EAST BRUNSWICK - Jay Vaingankar tonight described CD-12 as a "tale of two districts," citing a home of billionaires and millionaires along with some of the country's poorest communities, and if that divide doesn't prove extraordinary enough, this Central Jersey battleground also contains a proxy fight for the most intense conflicts going down right now in the Middle East.

Democrats who hope to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in this blue - but complex - district, and who participated Sunday in The People's Covenant debate forum at the Trinity Presbyterian Church led by the Rev. Dr. Roberto Fois, mostly agreed on the country's problems and how to fix them.

Voters who go to the polls on June 2nd will have to decide if they favor legislative and government experience and precise expertise in building relationships to make bills become laws, or the experience of one with the most intimate knowledge of foreign soil suffering wrought by President Donald Trump and his allies, or someone equipped with a background of activism vitally keyed into the deeper currents of what ails the country, or a professor expertly trained in the scientific method, or executive experience at the local people where people live.

"It's time to tax the billionaires," said Vaingankar, a former Biden Administration official, as he handled a question about the country's ongoing affordability crisis. "Raise the capital gain taxes, restrict the ability of the rich to take out loans against their unrealized gains. ...This district belongs to everyday people not millionaires and billionaires."

Sue Altman, former president of New Jersey Working Families, dove into the why.

"The fight for democracy and the fight for our economy are one in the same," said Altman. "We are fighting against people who want to control our voting and power so they can control the tax codes and set prices and you and I cannot afford a life we thought was possible. That should enrage us all. We have not updated our anti-trust laws and anti-monopoly laws since before cars were invented. So many of the brands are owned and controlled by one or two companies so there is no competition. We are on the precipice of an AI revolution and there are no plans for regulating that. We have to regulate that because workers have lost power."

Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp elaborated.

"The affordability crisis stems from our tax policy and we have to reform the tax code and make the billionaires pay more so the people struggling are able to have more money in their pockets," he said. "Raise the standard deduction to $75K. Double Pell grants to $15K to reduce the burden of student loans."

Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-15), a social worker by trade, said she has taken a legislative lead in resisting the impacts of Trump's "big ugly bill," especially where they hit working families SNAP and healthcare benefits.

Others participating tonight in the forum were retired Army Reserve Lt. Col. Matt Adams, Somerset County Commissioner Director Shanel Robinson, businessman Squire Servance, former West Windsor elected official Sujit Singh, retired army surgeon Dr. Adam Hamawy, and neuroscientist Dr. Sam Wang.

The candidates mostly agreed on scrapping ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Only Mapp wants to overhaul the agency. Everyone else who spoke wants it deep-sixed. Everyone backs a pathway to citizenship.

"Make America great again, the way it used to be [prior to Trump leading with hate]," said Hamawy, to applause.

"Divisive leadership is coming from the top," Servance added.

On the subject of Israel and the West Bank, Hamawy said, "I am allowed to criticize my government, and no one would think I am unamerican. If I criticize Israel, that does not make me an antisemite. I was in Gaza. I saw it first-hand every day. To have an entire genocide being silenced and suppressed is unacceptable to humanity."

Vaingankar and Mapp went deeper.

"They have tried to use this issue to divide us," said the former. "A broad majority believe the genocide in Gaza is absolutely unacceptable and no more tax dollars should go to Benjamin Netanyahu to kill innocent children in our name. To condemn this does not make you an antisemite. I do not believe criticizing a rightwing government is antisemitism. ... It is time to directly sanction the genocidal ministers. Too many people who profit every time bombs are dropped."

Said Mapp: "Gaza and the West Bank and Israelis and Palestinians are unable to get along. We don't have a two-state solution and that's what we need. Palestinians need to exist within their own defined borders, just as Israel must exist within its own secure borders. There is a need for a two-state solution. The reason we have these challenges is we have not been able to get there."

"I support Israel," Reynolds-Jackson noted. "I believe in a two-state solution."

Other faith leaders who helped organize the program included Father Gideon Uzomechina, the Rev. Karen Hernandez-Granz, Imam Safwan Eid, and the Rev. Erich Kussman.

"People are really, really afraid right now," said Altman. Muslim folk are afraid. Jewish folks are afraid because antisemitism is higher than it has ever been right now. We are living in a very tense moment, and the President and Republicans have done nothing but fan those flames. I am eager to turn the chapter on the MAGA era."

Said Adams: "I look out at this audience and I kind of see the answer. We need to come together we need to listen."