WESTFIELD, N.J.— Rep. Tom Kean Jr. hasn’t been seen in Washington for more than 75 days. Speaker Mike Johnson says he hasn’t spoken to him recently, and his neighbors in suburban New Jersey say they haven’t seen him either.

The people who live on Kean’s affluent block noticed the Republican lawmaker’s disappearance long before it became the subject of a political mystery.

Kean’s two-story Tudor-style house has been dark for weeks, according to three neighbors who spoke to NOTUS but preferred not to be identified to avoid irking this politically powerful member of their community. Kean’s wife hasn’t been spotted walking the family dog. No one could remember the last time her car was parked in the driveway. A single gardening glove was left on the front lawn this past weekend.

After reporters and other lawmakers started questioning Kean’s whereabouts, the congressman put out a statement on April 27 that cited “a personal medical issue” and said, “My doctors continue to assure me that my recovery will be complete and that I will be back to the job I love very soon.” But then his appearances scheduled for late May were canceled, and his chief of staff, Dan Scharfenberger, made the intriguing comment to The New York Times that “there’s no cameras where Tom is.”

On Wednesday, Johnson said he’d talked to Kean “a few weeks ago now” and that Kean had assured him he’d be back “soon.” The speaker has little room for error as he will attempt to push through a partisan budget bill this week and can lose only two Republican votes on the legislation if all Democrats are present and oppose it.

“He’s had a medical issue, and he’s going to be fully transparent and disclose all that — I mean, that’s what he told me,” Johnson told reporters. “But I don’t even know the details, and, you know, I have to respect that it’s a member’s personal privacy on whatever matters they’re dealing with.”

Outside of Kean’s home in the affluent suburban town of Westfield on Monday, other houses were bustling with activity as landscapers worked on lawns. Rabbits and squirrels scurried across his front yard and throngs of parents walked their kids through the neighborhood to the nearby elementary school. Kean’s home remained dormant.

I approached the house to knock on the door. A black, long-stationary Ford F-150 sitting outside Kean’s home was coated in yellow pollen. The front door’s thumb-latch handle was partially detached and unscrewed from the blue-painted wood. A yard sign for Jack Ciattarelli’s failed 2025 gubernatorial campaign was in a trash heap in the den. No one answered either of two Reolink video-recording doorbells in the front of the house, which would have alerted the Keans to my presence six seconds before I rang anyway. All the first-floor windows remained uncovered, despite the scorching sun.

Westfield police reported they have no record of any calls to the home in recent years. There are signs the Keans haven’t disappeared entirely from the area. According to municipal records, the couple paid their sewer bill ahead of time on March 31; they paid their $6,910 property tax bill five days late on May 6.

One neighbor, who immediately identified herself as a Democrat, readily admitted she had no idea what had happened to the congressman — but complained that she was still receiving his “weird” digital newsletters. Another said the disappearance had become the top subject of neighborhood gossip. A third noted that she hadn’t seen the congressman’s wife either.

Then his wife, Rhonda Kean, appeared. I approached her Tuesday morning as she unpacked the trunk of her blue Land Rover Defender. She had returned home just in time for trash pickup day. Asked about the status of her husband, she winced and replied, “No comment.” Mrs. Kean was soon joined by a friend and quickly ushered inside.

After amassing an exemplary attendance record, the congressman has missed 88 House roll call votes since March 5.

During that time, NOTUS discovered that Kean had kept trading stocks; he submitted financial transaction reports to Congress, digitally signed on April 13, that indicated he bought and sold shares of eight stocks from mid- to late March with a combined value of between $50,008 and $190,000.

His absence became the focal point of the Democratic primary debate last week at the Union County Performing Arts Center, where all four progressive candidates onstage said it was a reason voters should replace him. Kean’s decision to stay in the race means he’s the only listed Republican on the primary ballot.

His staff has ramped up his congressional office’s social media presence, making at least 115 posts on X since his last House vote, including a post written in the first person on Wednesday. Some of it is self-congratulatory, with photos noting how staffers have appeared at events celebrating high school students enlisting for military service and a new addition to Sussex County Community College. One highlights how “Team Kean” attended the ribbon-cutting for a new ice cream shop.

Harrison Neely, a consultant who works with Kean’s political team, told NOTUS on Tuesday that Kean is “dealing with a personal medical situation and is under the care of doctors. The expectation is that he is going to be 100% and totally healthy. The timeline for that looks very good.”