NEWARK - Running for local office in 2013, Akeem Cunningham audaciously knocked on the door of East Orange Democratic Party Chairman Leroy Jones to try to solicit the vote of the towering behind-the-scenes leader of the opposition.

Jones heard him out, then reasserted himself behind the eventual winning ticket. He didn't forget about young Cunningham, though, recognizing in the upstart newcomer political energy that reminded him of his own younger self.

Years later, Cunningham, 35, former East Orange football star, son of a single mom, who as a candidate literally rolled out the red carpet as part of his Single Mother's Appreciation Day, and a union firefighter by trade, serves as the Essex-based regional campaign director for Mikie Sherrill's coordinated campaign.

"I believe in him," Jones, now chair of the Democratic State Committee, said of Cunningham. "He's a good organizer, motivator, and recruiter."

Inspired by Essex County leaders - among them Leroy Jones, the late Sheila Oliver, Ted Green,

Alturrick Kenney, LaMonica McIver, Ras Baraka, Chigozie Onyema, his mother, his late aunt, and his godmother, Cunningham operates as that vital connecting point between Sherrill and urban Essex County.

The ex-cornerback remembers being a child and hearing the promises of politicians come election time, and he knows how it has to be different now, for people to believe, and he sees the mission in front of him with time ticking down to Election Day.

"I remember campaigning once on a day with very bad weather and [future Surrogate] Alturrick told me I needed to go door-to-door that day, because everyone would be home," Cunningham told InsiderNJ earlier today in the Ironbound. "It was the perfect time to connect with voters and show them determination and dedication, I lost that election but I also met LeRoy Jones and as for Alturrick, I'm always going to stand by Alturrick."

Cunningham gives that connectivity to the Sherrill Campaign here, and the belief in what he describes as "validators on the ground, like Mayor Green, Mayor [Dwight] Warren and Mayor [Tony] Vauss, on the block, of good governance."

"People who are disengaged will see real leaders who go door-to-door and campaign all year long," he said.

Having come in second in the Democratic Primary, Baraka formally backed Sherrill earlier this month.

Now, "We want to see her more in Newark," Cunningham said. "She's coming from CD-11, which does not contain a lot of urban Essex. But she resonates here. She resonates as the mother of four. All mothers have a different and unique role. She resonates as a Navy veteran. Anybody who risks her life that way as a story to tell to those who are impoverished, who seek trust in those looking to lead. She has good policies, and, for example, acknowledges the need for more housing stock, and less government red tape."

The East Orange-based campaign director said he is especially excited about Baraka advising Sherrill on policy and reminding her of the importance of state resources for Newark and the area urban communities here.

Cunningham said Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli's promise to reform the schools funding formula troubles him. "I'm concerned about the way it would impact my community," he said. "Hopefully I can send my daughter to the same kinds of schools I went to, and I don't trust anything Jack says. He already says 'I'm 100% MAGA. He's here to serve the president. And you can't serve New Jersey and Trump.

"One person in this election is fighting for New Jersey and one person is fighting for Donald Trump," Cunningham added.

To those African American males who voted for Trump, Cunningham said he wants them to consider this administration's U.S. Department of Education ending $350 million of discretionary funding to several grant programs at minority-serving institutions across the country, claiming that they are discriminatory, according to an announcement last week. Minority-serving institutions are colleges and universities that enroll a high percentage of minority students and thus receive federal funding, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) or Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI).

"We are educating our voter base, and when it comes to the Trump track record, our response is 'Hell no.'"

A Ciattarelli backer told InsiderNJ last week that the GOP believes it can peel away soft Baraka support for Sherrill. Cunningham says no way. "Nothing about Mayor Baraka is soft," he said. "The endorsement with Mayor Baraka is no nonsense. He was honest and he weighed heavily on it. If he didn't want to do it he wouldn't do it."

The campaign director said the Sherrill Campaign will take nothing and no one for granted in the county with the biggest Democratic Party voter plurality. "I've never worked this hard in my life," he said. "This is a consequential election, and we are going to get the Democratic Party back."

He noted the events of May 9th outside immigrant detention facility Delaney Hall, which resulted in the

arrest of Baraka and federal charges filed against McIver. "Her freedom was on the line and she didn't back down," he said. "We look to evolutionary leaders like Baraka and McIver. We don't waver under pressure. When I saw those images that day, honestly, it was heartbreaking, but also exciting, because true leaders are willing to put it all on the line. Leaders on the frontline put their lives and jobs on the line.

"That's what I saw that day."

What troubles him most about Trump?

"The way he weaponizes politics," Cunningham said.

Where he grew up, he understood the need to listen to people, to acknowledge criticism, and to work for positive change.

Trump doesn't know how to hear criticism.

He can't take it.

He lacks coping toughness.

"Today, African Americanas and Latinos are just looking for something different," he said. "Our communities realize that [Trump] wasn't the path forward. And now I'm going to ask them to stand up - with us - for our community, to be champions. It's unaffordable in New Jersey. Ciattarelli says Democrats have had eight years. But Mikie Sherrill is a different type of leader. We had four years of Trump. Now we've got him again and it's no better. Engaged, public service leaders will have success."

"The landscape of young Black politicos is dying," said Alturrick Kenney. "He is that bridge [between grassroots progressives and the party organization]. Rarely do you find anyone with Akeem's political background and youth running such an important campaign. A campaign that has nationwide implications. He is the perfect blend of grass roots organizer who didn't enter this space with a name but earned everything from the Urban League of Young Professionals & serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Ted Green."

Said Onyema, chair of the Newark West Ward Democratic

Committee and candidate for the Assembly in LD-28, "Always good with relationships, a good organizer, and a good communicator, Akeem consolidates Essex for Mikie Sherrill."

Fighting for Sherrill in this election cycle, fighting for the people he grew up with, who raised him, and whom he raises, Cunningham remembers his mother, who worked the 3-11 shift, and his late aunt, who smiled through her fight with cancer, and his godmother, who gave him money to help others, his football coach, who tested him, his fellow firefighters with the FMBA, and the leaders who earned his trust, and it's all on the line now for him, fighting for his country in Essex County.