Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) has missed over a month’s worth of votes in the House of Representatives due to an unspecified “personal health matter.” The New Jersey Republican hasn’t voted in the legislative chamber since March 5. “Congressman is addressing a personal health matter. He will be returning to a full regular schedule,” Kean’s chief of staff said in March, according to NJ Spotlight News. However, the end of April is approaching, and Kean remains absent. The House will go another week without @CongressmanKean, who hasn’t cast a vote in more than a month due to an unspecified medical issue. Still no clear answers on what’s ailing him or when he’ll be back.https://t.co/GEcyioZfHF — Joey Fox (@joeymdfox) April 20, 2026 More from NJ Spotlight News: In the closely divided House, where Republicans can lose two defections on a given vote and pass a bill, the power of each member is amplified. It’s a story that’s played out again and again this Congress. On a labor bill in January, New Jersey Republicans Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith held out against party leaders, ultimately voting no and sinking the legislation. “We’re totally in control of the House,” Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana told reporters after his lieutenants failed to whip that vote into passage. In late January, as Republicans held open a vote past the allotted time, Texas Republican Wesley Hunt rushed to the Capitol to cast the decisive vote against a bill to military operations in Venezuela. With Hunt’s no vote, the bill failed in a deadlock, 215-215. The activities of a rank-and-file member often go overlooked in the House, home to 435 members when every seat is filled. According to the New Jersey Globe, Kean has missed 37 roll-call votes and will miss votes once again this week. Kean’s absence is even more critical for Republicans with the victory of progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia last week to fill the seat vacated by Democratic New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. House Republican Majority Narrows After Progressive Democrat Wins Special Election New Jersey Globe explained further: The congressman has also not made any in-person appearances recently, and photos posted in the last few weeks to his social media account appear to have been taken prior to the start of his medical issue. His office remains active, introducing legislation and penning letters to Trump administration officials, but Kean’s day-to-day involvement in its work is unknown. As long as Kean remains missing from Congress, House GOP leaders will have to account for the loss of another vote in their already incredibly narrow majority. Just this past week, two votes – one of them a closely watched, and ultimately unsuccessful, resolution ending U.S. involvement in Iran – were decided by just one vote, showing how tenuous the Republican margins are. That math will only get tighter after tonight, when Rep.-elect Analilia Mejia (D-Glen Ridge), who won an April 16 special election for a seat bordering Kean’s, is sworn in. After Mejia takes office, Republicans will have 218 seats to Democrats’ 214, but Kean’s indefinite absence essentially removes one GOP vote from that equation. Kean is also a politically important member of that House majority, given that the district he represents, the 7th district in suburban North and Central Jersey, is one of the country’s most competitive. Democrats view Kean as highly vulnerable in November, and four well-funded Democrats are running for the nomination to challenge him.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled that state agencies cannot prohibit transgender residents from changing their government-identification documents to fit their preferred gender identity. “Transgender discrimination is, by its very nature, sex discrimination,” Montana Supreme Court Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote on behalf of the majority, according to Courthouse News Service. “Discrimination based on sex is expressly prohibited under Montana’s unique nondiscrimination clause,” McKinnon added. However, the dissenting justices accused the majority of issuing a political decision. “The majority today has blown through all of these prudential instructions to issue a political decision dressed up in constitutional garb,” Chief Justice Cory Swanson wrote in his dissent, according to the Daily Montanan. “Now that we have spoken from the judicial mountaintop, where is the incentive toward continued public debate, mutual respect, and accommodation? Each side is in fact incentivized to stake out maximalist positions and then rush to the courthouse so the least democratic branch can settle political disputes better left to policy makers,” Swanson added. In its divided ruling, the court blocked the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice, which operates the Motor Vehicle Division, from refusing to update identification documents to match a resident’s preferred gender identity. BREAKING: The Montana Supreme Court ruled that it’s "Transgender discrimination" to require that a person’s birth certificate match their biological sex. pic.twitter.com/IKerLmk0qc — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 20, 2026 Courthouse News Service explained further: Enacted in 2023 by the Montana Legislature, Senate Bill 458 defined “sex” as binary and based on the biological and genetic indications present at birth. Shortly after it went into effect, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would stop amending birth certificates based on “gender transition, gender identity or change of gender.” In 2024, two transgender Montanans sued the state, arguing the policies violate the state Constitution. Specifically, the plaintiffs requested that they be able to amend the sex designation on their birth certificate and driver’s license as permitted under the state’s previous policy. At the end of the year, a lower court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing the policies. The court found that cisgender and transgender residents are equivalent in all relevant respects other than their status as transgender or cisgender, but only cisgender Montanans can amend their birth certificates or driver’s licenses to accurately reflect their gender identity, which violates the constitutional right to be free from discrimination on the basis of sex. The state appealed, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the claim and that the lower court abused its discretion by blocking the policies. The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the state’s arguments. In addition to Justice Laurie McKinnon, the majority opinion included Justices Katherine Bidegaray, Ingrid Gustafson, and James Jeremiah Shea. Altogether, the court ruled 5-2 to reject the state’s arguments. BREAKING In a 5–2 ruling, the Montana Supreme Court upheld a preliminary injunction allowing transgender Montanans to amend their birth certificates and driver’s licenses to match their gender identity. pic.twitter.com/crAp6RAXQ8 — The Political HQ (@ThePoliticalHQ) April 15, 2026 More from the Daily Montanan: Justice Beth Baker wrote a concurring opinion, while Swanson wrote a separate dissenting opinion, as did Justice Jim Rice, for a split 5-to-2 decision — demonstrating just how divisive and sensitive the issue has become. One of the members of the lawsuit, identified just as “Jane Doe,” said that law enforcement officers had detained her in Montana because they were uncertain of her identity because her driver’s license identified her as a male, when she presented as a female. The court’s majority opinion said that Menahan correctly halted the law, and the plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, had their constitutional rights to equal protection violated, largely because the state constitution grants even more protections than the federal constitution. The majority said that Menahan had also correctly reasoned “cisgender and transgender Montanans are equivalent in all relevant respects other than their status as transgender or cisgender except that only cisgender, and not transgender Montanans can obtain amended birth certificates and driver’s license accurately reflecting their gender identity.” The majority said that the law forces transgender residents to disclose personal and private information about their gender identity in a way that cisgender residents do not have to, which violates the state constitution. “(The) plaintiffs alleged and demonstrated concrete, particularized injuries traceable to the state policies. Each time that Ms. Doe or Ms. Kalarchik must present their identifying documents to another person — during a traffic stop, to vote, to apply for employment, or to board a plane — they must disclose they are transgender,” the opinion said. “They must carry and produce a government issued document that does not reflect who they believe they are. “It is the state’s policies that cause plaintiffs to suffer these real and repeated injuries.”

A Michigan Democrat running for U.S. Senate just made some of the most disgusting comments we’ve heard in a long time. And that’s saying something. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for a Senate seat in Michigan, went on a podcast and decided to take vicious personal shots at Vice President JD Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, and their children. We’re talking about attacking kids. Brown children, specifically, as El-Sayed put it. He actually used the racial makeup of the Vance family to try and score cheap political points. It’s beyond disgusting. And it’s not just the racial angle. He made crude sexual comments about the Vice President and Second Lady on top of it. Real classy stuff from a guy who wants to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate. Take a look: “JD Vance has Brown kids who he thinks are less American than everyone else.”Far-left Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed facing major backlash over multiple comments he made about Vice President JD Vance and his children.The Michigan Democrat said that the VP’s political… pic.twitter.com/CTOajffJfl— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 20, 2026 Legal scholar Jonathan Turley weighed in on the controversy as well, calling out the ugly trend of using children for political attacks: Nothing says an age of rage like using children for racist screeds. This week, Abdul El-Sayed is in the news for attacking Vance over his “brown children” and raising his sex life. https://t.co/CxEixMtOxh The left just cannot seem to resist attacks on the conservative kinder…— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 20, 2026 Fox News reported on the backlash: “What do you think is going through Usha’s head when he talks? She’s like, ‘Damn, I have to sleep with him,'” El-Sayed said on “The Allen Analysis Show” posted on Friday. “I guess she’s pregnant so something is happening,” El-Sayed continued, “Can you imagine, he’s got Brown kids, at some point he’s going to have a really awkward conversation with his kids, like, you made your career hating people who are different.” El-Sayed also said on the podcast appearance that Vance has the “charisma of a doorknob” and the “aura of a toad” while urging Usha Vance to “get out” of the marriage. Imagine saying that about someone’s family and thinking it helps your campaign. The man literally told a woman to leave her husband on a public podcast. While she’s pregnant. The Gateway Pundit added more context on El-Sayed’s track record: Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim and socialist, is proof that not all press is good press. He is already under fire for openly and proudly campaigning with controversial pro-Hamas/pro-Hezbollah influencer Hasan Piker. A campaign event last August took a dark turn when he suggested “choking out” opponents. “We don’t back down,” El-Sayed said to wild applause. “When they go low, we don’t go high. We take them to the mud and choke them out!” So this is a guy who campaigns with pro-Hamas influencers, talks about choking out political opponents, and now attacks the Vice President’s children based on their race. Michigan voters are going to see right through this. Former Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon summed it up perfectly when she told Fox News, “When you’re running on racial division, you have to keep stoking racism, especially if you’re the racist.” El-Sayed is running in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens. The primary is scheduled for August 4.

Another day, another horrific crime allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant who never should have been in this country in the first place. A 19-year-old Venezuelan national is now sitting in a Harris County jail cell after allegedly beating his co-worker to death with a sledgehammer at a Houston-area construction site. And yes, he was caught and released by the Biden administration back in 2023. The victim, a carpenter named Juan Antonio Salinas Leija, was found dead inside a home he was renovating. His family discovered his body after not hearing from him for two days. Let that sink in. Here’s the story: NEW: ICE confirms that the suspect arrested in Houston, TX for allegedly using a sledgehammer to bludgeon a coworker to death is a Venezuelan illegal alien who was caught and released at the border by the Biden administration in November 2023. ICE has placed a detainer request on… pic.twitter.com/IivRCIad0x— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 20, 2026 The reaction on social media has been fierce, and rightfully so: Meet Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice, a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela who was released into the United States under Biden.He was arrested in Texas after he allegedly brutally m*rdered a co-worker with a sledgehammer.Democrats have blood on their hands. pic.twitter.com/8dQOIIEOI6— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 20, 2026 Fox News had the full details: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has asked officials in Democratic-run Harris County not to release an illegal immigrant suspect from custody after he allegedly beat a coworker to death with a sledgehammer on a construction site in a suburb of Texas’ largest city, Houston. Venezuelan national Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice has been charged with the murder of carpenter Juan Antonio Salinas Leija at a north Houston home earlier this month, according to reporting by local outlet KHOU-11. The outlet said Salinas Leija was found dead at a home under renovation with severe wounds consistent with a sledgehammer attack. DHS said U.S. Border Patrol first arrested Chirino-Leonice in November 2023. The agency said the Biden administration “subsequently released him into the interior of the country.” Border Patrol had this guy in custody. They had him. And the Biden administration let him walk right into the country. Now a hardworking carpenter is dead. ICE’s acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez didn’t hold back in a statement on the case. The official ICE press release laid out the details: “This criminal illegal alien, who never should have been allowed into the country in the first place, is accused of savagely beating a co-worker to death with a sledgehammer and leaving him to die in a house they were renovating together,” said ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez. “Our officers are working tirelessly to restore integrity to our nation’s immigration system to bring an end to the carnage and unnecessary suffering in this country that’s caused by criminal illegal aliens, and we won’t rest until we’ve accomplished that mission.” And here’s the kicker. This is all happening while the Democratic-majority Houston City Council recently voted to end a policy requiring law enforcement to hold illegal immigrants for ICE for at least 30 minutes. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened to claw back $110 million from the city if they don’t reverse the move. ICE has arrested thousands of illegal immigrants in the Houston area since President Trump returned to office, including at least 414 criminal illegal aliens charged with or convicted of child sex offenses. In just five days at the start of the month, ICE Houston arrested nearly 150 criminal aliens. The Houston City Council is set to reconsider the policy this Wednesday. Given what just happened, they’d better make the right call.

The Michigan Democratic Party held its endorsement convention in Detroit this weekend. It did not go well. Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel Democrat running for the open U.S. Senate seat, was met with a wall of boos from the moment she stepped on stage at Huntington Place on Sunday. Delegates screamed “shame” at her throughout her entire speech, most of it focused on her support for Israel. She tried to push through, telling the crowd, “Democrats, I love you, even when we disagree.” It didn’t matter. As she left the stage, activists raised their fists and chanted “Shame on you.” And that was just the beginning of the disaster. Reporter Andrew Roth captured the scene: Haley Stevens is booed as she takes the stage at the MDP Convention in Detroit. She spoke over people screaming "shame" and other comments, many about Palestine, through most of her remarks."Democrats, I love you, even when we disagree," Stevens said. pic.twitter.com/dIHKC8EOW9— Andrew Roth (@RothTheReporter) April 19, 2026 The booing of Stevens highlighted a fault line that is tearing Michigan Democrats apart. Stevens has the backing of AIPAC and the party establishment. Her primary opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, is endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders and has called Israel’s actions “genocide.” He’s also been campaigning with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has a history of deeply troubling statements. Fox News reported on the Piker connection: Stevens recently rejected far-left online streamer Hasan Piker, who has made controversial statements. Piker has described some Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” claimed the U.S. “deserved 9/11,” and downplayed sexual violence from Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel. Stevens warned Jewish Insider that embracing Piker would hurt Democrats: “Someone who’s campaigning with someone like that is not going to win in Michigan.” She’s not wrong about that. But the base clearly doesn’t care. The party is sprinting left at full speed, and anyone who pumps the brakes gets shouted off the stage. Senate Republicans summed up what’s happening to the Democrat Party right now: Extreme, Bernie-backed candidates are taking over the Democrat Party — from Graham Platner to Peggy Flanagan to Abdul El-Sayed.If you thought Chuck Schumer was radical, just wait until you meet these folks. pic.twitter.com/go1QKblkJy— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) April 20, 2026 Beyond the ideological civil war, the convention itself was a logistical train wreck. Over 7,000 delegates showed up to vote, and Michigan Democrats couldn’t manage the simplest part of democracy: counting ballots. Michigan News Source laid out the details: The voting system experienced multiple failures. Mobile voting apps malfunctioned, forcing delegates into lengthy lines. Tablet voting became the fallback option but couldn’t keep pace. Delegate registration issues prevented some attendees from voting despite eligibility. Vote tallying extended into the evening with no results released for hours. Despite finally announcing winners late that evening, the Michigan Democratic Party refused to release detailed vote counts, percentages, or margins from the races. Refused to release the vote counts. At their own convention. The party that constantly lectures Americans about “protecting democracy” can’t even run a transparent vote when the only people in the room are their own delegates. The Israel divide in Michigan isn’t new. Biden’s stance on the issue led Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Rep. Rashida Tlaib to decline to endorse Kamala Harris in 2024. That wound has only gotten deeper. Israel has long been a divisive issue for Michigan Democrats. It seems to be in play in 2026. Joe Biden’s stance on Israel lead to Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Rep. Rashida Tlaib deciding not to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.https://t.co/dKkKfrlIu6— George Caldwell (@GCaldwell_news) April 20, 2026 All of this is a gift for Republicans. Michigan’s Senate seat is a top GOP pickup target, with Trump-endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers expected to cruise to the nomination. While Democrats in Detroit were screaming at each other and fumbling their own ballot count, Rogers was out talking to actual Michigan voters about the issues that matter. This seat was supposed to be competitive. If Sunday’s convention is any indication, Michigan Democrats are doing everything they can to hand it away.