FLEMINGTON - Tom Kean Jr. must have had a lot of serious stuff to say Monday night about voter integrity.

So weighty it had to be private.

The CD-7 congressman was one of the speakers at a Protect the Vote rally sponsored by Hunterdon County Republicans at their storefront headquarters off Route 12. The rally had been advertised for about a week in advance.

A political "rally," generally speaking, is an upbeat affair with passionate speeches, emotional appeals for support, and hopefully, a lot of excitement. The idea is to make noise and let the public know you are making it.

Not this one.
Three reporters ventured into party headquarters at the 6 p.m. starting time and were told the rally was off limits to the press. Kean was already on the premises.

The reason given simply was that is the way the organizers wanted it.

Kean, of course, even before his nearly four month absence for illness, never has been overly accessible to the press, or for that matter, the general public.

Just last Friday, police were called to a Kean event in Warren County with Speaker Mike Johnson, apparently because a New York Times reporter was waiting outside the venue.

No police arrived on this night, although a sheriff's vehicle was in the parking lot.

One of the other speakers, Christine Hanlon, the state Republican chairwoman, twice spoke to reporters outside.

She said it's important to keep the issue of voter integrity in the public domain.

In some ways, Mikie Sherrill's recent revelation that about 6,600 non-citizens registered to vote at MVC offices has vindicated Republicans.

As Hanlon said, the GOP long has said voter integrity was a problem and now the Democratic governor has confirmed that.

"We're just keeping the issue out there," she said.

In her second interaction with the waiting press a bit later in the evening, Hanlon talked about CD-7, the most competitive House race in the state.

"It is a challenging year, of course," she said, mindful of Donald Trump's poll numbers.

Still, she said she thinks Kean is in a good place, especially because of his constituent service.

State Sen. Doug Steinhardt also spoke to reporters waiting on the sidewalk.

He said things are pretty simple in that control of Congress could very well run through CD-7, which ranges over at least parts of Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.

Steinhardt says there's a lot of optimism that Kean will prevail and that he is looking forward to Election Day. It's 10 weeks from tomorrow by the way.

Kean won the district in 2022, beating incumbent Tom Malinowski. He was reelected in 2024 and is now being challenged by Democrat Rebecca Bennett.

The evening broke up about 7:15-ish.

Kean emerged and ignored a question about what he had to say at the rally.

As the congressman walked to his car, he wished all a "good night."