Altman again criticizes Kean's “political courage” in the third town hall.

Sue Altman has a simple message as fall arrives and Election Day approaches: “I am here.”

Being accessible to voters and the press is usually not enough to stand out in a tight congressional race like the one she is in with Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield). But Altman hopes her criticism of Kean – that he gives too few interviews to journalists and his unwillingness to appear in public – will further distinguish her from the Republican.

Altman, who hosted a town hall meeting Thursday evening in Phillipsburg, Warren County, reprimanded Kean over a video in which the congressman refused to answer questions from an NJ Spotlight reporter. The Democrat used these points to bolster an argument she made in her first town hall meeting: that Kean lacked “political courage.”

“Either he feels deeply uncomfortable because of some cognitive dissonance he has in his brain about the job he has, or he doesn't want the job, or he just can't defend his positions,” Altman told the Globe after the town hall meeting . “And both are pretty annoying.”

Phillipsburg City Hall is the third city hall of her campaign. The event is part of a town hall tour of the six counties of New Jersey's 7th District.

Altman spent much of the town hall convincing voters of her political courage.

Questions at town halls are not scrutinized, a lesson she said she learned from former Gov. Chris Christie, with whom she once sparred at a town hall in 2016.

The first question actually came from Jason Haley, an older man wearing camouflage pants and a shirt that said “Veterans for Trump.” He asked Altman, a former professional basketball player, what she thought about “competing against biological men.”

“If we as a society decide that setting rules about who is and isn't female is more important than giving young children the chance to form teams and compete as part of something bigger than themselves, esp young people who are more prone to suicide and bullying, then I think we've lost our way a little bit,” she told him.

After about an hour of question and answer, Altman sat next to a small group of Republicans who had asked her questions and spoke for about 10 more minutes.

A Republican asked if she would join the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of moderate congressmen of which Kean is a member. She said she would consider joining, but her hesitation stems from the fact that the problem solvers “haven't done much problem solving” because national policy doesn't incentivize such work.

Another Republican voter once asked her about a November 2020 tweet she sent that included the phrase “Defund the Police.” Altman, the former executive director of the progressive Working Families Party, said she regretted using that message after the killing of George Floyd.

“When I wrote the hashtag, which I really regret because I think I learned over the next four or five years that it did a lot of harm, I was emotionally touched by that movement,” she said.

The Kean campaign used this tweet, as well as other Altman tweets prior to the campaign supporting police reform, to label the Democrat as “anti-police.”

Altman rejected that characterization Thursday, saying her evolving positions on the issue showed real change that should be praised by politicians.

“I didn't understand it properly. I left, I did my homework and I advanced in my position, and I'm here to explain it,” Altman said. “I don’t shy away from it, and I think that’s true courage.”