After a 116-day absence from Washington, followed by a five-minute speech in a largely empty House chamber, Representative Thomas Kean Jr. now begins a four-month fight for his political survival.
His re-election may depend in part on whether Mr. Kean’s long absence, and the depression diagnosis that sidelined him, affect his ability to mount a defense of his seat in November.
“Today I stand before you healthier, stronger and excited to return to the work that I love,” he said Tuesday, talking about his illness on the House floor.
Still, his campaign team appeared cleareyed about the challenges ahead — and the importance of having ample funds to shape the message: Mr. Kean had a fund-raiser scheduled on the evening of his first day back in the public eye.
In a midterm year when the political winds are expected to blow against vulnerable Republican incumbents, Mr. Kean has to make up for lost time and convince voters that he is healthy enough to serve.
His long absence gave Democrats a head start. It also offered an opening to reinforce what they see as Mr. Kean’s willingness to fly under the radar even as President Trump has taken actions they consider harmful to the district.
After Mr. Kean’s speech, his Democratic opponent, Rebecca Bennett, wished him well. Then she went on to cite several issues in which she said he had failed to stand up to Mr. Trump, including the president’s efforts to cancel funding for a Hudson River train tunnel vital to commuters in the affluent, suburban district in North Jersey.
“I got into this race because Tom Kean Jr. was failing our community long before this absence,” she said in a statement.
Democrats see the election as a must-win race, particularly after Republicans used a recent Supreme Court decision to redraw districts to their advantage ahead of the midterm elections.
“Flipping this seat is really critical to taking the House majority,” Representative Suzan DelBene of Washington State, the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an interview before Mr. Kean’s disclosure on Tuesday. The lack of information shared about his extended absence, she said, was “unacceptable.”
“We have important things happen on the floor of the House,” she said, “and you can’t just disappear and not lose the trust of constituents.”
In his floor speech on Tuesday, Mr. Kean described his initial reluctance about remaining hospitalized while undergoing treatment. “To be honest, I was hesitant,” he said. “I didn’t think that I had time for it. I had responsibilities to my family. I had responsibilities to my constituents. I had responsibilities to this institution, and like many people, I believed that I could simply push through.”
After the speech, words of support flowed in for Mr. Kean, a mild-mannered son of a well-liked former New Jersey governor.
“Public officials are human beings and those who are called to serve often carry a profound sense of responsibility,” Aura K. Dunn, a Republican member of the State Assembly, said after listening to Mr. Kean’s explanation for his prolonged absence. “Seeking help,” she added, “is a sign of strength, not weakness.”
Ed McGuire, a retired police detective, said he had seen many officers suffer from serious mental health challenges. The length of Mr. Kean’s time in treatment stunned him.
“At least he went for help,” Mr. McGuire said. “But that’s pretty scary hearing that they kept him. Usually they give you a few pills and you go away, but it must have been more complicated.”
He said he still plans to vote for Mr. Kean — and every other Republican on the ballot — in November. But the lack of information during Mr. Kean’s four-month absence was also disappointing. “I wouldn’t have kept it that quiet that long,” said Mr. McGuire, 65. “I would have opened up a lot sooner.”
He’s not the only one. House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated that he had urged Mr. Kean to share more about his condition earlier, telling reporters on Tuesday that he had “encouraged him many times over the last few months” to be more transparent about his health.
“If it were me, I would have been more specific about that,” Mr. Johnson said — noting, as Mr. Kean did in his speech, that depression is a common condition.
Bill Palatucci, Mr. Kean’s longtime campaign lawyer and one of New Jersey’s two Republican National Committee members, called the fascination that surrounded Mr. Kean’s mysterious absence “inside baseball.”
“It’s not what voters will be voting for in the fall,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s name will not appear on the November ballot. But the president, whose approval ratings have sunk to historic lows, is nonetheless expected to be on the minds of both Democrats and Republicans as they cast ballots in a race that could tip the balance of power in Washington. Mr. Trump reiterated his endorsement for Mr. Kean on the eve of the congressman’s June 2 primary, in which he ran unopposed.
Mr. Kean’s political fate might be partly determined by how voters feel about him in relation to the president. Patrick Esposito, 85, a strong supporter of Mr. Trump, said he was too busy at work to take time to listen to Mr. Kean’s explanation for his long absence. Mr. Esposito’s biggest question about Mr. Kean, when he cast a ballot for him in the primary, was whether the congressman was MAGA enough.
“This whole country is upside down,” Mr. Esposito said on Tuesday, “and the working man’s paying for it.”
Bill E. Morrissey, 76, lives close to Mr. Kean in Westfield, N.J., and has been a Republican for his entire adult life. But he strongly opposes Mr. Trump, and cast a write-in ballot for Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, in the 2024 presidential election.
He said he was undecided about whom he might vote for in November but was concerned that Mr. Kean is a “yes man” for the president.
“Tom Kean can’t rubber stamp everything that Donald Trump espouses,” he said on Tuesday.
