Absentee Tom Kean Jr. makes a mockery of the republic by not showing up

By James J. Devine

Woody Allen’s famous quote, “80% of success is showing up,” has been lost on a New Jersey congressman who has virtually had everything in life handed to him—without being physically present or earning deserved credit for achieving goals—but rumor has it that he will attend a campaign fundraising event tonight.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson’s proposal to ban slavery in the Western territories failed by a single vote because a New Jersey delegate was too sick to attend.

That absenteeism — one man’s illness — altered the course of American history, allowing slavery to spread across the continent and deepening the sectional divide that would ultimately consume the nation in civil war.

Jefferson later wrote that the proposal failed to pass by one vote because one of two New Jersey delegates to the Continental Congress, John Beatty, a medical doctor and slaveowner from Princeton, was sick in his chambers and was absent from the meeting.

Now, 242 years later, another New Jersey Republican is demonstrating that absenteeism remains a proud family tradition in the Garden State.

But where the 1784 delegate had the excuse of genuine illness, Representative Thomas Kean Jr. has spent the past four months treating the United States Congress like a forgotten gym membership — one he’s happy to let lapse while still expecting to keep the locker.

Kean has not cast a vote in the House since March 5. He has missed more than 100 roll call votes — 135, by some counts. He has not been seen in Washington or his district for nearly four months.

His staff has offered nothing but cryptic vagaries about a “personal medical condition”, while his social media accounts have remained suspiciously active and stock trades have continued to execute in his name.

The MIA congressman has been more visible on Truth Social than on the floor of the House of Representatives.

And what is the first order of business for the returning congressman? A fundraiser.

On the very day he finally deigns to show up for work — June 30 — Kean will attend a reception to raise money for his re-election campaign.

He has at least four more fundraisers scheduled for the summer and fall. Because nothing says “I take my job seriously” like demanding campaign cash from the very constituents you’ve abandoned for a third of the year.

Let us be clear about what Kean has done. He has not been fighting for New Jersey families. He has not been casting votes on legislation that affects the lives of his 700,000 constituents. He has not been showing up to committee hearings or advocating for the district that sent him to Washington. He has been, by every meaningful measure, AWOL.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair, Suzan DelBene, put it plainly: “The people in New Jersey haven’t had representation, and that is unacceptable”. It is, in fact, more than unacceptable. It is a dereliction of duty so profound that it makes a mockery of the very concept of representative democracy.

Kean’s defenders — and they are few, even among his own party — will point to health privacy. They will argue that a medical condition deserves compassion. And they would be right — if Kean had offered even the barest transparency.

Instead, his office has stonewalled, deflected, and promised “complete transparency” upon his return — a promise as empty as the chair he has left vacant for 112 days.

His Republican allies, growing frustrated, have been left to twist in the wind. Speaker Mike Johnson has offered vague assurances about a “rare” health issue. The Sussex County Republican chairman is “really looking forward to him getting back out on the street” — a sentiment that sounds less like enthusiasm and more like desperation.

Meanwhile, his Democratic challenger, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, has been doing the work Kean has abandoned — talking to voters, showing up, earning the job.

“Tom Kean Jr. has been failing this district long before he went missing,” Bennett said. She is not wrong.

The irony is rich.

Kean comes from a lineage of public servants stretching back 250 years to New Jersey’s first governor. His great-grandfather was a senator. His grandfather was a congressman. His father was a two-term governor.

And yet, when it comes time to actually do the job, the modern heir to that legacy has chosen invisibility over service, mystery over accountability, and fundraisers over floor votes. Not to mention that Tom Kean Jr. has been an absolute coward in Congress.

Jefferson, for all his moral failures, at least understood the stakes. When his anti-slavery measure failed by one vote, he wrote bitterly of “the fate of millions unborn hanging on the tongue of one man.”

Kean seems to understand nothing at all — except, perhaps, the importance of protecting his own political future.

The people of New Jersey’s 7th District deserve better.

They deserve a representative who shows up. They deserve a congressman who votes. They deserve someone who treats public service as a sacred trust, not a part-time hobby punctuated by fundraising receptions.

Tom Kean Jr. has failed that test. And in November, the voters should return the favor.