Kean had a tough time as a party leader. Democrats held the Essex County State Senate seat, with incumbent Donal C. Fox defeating Clapp in the General Election; Democrats won five of Essex County's twelve Assembly seats in 1959, and eight of the nine seats in 1961. Kean backed the losing candidate in the 1961 Republican gubernatorial primary, Bergen County State Senator Walter H. Jones. A Kean rival, former U.S. Attorney William F. Tompkins, challenged Kean for re-election in 1961 after Tompkins' candidate, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, James P. Mitchell, won the gubernatorial nomination. Kean beat Tompkins, 409 to 268.