When Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., announced her plan to seek re-election earlier this year, she didn’t break the news at a flashy campaign rally or even in a social media video. Instead, the 83-year-old congresswoman informed allies in a series of private phone calls.
Wilson’s constituents would have likely appreciated the chance to see their elected representative, who has been absent from Capitol Hill for a month after apparently undergoing an eye surgery. But Wilson is not the only conspicuously absent lawmaker. Rep. Thomas Kean Jr., R-N.J., has not appeared in Congress — or anywhere else, apparently — since March 5. Kean’s own GOP colleagues said they have not been able to get in touch with him.
On April 22, Kean consultant Harrison Neely told Politico that the congressman would be “back on a regular full schedule very soon.” Nearly a month later, Kean still has not shown his face in his district or on Capitol Hill. Asked on Tuesday when (or if) Kean has plans to return to his job, Neely again assured New Jerseyans that “there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.”
The story of the House’s two missing members is eerily similar to that of 83-year-old former Rep. Kay Granger, who disappeared from Congress for five months in 2024.
If that’s true, why can’t Kean say it himself?
The story of the House’s two missing members is eerily similar to that of 83-year-old former Rep. Kay Granger, who disappeared from Congress for five months in 2024 only to be found living at a memory clinic in her district. Granger’s son confirmed the Texas Republican had been suffering from “dementia issues” and simply stopped showing up for work without informing her constituents.
With Granger absent, her district staff locked the office door and stopped answering the phones. Constituent service requests piled up. Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Bo French accused Granger of “disenfranchis[ing] 2 million people” with her disappearing act. Wilson and Kean’s failure of transparency has done their own constituents the same grave disservice.
This kind of government dysfunction hits especially hard at a time when 84% of Americans say democracy is “in crisis or facing serious challenges,” according to research by the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Surveys by Navigator Research have consistently found supermajorities of voters in both parties believe their elected officials are out of touch and don’t care about them. That cynicism about American democracy only worsens when members of Congress behave as if they are above talking to the people they serve.
Wilson and Kean can’t be blamed for battling health issues, but their staggering lack of transparency with voters raises a serious question about what voters should do when they find themselves lacking a representative in Congress. Both lawmakers have missed dozens of critical House votes without the slightest explanation to their constituents as to when they will come back to work.
That’s a slap in the face to voters who would be fired from their private sector jobs for daring to disappear without notice. It’s also a rallying cry for Democrats seeking to harness voters’ growing discontent with do-nothing lawmakers ahead of key primaries, such as New Jersey’s upcoming June 2 contest.
“If you were missing work, you would tell your boss, and Tom Kean Jr.’s boss is the people. He did not tell us. That’s it,” said Michael Roth, one of the Democrats running to replace Kean this November. “It is time that we get a member of Congress who will show up.”
Wilson and Kean certainly have a right to privacy, but they also have a duty as public servants to represent their voters. At minimum, they owe the people of Florida and New Jersey a good reason for cutting them off completely. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he spoke with Kean last month, but Kean’s constituents may not be so lucky: When I reached out to Kean’s district office on Friday, the call went to voicemail.
We should be more concerned than ever that our system of government actually lives up to its promise of equal representation under law.
Congressional offices can function even without the members present on a day-to-day basis. It’s true that staffers manage almost all constituent casework, from helping voters connect with federal agencies to processing passports to helping veterans secure medical care. But those staffers can’t vote in place of their missing member, and on a more fundamental level, those unelected staffers are not the person voters elected to be their advocate in Congress.
As America celebrates its 250th birthday, we should be more concerned than ever that our system of government actually lives up to its promise of equal representation under law. An absent and unreachable lawmaker is ultimately an injustice against constituents who are denied the full equality of their voice in government. The people of Florida and New Jersey are entitled to better than that.
If Wilson and Kean are unwilling or unable to return to work, the only ethical decision is to resign and make way for someone with the capacity to serve. Their continued absences only undermine a system already struggling with a crisis of voter faith. This is probably not how Wilson or Kean saw their time in Congress ending, but it is a necessary reminder that the most important part of public service is having the humility and self-awareness to put the needs of your constituents first — even if that means saying goodbye.
Max Burns is a Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies. Find him on X, @themaxburns.