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{"id":24829,"date":"2026-06-25T23:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tom-kean-jr-absent-for-months-to-hold-fundraiser-on-the-day-of-his-return\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:02:24","slug":"tom-kean-jr-absent-for-months-to-hold-fundraiser-on-the-day-of-his-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tom-kean-jr-absent-for-months-to-hold-fundraiser-on-the-day-of-his-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Kean Jr., absent for months, to hold fundraiser on the day of his return"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Next Tuesday, Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/196429\" data-person-id=\"196429\">Tom Kean Jr. <\/a>\u2014 missing from action for more than three months due to an unspecified medical condition \u2014 is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/06\/18\/congress\/tom-kean-return-00967295\" target=\"_blank\">scheduled to make his return<\/a> to his official duties in Congress. Later that same day, he\u2019ll be returning to the campaign fundraising circuit, too.<\/p>\n<p>According to an invitation shared with Blue Light News, a reception in support of Kean, a top Democratic target this fall, has been scheduled for the evening of June 30. Few other details are known about the fundraiser; Kean\u2019s spokespeople declined to comment, though they did not deny the event\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n<p>Kean also has at least four more fundraisers scheduled for later in the summer and fall, according to a schedule reviewed by Blue Light News. That\u2019s far from abnormal for a politician in a competitive race, but in the context of Kean\u2019s lengthy absence, it\u2019s an indication that the congressmember is indeed fully committed to his reelection campaign, as he\u2019s repeatedly asserted.<\/p>\n<p>A former state legislator in New Jersey who unseated a Democratic incumbent in 2022, the 57-year-old Kean last cast a vote on March 5, 112 days ago. His office <a href=\"https:\/\/newjerseyglobe.com\/congress\/d-c-dispatch-what-n-j-s-members-of-congress-did-in-washington-this-week-75\/\" target=\"_blank\">said on March 20<\/a> that he was \u201caddressing a personal health matter,\u201d an explanation that has been reiterated with scant additional details for months since then, allowing the mystery of his disappearance to quickly spiral from a local curiosity into a national news story.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Kean spokesperson Harrison Neely said he would be back on June 30, and would provide more details then on what\u2019s been ailing him. The New York Times\u2019 Tracey Tully <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/24\/nyregion\/tom-kean-missing-found.html\" target=\"_blank\">spoke with Kean in person<\/a> at his Westfield home yesterday, but learned few additional details about his condition.<\/p>\n<p>During Kean\u2019s absence, Democrats in his 7th Congressional District have endured an expensive primary contest and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/02\/a-democratic-former-navy-pilot-wins-primary-to-try-unseating-tom-kean-jr-in-new-jerseys-most-contested-house-race-00947722https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/02\/a-democratic-former-navy-pilot-wins-primary-to-try-unseating-tom-kean-jr-in-new-jerseys-most-contested-house-race-00947722\" target=\"_blank\">landed on a nominee<\/a>, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, who\u2019s been touted by national Democrats as a star recruit. Bennett herself has largely steered clear of attacking Kean over his medical woes, but an allied outside group recently <a href=\"https:\/\/newjerseyglobe.com\/congress\/liberal-super-pac-makes-keans-absence-a-campaign-issue\/\" target=\"_blank\">began an ad campaign<\/a> excoriating his missed votes.<\/p>\n<p>Kean\u2019s fundraising, too, has taken a hit during his time away from the campaign trail. Bennett outraised Kean by more than $100,000 in the fundraising period that covered April and early May, her first time doing so, though much of that money had to be immediately poured back into her Democratic primary campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The congressmember\u2019s June 30 fundraiser gives him a chance to start catching back up with Bennett on day one of his return, but it\u2019s also providing fodder for his Democratic critics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTom Kean Jr. has time to trade stocks and fundraise with his wealthy donors, but hasn\u2019t found the time to be transparent with his constituents about why he\u2019s been missing from work for months while taking a taxpayer salary,\u201d Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Eli Cousin said in a statement. \u201cHe represents everything that people hate about corrupt career politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Next Tuesday, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. \u2014 missing from action for more than three months due to an unspecified medical condition \u2014 is scheduled to make his return to his official duties in Congress. Later that same day, he\u2019ll be returning to the campaign fundraising circuit, too. According to an invitation shared with Blue Light [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}