A competitive district's congressman has missed 54 votes with no disclosed condition, no family statement, and no party coordination, during a zero-margin House majority.
TRENTON — Representative Tom Kean Jr. (R-07) has not cast a vote in Congress since March 5. Fifty-four days later, the Republican congressman from New Jersey's 7th District remains absent from Washington, from his committee, and from public view. With no disclosed diagnosis, no family statement, and no estimated return date, Kean remains invisible as the election for his House seat, one of the nation's most competitive, swiftly approaches.
Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with Kean by telephone on April 24 and told reporters that the congressman is "attending to a personal health matter and expects to be back to 100% very soon." Kean's chief of staff, Dan Scharfenberger, said April 21 that the congressman "is addressing a personal health matter and will be returning to a regular full schedule." Campaign strategist Harrison Neely echoed these statements, telling ABC News that Kean is "dealing with a personal medical issue" and "is going to be 100% fine and back with a full schedule soon."
None of the three officials provided a specific condition, hospital, or calendar date for Kean's return.
Johnson can afford to lose only two Republican votes in the House, where votes tend to split along party lines. House Clerk records show that Kean has missed 54 roll call votes since March 5, including a two-week congressional recess. His lifetime missed-vote rate is 3.6 percent, above the House median of 2.1 percent. Kean's current absence comes as Congress considers Department of Homeland Security funding, an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and immigration enforcement legislation.
Committee transcripts confirm that Kean has not appeared at any Energy and Commerce Committee markups or hearings since his last vote. Kean's absence has also frozen his work with the Health Subcommittee at a critical moment. The subcommittee, which oversees FDA pharmaceutical regulation, held markups on April 9 that Kean missed. Both Merck in Union County and Johnson & Johnson in Middlesex County fall within Kean's NJ-07 district. The Energy Subcommittee, which handles grid reliability legislation, met without him on April 16. No pharmaceutical or medical device trade group has commented on the vacancy.
Their silence mirrors Speaker Johnson's: a critical seat sits empty during active legislation, and the industries that depend on it say nothing, for now.
The Republican Party apparatus has not defended or explained Kean's absence. The National Republican Campaign Committee, which exists to protect vulnerable incumbents, has issued no statement on the situation. The House Majority Whip's office, responsible for tracking attendance, did not respond to a request for comment.
Nor has the House Republican Conference briefed rank-and-file members on the absence, according to multiple Republicans who spoke to Politico. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said he did not realize Kean was missing until he tried to find him on the House floor.
At the county level, only one of the six Republican chairs in NJ-07 has spoken publicly. Union County GOP Chair Carlos Santos told Politico he has texted with Kean and was told the congressman "will be fine and make a full recovery in the next couple weeks."
But Santos added: "I don't even know the truth myself or even enough to disclose any information."
The other five county chairs, Morris, Somerset, Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex, have issued no statement.
With the Democratic primary to elect Kean's November challenger approaching, the four candidates competing for the nomination have attacked Kean's absence while largely avoiding the health angle. Candidate Tina Shah, a physician, told NJ Spotlight News that "Tom Kean is saying nothing. He's nowhere to be found." She framed the absence as an accountability issue rather than a medical one.
Susan Altman, Kean's 2024 competitor, and a leading Democratic fundraiser, has held 12 campaign events since March 5. Altman, who is currently running for the Democratic nomination in the adjacent 12th District, uses the absence as a constituent-service wedge, not to attack Kean's health. Shah has held 8 events, also with the same framing.
Kean's office has continued releasing statements and correspondence during the absence. On April 7 it issued a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, regarding a warehouse purchase for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Roxbury Township. Local Republican officials had criticized Kean for insufficient advocacy against the facility before his absence started.
Constituent services, meanwhile, have slowed. The number of casework cases opened has dropped to roughly 45 in April from a pre-absence baseline near 120 per month. Passport and Social Security advocacy have fallen by half. Kean's office had previously announced more than $60 million in constituent casework relief, but no new totals have been released since his absence began.
The congressman is unopposed in the June 2 Republican primary, and ballots have already been mailed. Under New Jersey law, if Kean were to withdraw after winning the primary, Republican county chairs from the six counties comprising NJ-07 would select a replacement nominee for the November ballot. The mechanism has never been tested in a competitive general election with a potentially incapacitated nominee.
Former Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation in January reforming the state's House vacancy procedures, requiring a special election within 135 days if a vacancy occurs with more than 135 days remaining in the term. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said at the signing that "no family should wait months for representation."
The law was designed to prevent the four-month delays seen after the 2024 deaths of Reps. Donald Payne, Jr., and Bill Pascrell, Jr. But the statute applies to death or resignation, not to prolonged medical absence without resignation.
A 2020 Bipartisan Policy Center study found that no sitting member of Congress has ever been removed from office for incapacitation. The study cited the cases of Senator Karl Mundt (R-SD), who was absent for three years after a stroke in late 1970. The closest example was the case of Representative Gladys Noon Spellman (D-MD), who was re-elected while in a coma but never seated; Congress declared the seat vacant. The House eliminated pandemic-era proxy voting in 2022, and no mechanism currently allows an absent member to cast votes remotely.
Kean's campaign reported $3.35 million cash on hand at the end of March, about $2 million more than each of the Democratic challengers. But no campaign events have been scheduled since March 5, and the next quarterly filing is not due until July. FEC expenditure records show zero travel costs, zero event spending, and standard staff payroll since the absence began.
Constituents have posted questions on Kean's official social media accounts asking for town halls and information about his whereabouts, according to NJ Spotlight News. His office has not held a public appearance since before his last vote. C-SPAN archives show his last indexed appearance was December 16, 2025.
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Sources
House Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, "Roll Call Votes," Office of the Clerk (Live).
GovTrack, "Rep. Tom Kean Jr. — Missed Votes and Legislative Activity," Civic Impulse LLC (Live).
Federal Election Commission, "Form 3 — Report of Receipts and Disbursements: Kean for Congress, Q1 2026," FEC (March 31, 2026).
Federal Election Commission, "Candidate and Committee Viewer: NJ-07 Democratic Primary," FEC (Live).
New Jersey State Legislature, "A5886/S4664 — House Vacancy Procedures Reform," signed by Governor Murphy (January 15, 2026).
C-SPAN, "Rep. Tom Kean Jr. — Most Recent Appearances," C-SPAN Archives (Last appearance: December 16, 2025).
U.S. House of Representatives, "Committee on Energy and Commerce — Republican Members," House Committee Directory (119th Congress).
U.S. House of Representatives, "Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing Transcripts," Office of the Clerk (March–April 2026).
NBC News, "Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Has Missed More Than 50 Votes Over 'Personal Health Matter,'" NBC News (April 25, 2026).
The New York Times, "Concern Grows Over Republican Congressman's Extended Absence," The New York Times (April 24, 2026).
ABC News, "New Jersey Congressman Misses More Than 50 Votes Due to 'Personal Medical Issue,'" ABC News (April 25, 2026).
Politico, "New Jersey's Most Vulnerable GOP Incumbent Is MIA," Politico (April 23, 2026).
The Seattle Times, "Concern Grows Over Republican Congressman's Extended Health Absence," The Seattle Times (April 25, 2026).
Fox News, "Chad Pergram Reports on Rep. Kean's Extended Absence," Fox News (April 26, 2026).
Yahoo News / Associated Press, "NJ Congressman Absent for Weeks Over 'Personal Health Matter,'" Yahoo News (April 25, 2026).
The New Republic, "Colleagues Unable to Reach Missing Republican Congressman," The New Republic (April 23, 2026).
New Jersey Monitor, "Kean Sends Letter to DHS on Roxbury Warehouse During Absence," New Jersey Monitor (April 7, 2026).
NJ Spotlight News, "Colleagues Concerned as Kean Absence Extends," NJ Spotlight News (April 23, 2026).
New Jersey Globe, "Tom Kean Jr. Still Missing Votes Due to Unspecified Medical Issue," New Jersey Globe (April 15, 2026).
New Jersey Globe, "Tom Kean Jr. Will Miss Votes Once Again This Week," New Jersey Globe (April 21, 2026).
NorthJersey.com (Bergen Record), "Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Handling Personal Health Matter," NorthJersey.com (April 24, 2026).
WRNJ Radio, "NJ Governor Signs House Vacancy Reform Bill," WRNJ Radio (January 15, 2026).
Stats with Sasa, "Congressional Absenteeism: Granger, Grijalva, and Historical Precedent," Stats with Sasa (December 26, 2024).
Bipartisan Policy Center, "Congressional Incapacitation: Removal, Succession, and Historical Precedent," Bipartisan Policy Center (March 2020).
NJBIZ, "Pharmaceutical Industry Presence in Central New Jersey," NJBIZ (Sector analysis, 2026).