Kean returned to Congress after an unexplained absence. Now it's

There was something almost embarrassing about how Washington treated Tom Kean Jr.'s four months away from the House. He wasn't hiding from a vote. He wasn't ducking a tough town hall. He was being treated for depression, and it took him until this week to say so out loud. That delay is understandable. The guy is a Republican in a swing district, and mental health is still one of those things our culture claims to care about but punishes people for admitting.

Credit Kean for what he did next: he stopped the speculation and told the truth. That kind of honesty should be the end of the story, not the opening act. Instead, his opponent Rebecca Bennett is likely to use the debate Sunday night to turn a health matter into a character test. We hope she doesn't. And we hope voters don't let her. A congressman seeking help for depression isn't a scandal. It's the opposite of a scandal.

What matters in this race is what always matters in New Jersey: affordability, crime, and whether Washington is listening to people who aren't screaming on cable news. Kean has been a reliable vote against the worst of the Biden agenda. Bennett would be a rubber stamp for the same crowd that gave us record inflation and open borders. The debate should be about those things, not about a doctor's note.

We don't know who will win on Sunday night's stage. But we do know this: a man who stares down his own struggles and still shows up to represent his constituents has more fight in him than most of the show horses in D.C. The silence about his absence was the real failure. Kean broke it with dignity. Now let's see if his opponent can match it.