Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who represents New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, will hold a telephone town hall on March 26 at 6:30 p.m. Participants must register online by noon on the same day and are required to provide their name, email address, and zip code.
Registered participants will receive a phone call when the event starts. Anyone with questions can contact Kean’s New Jersey office at 908-547-3307.
This announcement comes at a time when House Republicans are under heavy criticism over federal spending cuts led by President Donald Trump’s administration and the Department of Government Efficiency, which has triggered strong public reaction across the country.
In response to this unrest, House Speaker Mike Johnson advised GOP members to avoid in-person town halls due to large, often hostile crowds, suggesting that telephone town halls would allow members to engage constituents without facing disruptions.
Johnson also claimed that Democrat activists from outside districts were arriving early at public events, filling all the seats, and preventing local residents from attending, which prompted the shift in format.
Following this advice, Kean chose to host a telephone event instead of a public meeting, but this decision has sparked criticism from both constituents and advocacy groups.
In response, New Jersey Citizen Action and Working Families Power organized a protest rally set for Thursday at noon at the Bernardsville Train Station, demanding that Kean hold a public, in-person town hall.
The organizers expect more than 200 people to attend the rally, which shows the growing frustration of residents in Central Jersey.
Kean stated that hearing from New Jersey residents is his main focus and that during the call, he will provide a full report on his work in Congress while answering questions directly from participants.
Joining him will be Audrey Lane, president of the Garden State Initiative, who will discuss the importance of the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction for New Jersey residents, an issue that carries significant weight in the state due to high property taxes.
The SALT deduction was capped in 2017 following federal tax law changes, leading to higher taxes for many New Jersey households.
In his first two-year term, Kean hosted 10 telephone town halls and held several in-person sessions with targeted groups such as students, senior citizens, and community organizations, though he has not held a public town hall open to all constituents.
In contrast, former Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski, whom Kean defeated in 2022, held a public town hall on March 13 in Summit and regularly engaged with voters during his time in office.
Additionally, in 2017, former Republican Rep. Leonard Lance held a town hall at Raritan Valley College in Branchburg that drew about 1,000 people, where protesters outside urged him to protect the Affordable Care Act, and the event also addressed immigration, climate change, Russia, and financial regulations.
Currently, New Jersey Republicans Tom Kean Jr., Chris Smith of the 4th District, and Jeff Van Drew of the 2nd District are all being criticized for avoiding public forums, and their offices did not respond to media inquiries for comment.
Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of the 12th District accused them of failing their constituents by not holding public town halls and called their lack of engagement disrespectful and cowardly.
These GOP congressmen argue that they regularly meet with constituents in smaller, private groups, which they claim are more productive and less prone to interruptions from protests.
Claire Abernathy, a political science professor at Stockton University, explained that while these meetings do take place, they are often not publicly listed, meaning many constituents are unaware of them or cannot take part.
Kean’s public image has also been questioned. In 2023, a video of him avoiding questions from NJ Spotlight News reporter Ben Hulac went viral. The video showed his limited interaction with the press and the public.
Despite the criticism, Kean won re-election in 2024 and gave his victory speech at the NJ Republican Election Night celebration in Bernardsville on November 5.
