House Democratic super PAC launches new ad targeting Tom Kean Jr.

Rep. Tom Kean Jr., New Jersey’s most vulnerable House incumbent, is the subject of a new digital ad launched by the House Democrats’ super PAC.

Kean’s  7th District is one of nine where the House Majority PAC has started running new television or digital ads.

The ad criticizes Kean for being absent from Washington for months. He had been hospitalized for depression.

It shows students in a classroom while the narrator says, “Imagine if you paid your tuition but your professor didn’t show up for the whole semester. That’s how politician Tom Kean Jr. treats his job.”

The ad goes on to criticize Kean for trading stocks during his absence, as well as supporting President Donald Trump’s policies that have helped increase gasoline and grocery prices. Inflation stood at 3.4% in August, compared with 2.5% in August 2024 under President Joe Biden.

“Groceries, gas, utilities, you name it. No-show Kean made it cost more,” the narrator said.

Kean, who ousted Rep. Tom Malinowski in 2022 after the then-Democratic incumbent faced his own questions about trading stocks, imitially sought to create a formal qualified blind trust after entering Congress in 2023, but House rules prevented him from instructing its managers to avoid companies tied to foreign adversaries or prohibit the short-selling of American companies.  He instead placed his assets under independent professional management, where he has no say in stock trading activities.

The trades referenced in the ad were required to be disclosed by federal law and  were made by independent investment professionals without his knowledge or involvement.