Tom Kean Jr. turns on Trump agenda as his New Jersey race tightens

Tom Kean Jr. had one job. He had the president’s agenda in front of him, a district that’s competitive for a reason, and a debate stage with all of New Jersey’s 7th watching. Instead of standing with President Trump, he chose to distance himself. That’s not a strategy, it’s a surrender.

Here’s what makes it worse: Kean was absent from the House when it mattered, and now he’s trying to run as a Republican who isn’t too Republican. The left will never trust him just because he’s cold to Trump. All he’s done is give his opponent ammunition and demoralize the voters who stayed with him through the last cycle. That’s a losing trade, and he knows it.

We get the impulse. Suburban swing districts make Republicans nervous, and the media will always frame any Trump support as a liability. But the voters who decide this race aren’t confused about what the GOP stands for. They want a representative who can explain the president’s policies, not hide from them. If Kean can’t defend the agenda, he ought to ask himself why he’s running on it at all.

The honest truth is that Kean is betting on weak turnout and hoping the national mood carries him. That may work in a safe seat. It rarely works in a tight one. New Jersey Republicans didn’t send him to Washington to invent a new party. They sent him to hold the line, and he just told them he won’t.