said that while he does feel bad for the congressman's mental health struggles, he does not agree with Kean's voting record.
Columbus O’Berry, a U.S. Army veteran living in Somerville, said he will be “sticking with the Democratic Party,” but he expressed sympathy for Kean’s illness, telling USA TODAY that the politician is “just like anybody else, he’s human.”
Republican leadership sticks by Kean
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, defended his Republican colleague throughout his spring absence, telling reporters at the time, "He's had a medical issue. I don't even know the details, and I have to respect that."
Kean's seat is one of the races that could determine whether Johnson keeps the speaker's gavel.
In August, Johnson made a campaign stop with Kean in New Jersey, telling reporters for WFMZ-TV that “when you rank the races, the closest races around the country, everyone looks to the 7th District of New Jersey almost every cycle, as a really important one.”
Kean Jr. comes from a well-known New Jersey family that is the namesake for the state’s public research institution Kean University. His father is former Gov. Thomas Kean, who served from 1982 to 1990. His grandfather, former Rep. Robert W. Kean, served in Congress from 1939 to 1959.
Both candidates avoid discussing Kean's absence
In a Sept. 27 debate between the candidates, Kean defended his handling of the absence saying, “nobody can plan a medical emergency and that was a medical emergency and we were very clear with our constituents as well as the press that we were seeking medical treatment.”
“We were also very transparent when we spoke on the house floor about my condition of depression and make sure we want to get rid of the stigma associated with any mental health issues,” Kean said.
Bennett said in a statement upon Kean’s return to Congress that she was “relieved that Congressman Tom Kean Jr. is well” and wished him good health, but also added that she “got into this race because Tom Kean Jr. was failing our community long before this absence.”
Bennett – casually referred to as “Rebecca” by voters who spoke with USA TODAY – is a retired U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and former healthcare executive. Her campaign has stayed away from his absence and mental health, instead criticizing the incumbent for his support of Trump's tax and spending cuts and focusing on her own priorities such as affordability, which is her party's leading issue this year.
Cassino doesn’t see Kean's prolonged absence as something that will directly affect voters. He also noted that while Kean was seeking treatment, he wasn’t on the campaign trail and lost valuable time that “he could have been using to build up a stronger relationship with his constituents.”
“Kean has been so lowkey a member of Congress, so eager to stay out of the media that his illness might be the only time voters have heard anything about him,” he said. “That’s less an effect of the illness than it is an effect of Kean’s campaign style, but it’s a problem for him.”
Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, noted that the most recent polling in the district didn’t ask about Kean's illness and absence, so “we don't know exactly what voters are thinking about it.”
“Republicans were hoping it would be old news by now, and up until this week, they'd more or less gotten their wish in that the campaign had been focused mostly on other issues like health care, stock trades, and the affordability of gas and groceries,” he told USA TODAY.
He explained that the House Majority PAC, which supports Democrats running for the House, ran two ads in late September to remind voters of Kean’s absense and that when money is spent on specific messaging like that, it has been tested and is expected to resonate with voters.
Frustration with Republicans in Kean’s Democratic-leaning hometown
Westfield, Kean’s hometown, a New York City suburb, leans Democratic. In the 2024 election, former Vice President Kamala Harris won in the town and Kean lost to his Democratic opponent by around 3,000 votes – although he won the district overall.
Lena Rella, a registered Democrat, said she isn’t sure if she’ll vote in this election because she’s burnt out by politics, but would probably vote against Kean just because he’s a Republican.
Still, Rella noted that she voted for Kean in 2022 over then-Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat. “It was his legacy, his father, and what he did,” she said before going on to say that she supported Kean as a fellow Westfield resident.
Rella said that his personal struggles and absence don’t really play a part and that she thinks “it was great that he said what he went through” and that “if he didn't then there might have been some confusion.”
“I can't even imagine. Me and my husband talk about it sometimes because now all the commercials,” she said. “He must have been not feeling too good for him to be out that long.”
Another Westfield resident, Ingrid McKinley, said she’s voting for Bennett in November, saying that Kean’s voting has been too aligned with the Trump administration for her preferences.
Robert Algarin shared that he has met Kean a few times at fundraisers and community barbecues and "he's not a bad man" but, in his opinion, “Republicans have dropped the ball on the institutional integrity of what they're supposed to be doing in Congress.”
Algarin was previously a registered Republican but switched his party affiliation to independent, explaining that because of the Trump administration, he will vote Democrat.
He also explained that he does not support any member from either party taking prolonged absences, highlighting Kean and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, as examples of people who “have a job they just don't show up to for a couple of months.”
“They get paid. That's wrong. That's not just him. The Democrats do the same thing, but that's got to change,” Algarin said. “Unfortunately, the Republicans are doing that more right now, not showing up to work and getting paid for it.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rep. Tom Kean Jr. might lose, but not because of four-month absence
