Thomas Howard Kean Jr. (/ˈkeɪn/ KAYN;[1] born September 5, 1968) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from New Jersey's 7th congressional district since 2023.

[4] Kean was the Republican nominee for New Jersey's 7th congressional district in 2020, narrowly losing the general election to incumbent Democrat Tom Malinowski.

[5] Kean is also a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity,[9] and holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from Fletcher School at Tufts University.

[10] Kean was an aide to former Congressman Bob Franks and a special assistant at the United States Environmental Protection Agency in the George H. W. Bush administration.

[5] Kean was appointed to the General Assembly, the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature, in April 2001, to serve out the unexpired term of Alan Augustine, who had resigned on March 21, 2001, for health reasons.

Kean sought the Republican nomination for New Jersey's 7th congressional district, but lost the primary to Mike Ferguson by about 4,000 votes, finishing second in a field of four candidates.

[15] On April 16, 2019, Kean announced that he was running for New Jersey's 7th congressional district in 2020, challenging first-term Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski.

[19] Kean announced in February 2021 that he would not seek reelection to the State Senate and immediately became the subject of speculation that he was preparing to run for New Jersey's 7th congressional district again.

[20] Malinowski was under scrutiny after his failure to disclose more than 100 stock trades became a national news story and led to a complaint filed with the House Ethics Committee.

Fred Snowflack of Insider New Jersey reported "Dating back to last fall's campaign, most of those griping about Kean's incommunicado ways were the media and voters who probably were not going to support him anyway.

[31] Kean has expressed support for IVF and introduced legislation to provide income tax credits to people undergoing fertility treatments.