Mike Anderson, a Harvard-educated community activist and entrepreneur from Plainfield, is the newest entry into the packed Democratic field for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district.
And Anderson, who has not run for office before, quickly made it clear that he has little intention of waging his campaign using the typical levers of power in New Jersey. He’s not running to “please the corporate elites,” he said, and he chastised many of the “career politicians” he’s now facing in the 12th district primary.
“These people have had a chance – how’s it working out for the average person in New Jersey?” Anderson told the New Jersey Globe. “We need a fighter, we need a realist, we need somebody that embodies that grit of nothing to something and his keeping his hand out to uplift everybody.”
Since Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) announced her retirement in November, nearly a dozen Democrats have announced their intention to seek her deep-blue, highly diverse Central Jersey seat. Some of them are among the district’s most well-established local politicians: Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton), East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson (D-Franklin), and Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp are all running, with Assemblywoman Tennille McCoy (D-Trenton) likely planning on entering as well.
Other prospective candidates for the seat, though, hew closer to Anderson’s mold as a political outsider, like Trenton’s Elijah Dixon, Plainfield’s Iziah Thompson, and North Brunswick’s Kyle Little. All are pitching voters on the idea that New Jersey needs a break from the political status quo, and they’re positioned to deliver it.
Anderson, who grew up in Plainfield public housing, has an unusual and varied professional background. Per his biography, he’s a former investment banking analyst who has more recently worked at venture capital and cryptocurrency firms, a civil rights activist who once fought a successful legal battle against Whole Foods, the grandson of Bishop Edward Philson in Plainfield, and, variously, a young adult author, clothing designer, podcaster, and hip-hop artist.
His congressional campaign, he said, is focused heavily around the idea of community investment: bringing resources back into the district, which is the 46th-wealthiest district in the country but also has substantial pockets of poverty, and helping residents own homes, start small businesses, and invest in their towns.
Anderson also has some areas of disagreement with his fellow Democrats; his party has not done enough to promote keeping families together, he said, and has done too much to limit firearm access.
“Criminals don’t care about those rules. Whatever rules there are in place aren’t disincentivizing unstable, bad people from committing crimes,” Anderson said of gun control laws. “I think we need a way in which to ensure that good people, who are law-abiding citizens, can protect and defend themselves without the arduous process that I’m not sure serves the people.”
Whether or not Anderson’s message will catch on with the Democratic primary electorate in the 12th district remains to be seen, but he predicted that he’ll face resistance from the state’s powers-that-be.
“I know the establishment does not want me to succeed,” Anderson said. “I want you to print this: I’ve been told by the most relevant people in New Jersey politics that my only problem is that I tell the truth. My only problem is that I’m actually going to change things.”
