| It’s been more than a week since Congressman Tom Kean Jr. returned from his months-long absence. He still owes New Jerseyans answers.
The Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board called out Kean Jr. today, writing that he “has yet to make a full public accounting for what happened, which should include answering direct questions.”
And a longtime New Jersey columnist and editor wrote that Kean Jr. has failed to answer for “stock trades he made while absent from Congress,” or how he can “justify his vote for deep cuts” to health care which will now force some New Jerseyans to lose access to the kind of care that he himself received.
Read what they’re saying for yourself:
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Tom Kean Jr. did the right thing by stepping away to be treated for depression. Now he owes voters some answers. [Editorial]
The Editorial Board | July 9, 2026
- […] private or not, [Tom Kean Jr.] is a public servant who owes voters a fuller explanation. So far, he has declined to answer any further questions.
- At the very least, the congressman’s return put an end to weeks of rampant speculation as to his whereabouts. None of which was helped by a lack of transparency by Kean’s team, which, after stating in April that he was dealing with a “personal health matter,” deflected all questions — sometimes to bizarrely cryptic effect. At one point, a staffer told reporters that “there are no cameras where Tom is.”
- There may have been no cameras, but during his time away, Kean managed to maintain his reelection campaign and appears to have traded stock. He was also getting paid.
- Still, Kean has yet to make a full public accounting for what happened, which should include answering direct questions.
- Given his public responsibilities — and that he is up for reelection in November — constituents have a right to understand what happened and what they can expect going forward.
- […] What changes can his constituents now expect to see? In the past, Kean was notorious for dodging interactions with constituents […] Will this change?
Philadelphia Inquirer: N.J.’s Tom Kean Jr. is back. Can he save a political dynasty? [Opinion]
By Tom Moran | July 7, 2026
- The race was tough to begin with for Kean, given the poisonous dislike of President Donald Trump in New Jersey and Kean’s unwavering fidelity to him. Now, Kean’s absence has handed Democrats a potent new weapon.
- How, they ask, can he justify his vote for deep cuts in Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act through the Big Beautiful Bill, which deprived more than 300,000 Jersey residents of health coverage they might have relied on to address the same problem? What would he have done without his own cushy congressional coverage or his vast personal wealth, which he’s valued at a minimum of $12.4 million?
- So far, Kean has declined to address that question.
- What about the stock trades he made while absent from Congress? How is it possible, Democrats ask, that he was able to tend to his own finances but not the public’s business?
- “This is the self-serving culture in Washington that New Jerseyans are rejecting, and the kind of behavior they are sick and tired of,” says his opponent, Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot.
- […] the trades could prove costly for Kean. In his 2022 campaign, he promised to establish a blind trust, and four years later, he still has not done so.
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