Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), who has been missing from Congress for well over two months now due to an undisclosed health issue, missing numerous roll call votes, has still been actively trading stocks during his absence. Financial records indicate that Kean both purchased and sold shares of eight different stocks between March 10 and March 31 of 2026.
The stocks that were bought and sold include Johnson & Johnson, Amcor, Chubb Limited, and First Citizens BancShares. The total combined value of the trades Kean made range from $58,008 to $190,000. The disclosures were personally certified by the New Jersey Republican himself via digital signature on April 13. The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Kean’s office for a comment, but as of this writing, has not received a response.
The last time Kean was present for a vote in Congress was on March 5, 2026. He has missed every single roll call vote in the House since that date. The New Jersey congressman has also missed 20% of the votes between January and March. The congressman’s absence is reportedly due to some sort of illness, though the nature of that illness has yet to be disclosed.
According to The Daily Caller, Kean recently spoke with a reporter from the New Jersey Globe and stated that he expects to make his return to Capitol Hill sometime soon to participate in roll call votes. He also revealed that he is expected to make a full recovery and will disclose further details about his health issues at a later date.
Kean defeated then-Democratic New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski in 2022 to take his seat in the House. Malinowski himself received considerable backlash for stock-disclosure related violations of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. When Kean first took his seat in Congress, he made a pledge to be an ethics reformer and put his millions of dollars worth of personal assets into a congressionally approved blind trust.
However, he never followed through on that pledge. Kean has continued to publicly trade personal stocks while sponsoring bills that would prohibit other members of Congress from short-selling stocks. Many of Kean’s fellow Republican colleagues have not spoken to him since his absence started, though he has had conversations with GOP leadership in his state after being out of touch.
Carlos Santos, the GOP chairman of Union County, said that Kean “sounded good” on the phone. Tracy DiFrancesco, the Republican Chair of Somerset County, also stated that Kean is “perfectly fine” and should be hitting the campaign trail again soon. Kean is up for reelection in the Garden State’s 7th District. There are currently four Democrats vying for the seat ahead of the June 2 primary election.
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Kean’s consultant, Harrison Neely, spoke with the media and said that Kean would definitely continue his reelection bid. Along with the information concerning his stock trades, Kean also signed two documents approving travel for his chief of staff, Daniel J. Scharfenberger on the dates of March 13 and March 14, according to The Daily Caller.
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