After mysterious four-month absence, GOP congressman plans grand return

One day before Republicans Representative Tom Kean Jr. The long-lost congressman, who was planning to return to Washington, was going through his mail next to his wife on the steps of his tidy Tudor-style home in North Jersey.

Wearing a gray polo, Kean entered with a casual wave when he noticed a CNN reporter on the street. Then he sent a spokesman for his campaign to deliver a message his GOP colleagues have been eager to hear for months.

The 57-year-old congressman will be “fully transparent” about his nearly four-month absence when he returns to Washington on Tuesday, spokesman Harrison Neely told CNN.

The two-term Republican is planning to give a speech to address his unexplained health condition, according to a person familiar with the plans. Kean’s family and assistants have been I said very little Despite fellow Republicans publicly urging him to provide more information, he is absent except because he is recovering from a medical condition and “under the care of a doctor.”

His absence has rattled House Republicans who worry it will complicate the GOP’s ability to hold on to a critical swing seat in an already difficult midterm cycle, multiple sources previously told CNN.

House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with Kean by phone and said publicly that he insisted Kean explain his absence to his constituents.

Party leaders and top aides have repeatedly told CNN they have no idea where Kean is; That’s a rarity for the House GOP leadership team, which is tasked with keeping in close touch with rank-and-file members in historically narrow majorities. He has missed hundreds of votes, many of them close, since early March.

His interaction with a CNN reporter on Monday appears to be the second documented sighting in as many months, following the first sighting at his Westfield home. by New York Times last week.

Meanwhile, senior leadership staff were left to speculate about his illness and why he chose not to disclose it for months. Members of parliament who believed they were close to him were disturbed by the messages that were not returned. Democratic operatives have stepped up their attacks, newly confident they can flip his competitive battleground seat.

It is not uncommon for members of Congress to take medical leave, sometimes leaving them unable to vote for weeks. But even GOP aides are privately admitting they are disappointed in the way Kean’s aides have handled his absence, his refusal to disclose his health condition and the way he has kept his constituents in the dark.

The New Jersey congressman said on social media in late April that he was dealing with a “personal medical issue” and would be back “very soon,” without specifying what it was. He said late last month New Jersey Globe He said he would be back in the “next few weeks.”

While Kean entered the primary unopposed in early June, some GOP officials were privately unsure whether he would run in November. Kean’s office said in a statement to the press that he plans to run for re-election.

His Democratic opponent, Rebecca Bennett, has said little about Kean’s absence. But Suzan Delbene, campaign chief for House Democrats, insisted there must be transparency.

“Obviously I wish him the best, but it’s also his job to be transparent with his community, and there’s been a lack of clarity as to why he’s been gone for so long,” Delbene recently told a group of local reporters. New Jersey Globe.

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