New Jersey Republican Tom Kean Jr. and Democrat Rebecca Bennett

Tom Kean Jr. spent four months this year out of the House, quietly fighting a battle with depression that he chose not to make into a press release. That took spine. And now his opponent, Democrat Rebecca Bennett, thinks the way to beat him is to attack his vote on tariffs and the Iran war. Maybe she should spend less time on the talking points and more time acknowledging that a man who shows up to do the job after a personal crisis is exactly the kind of representative a district should want.

The criticism of Kean’s support for President Trump’s tariffs is the usual fare. Bennett wants to call them a tax on the middle class, which is a nice soundbite but skips the part where the president is trying to rebalance a global trading system that has been stacking the deck against American workers for decades. Kean isn’t a rubber stamp—he’s been a voice for New Jersey’s interests inside the conference. And on the Iran question, the simple fact is that the previous administration’s approach left us with a weaker deterrent and a more dangerous region. The president is cleaning up a mess he didn’t create.

What stands out here is not the policy clash. It’s that Bennett is running against a man who was honest about his health instead of hiding it. She wants to turn that into a liability. In a battleground district, voters tend to reward courage and punish opportunism. This is the part Bennett doesn’t want to talk about. While she was rehearsing her debate lines, Kean was doing the harder work of getting himself back to strength to serve his constituents. That’s not a weakness—it’s proof of character, and it’s why his message will land with people who value grit over grandstanding.