Bill Morrissey, a lifelong Republican, did his homework before voting on Tuesday in New Jersey, as he always does.<\/p>\n
As he read the ballot, he saw a familiar name: Representative Thomas Kean Jr., a Republican who lives half a mile away from his house in Westfield, N.J., and has been missing from Congress for nearly three months with little explanation.<\/p>\n
The secrecy surrounding Mr. Kean\u2019s absence from Congress, Mr. Morrissey said, was troubling. \u201cWhat are they trying to hide?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he pushed the box next to Mr. Kean\u2019s name on the touch-screen anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could have skipped it,\u201d said Mr. Morrissey, 75, noting that Mr. Kean was running unopposed in the primary. \u201cBut it wouldn\u2019t have made a difference. That\u2019s the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helen Raczkowski, a self-described \u201ccard-carrying Republican\u201d from a neighboring town, Mountainside, made a different choice. She left the box blank in protest. She said she was concerned about Mr. Kean\u2019s ability to do his job and what she sees as his willingness to \u201ckowtow\u201d to President Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the price of gas. Look at the price of food,\u201d Ms. Raczkowski said. \u201cAnd all of this money going to a war with what end?\u201d<\/p>\n
The votes cast by Mr. Morrissey and Ms. Raczkowski in New Jersey\u2019s Seventh Congressional District will not matter much. Mr. Kean, 57, is assured of winning the nomination to compete in November against the winner of Tuesday\u2019s four-person Democratic primary.<\/p>\n
But interviews with two dozen Republican voters in Union, Morris and Somerset Counties on Tuesday and during the state\u2019s six-day early voting window hint at fissures within the party and the headwinds that Mr. Kean is likely to face as he seeks a third term.<\/p>\n
Mr. Kean has been absent from Congress since the middle of March as he recovers from what his aides have described only as a \u201cpersonal medical condition.\u201d Hours before polls closed, his spokesman released a statement attributed to the congressman in which Mr. Kean vowed to eventually be \u201ccompletely transparent\u201d as to the nature of his condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to sharing my experience with the public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he seemed to suggest that it could be several more weeks before he returned to public life.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now I am focused on my recovery,\u201d he said, \u201cand under the advice of health care professionals I will transition from virtual work to in-person work within a matter of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier on Tuesday, in a perhaps encouraging sign for Mr. Kean\u2019s supporters \u2014 who have suggested that he has enough time before November to make up lost ground \u2014 several Republican voters said they weren\u2019t even aware that he had been absent from Congress.<\/p>\n