Rep. Tom Kean Jr. has been missing from congressional action since early March — no public appearances, no congressional votes, not even replies to text messages from concerned colleagues.
During Kean’s disappearance, which Politico reported is health related, the New Jersey Republican has been active in at least one respect: stock trading.
Congressional financial records reviewed by NOTUS indicate Kean bought and sold shares of eight different stocks between March 10 and March 31, including those of Amcor, Chubb Limited, First Citizens BancShares, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo.
The combined value of the trades is from $50,008 to $190,000. (Federal lawmakers are only required to disclose the value of their trades in broad ranges.)
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Kean personally certified the disclosure, affixing his digital signature to the document on April 13.
On March 18, Kean also certified his disclosure of several other personal stock and U.S. Treasury note trades that he reported making in February.
Kean last voted in Congress on March 5 and has since missed several dozen House roll call votes. Following publication of this story, Kean’s chief of staff, Dan Scharfenberger, said that the congressman has a “blind structure with his personal investments” but didn’t otherwise answer emailed questions.
“Please know that he will be back on a regular full schedule very soon,” Kean consultant Harrison Neely told Politico earlier this week.
Stock trading has been a theme across Kean’s career in Congress.
In 2022, Kean defeated then-Rep. Tom Malinowski, whose stock disclosure-related violations of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act dogged him throughout his reelection bid.
As a newly minted congressman in 2023, Kean cast himself as an ethics reformer, pledging to place his millions of dollars worth of personal assets into a congressionally approved blind trust. But Kean never did, in part blaming a cumbersome process for doing so.
He’s continued to trade individual stocks while serving in Congress, although he’s sponsored legislation that would ban members of Congress from short-selling stocks.
A bipartisan coalition of federal lawmakers wants to go further, agitating for a complete ban of congressional stock trading to defend against conflicts of interest and curb rampant and recent violations of the existing STOCK Act. Kean has not, to date, co-sponsored the Stop Insider Trading Act, the favored Republican bill for banning federal lawmakers from trading stocks.
His congressional office told the New Jersey Globe last year that Kean’s personal finances are managed by investment professionals and Kean does not personally “direct, influence or participate in any stock and investment trading activity whatsoever.”
The two-term congressman is now embroiled in one of the nation’s most competitive House races, with the Cook Political Report scoring it a “toss-up.”
This article has been updated to include comment from Rep. Tom Kean Jr.'s congressional office.
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