Democrats Show Support for Rep. Tom Kean Jr. After Depression Disclosure, But Still Eye His Seat

Democrats are showing their support for Rep. Tom Kean Jr. after the New Jersey Republican finally disclosed why he was away from Congress for more than 100 days.

But that doesn’t mean they are going to go any easier on the two-term Republican as they seek to flip his seat.

Kean, the son of a popular former governor of the Garden State, spoke on the House floor where he disclosed that he had been hospitalized for depression.

“It is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be,” Kean said. His speech came after he’d missed more than 100 votes and had not been seen on the Hill since March 5.

Publicly, many Democrats showed their support for him.

“I think that that's his business, and I'm just glad that he's healthy enough to be back,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), who is retiring, told The Independent. She also did not say whether Kean’s absence would hurt his chances at re-election.

“I think the dynamics of his district are an issue, so I don't know that anyone's going to try to make his health challenge an issue,” she said.

But Democrats still hope to flip New Jersey’s 7th district, and Kean’s disappearance may have made that a little more realistic. Biden won the seat in 2020. But in 2022, Kean beat Rep. Tom Malinoswki to flip the seat. Trump narrowly won the district in 2024 and Kean would slightly outperform Trump.

Earlier this month, Democratic voters in the 7th nominated Rebecca Bennett, a moderate Democrat and retired Navy helicopter pilot. In light of the news about Kean, she put out a statement simultaneously wishing him well while also criticizing his policies.

“I am relieved that Congressman Tom Kean Jr. is well and continue to wish him good health,” she said in a statement. “Yet Tom Kean Jr. still somehow found time to trade stocks while missing votes. This is the self-serving culture in Washington that New Jerseyans are rejecting, and the kind of behavior they are sick and tired of from career politicians.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elects Democrats, has also listed Bennett as part of its Red to Blue program, wherein candidates receive additional support.

Other frontline Democrats gave their sympathies.

“I'm sorry to hear about his condition, and I wish him well,” Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.), told The Independent.

“I'm not even thinking about that,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) told The Independent when asked about whether his re-election.

All of this sounds like genuine courtesy for a man who was unwell despite the fact that he went missing for more than three months. His disappearance diverges drastically from Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.), who early in his term underwent treatment for depression, but disclosed it upfront, which allowed his caucus to adjust accordingly.

Even House Speaker Mike Johnson said Kean should have disclosed upfront.

“I encouraged him to be transparent, because what you will find when he does the speech, whenever that happens today, is that there's no conspiracy involved in this at all, there's nothing scandalous at all,” Johnson told reporters before Kean delivered his floor speech.

“He has a health condition, as he said,” Johnson added. “If it were me, I would have been more specific about that, and I encouraged him to be.”

Of course, Johnson, who has to manage a tight majority, has his own reasons for saying this. He can only afford to lose so many votes and only a handful of House seats will determine who controls the majority.

Perhaps the most realistic view on Kean came from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who in the past had been hospitalized for depression.

“Depression is far more debilitating and far more crippling than people realize,” he told The Independent.

“Having said all that, when you're a public official, you cannot disappear for a long period of time without explaining why. The public is entitled to an explanation,” Torres said. “and I feel like when you're transparent with the public it deepens their empathy, and when you're anything other than forthright it undermines public trust.”

The whole affair of Kean’s disappearance and his subsequent return shows that despite wherever people’s sympathies lie, the House of Representatives is still a game of addition and subtraction. Kean made Johnson’s life harder, and his lack of transparency might exact an even steeper price.