PLAINFIELD - Adrian Mapp came up hard in a place of poverty and desperate need, which gave him toughness and guts, and a sense of empathy for people who suffer, which he poured into public life at the local level as the four-times elected mayor of Plainfield, which he now wants to take to Congress to serve the residents of the 12th District.

Mapp formally kicked off his candidacy last Tuesday, and a day later sat down with InsiderNJ at a coffee shop around the corner from City Hall. "I am someone who has had to fight my way from the bottom to where I am today - to struggle through significant challenges presented by those in charge of Union County politics," he said.

The struggles of childhood as a poor boy in Barbados prepared Mapp to take part in a political movement here called the New Democrats, led by the late Mayor Albert T. McWilliams. "I consider myself his protege," Mapp recalled. "He brought me into the process and because of tremendous pressures placed on him and the Plainfield leadership of the day, I suffered the consequences and was banished for a period of time. I never allowed that to deter me from my goal to be a leader. People who believed in me fought against the machine of the day. I was guided by standards of providing good representation, principled representation, and of not being a coward, not being someone who was willing to cave every time pushback against me."

He became chair of the local party in Plainfield and established a team who first elected him to lead the city in 2013. In November, Mapp won his fourth consecutive term, and earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12) announced her plans to not seek another congressional term.

Mapp knew he would run for congress when the right moment arrived.

Now is that time.

"I believe we have been able to transform the City of Plainfield," said the Mayor. "One can never do it by oneself. We have had determination to never give up.  Having worked with Bonnie Watson Coleman, I can she represented us in Congress and now she has decided to move on. Given the fact that I have done the work here, driven out crime, created economic opportunities, and healthcare and supported so many things of a progressive nature, I believe I am well suited to succeed Bonnie Watson Coleman. Bonnie's legacy is of someone who was never afraid of supporting causes important to her and to the state. She is someone who led at a time when leadership was needed. She is someone who fought for people at the bottom and people in the middle class and she is determined to provide representation to all people, while never shying away from a fight. Solid representation. That's her legacy. And quite frankly we need to build on that legacy by looking out for the small folks while pursuing a progressive agenda."

Mapp noted key instances of leadership and political courage on his part.

"There was a time in this city when healthcare had disappeared with the closing of Muhlenberg Hospital," he said. "We struggled for several years. I felt a need to do all I could to restore some level of services. I embarked on a process that was very broad in scope, an advertising and promotional campaign to attract a healthcare provider to the city. I was able, with the team and the consultants I surrounded myself with, to attract a developer that restored the Muhlenberg campus where there are performed several surgeries on a daily basis. Services include a Rutgers behavioral health center and emergency care led by Hackensack Meridian. We have a level of healthcare at that campus that would otherwise not have been possible without my leadership."

In addition, against the backdrop of an affordable housing crisis in New Jersey, Mapp said, "I created a process that developed an environment that made it easier for investors to do business with the City of Plainfield, unburdened by red tape, and we have been able to transform the housing landscape in the City of Plainfield. Blighted spaces that were attracting crime through my leadership became areas of economic development to the tune of two billion generating revenues to help stabilize taxes. We have been able to do that without displacing people. When people talk about gentrification it never happened here under my watch. Developers were not willing to look at Plainfield but as a result of policies I put in place, they came here and provided for residents a different housing experience."

The Mayor also cited his creation of the Black Lives Matter Plaza in front of Plainfield City Hall following the police killing of George Floyd. "I also created a commission where I called on critical expertise to look at what transpired and not to wait for something like that to happen here. We had conversations with the Attorney General's Office and drew on recommendations.  The report was submitted to the Attorney General and to the Union County Prosecutor's Office. The result is our police officers are very community oriented. We have a culture in our police department that sees community policing as so important to what we do here in our city. Critically, how we deal with people who are experiencing a mental crisis is very much at the heart of it, to sensitize members of our police department when people are in crisis. These people need to be treated differently. You don't necessarily respond with force."

A certified public accountant by training and trade, Mapp cites his childhood as the vital foundation for his understanding of the poor, the dispossessed, and working people generally who require effective and empathetic government programs. It also toughened him. "I'm from Greens, St. George, in Barbados, and I grew up very poor without a father in the home, raised by a grandmother who instilled the values responsible for who I am today," Mapp told InsiderNJ. "My mother came to the United States to seek better opportunities and worked in Long Island kitchens to provide for eight kids [six of us and two cousins]. Going to school I didn't have lunch money or lunch and depended on friends to share a sandwich. A bottle of water was all I could afford. On one occasion, after my brother and I stood on line and got food without paying - as if we had paid - and a man yanked us out of the cafeteria line and beat us with the strap. Corporal punishment. Beat the hell out of us. Looking back, I think, imagine, beating an eight or nine-year-old child who was hungry, at that tender age, whose mother was working in the United States and whose grandmother couldn't afford meal. My thought always is no child should ever have to face that, that kind of cruel discipline. That experience shaped the person I am. Without a father in the home, I knew as a father I would always look out not just for my own but for others, and so I have always strived to provide resources to give people a hand up so they wouldn't have to face the struggles I had to face. The early days of my life made me committed to fight for social justice and political empowerment and a decent quality of life, housing and healthcare, and employment opportunity, for all. I want to make sure everyone has access to healthcare, a job, housing, training and trades. That's why I want to go to Washington."

But why now?

"We're living in some very dangerous times," said Mapp. "The leadership is not what the founding fathers intended for the office of the presidency. We are at that crossroads because of the tremendous pressures placed, especially by those on the Republican side, to create a feeling, as though nothing can be done. People feel that way, as if they can't accomplish what they set out to do and so want to take flight in some cases from the halls of Congress. They're frustrated by the process or no longer believe they can effect change in a way they would like to see. That's not Bonnie, of course. I believe Bonnie, having served us well, believes it is time for her to exit and make room for someone else. Others see things differently. Someone like [Georgia Republican Congresswoman] Marjorie Taylor Greene is being pushed out of office by a president who wants to be an autocrat, whose way of exercising the role of president is pretty much to demand a level of loyalty from people in his party that does not allow them to be themselves. On our side, they're becoming disillusioned and frustrated but on the other hand as a Democrat there is that urgent need for leaders who are willing to fight to take on the struggle to bring back a different tone and tenor than what is happening in Washington. As someone who has struggled against tremendous odds, I am used to fighting. I am used to a struggle. I'm used to rolling up my sleeves and getting the job done.

"People on both sides of the aisle need to be having conversations among each other," added Mapp. 'We have gotten to a point where there are no substantive conversations. I think with a level of respect, people can work together because we have so much in common. Oftentimes we believe in the same policies but the leader in the White House is constantly bearing down on members of Congress and the pressure is such that people no longer know how to reach across the aisle. The only way to accomplish big and bold things that will last for generations is we have to reach across the aisle. We have to get back to a place of respect."

A finance guy, Mapp said the substantive part of the conversation must come done to more than numbers. "When you look at the budget - unfortunately there are too many people who don't understand the budget - when we look at the cost of healthcare, the cost of the Department of Education, funding for social service agencies, we have to understand what those numbers mean. We can't operate in silos but must work for the greater good in all things we do."

Although Plainfield is the only Union County municipality in the 12th Congressional District, Mapp cites his longtime relationship building beyond the boundaries of his home county as a member of organizations like the NJ Conference of Mayors (NJCM), the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), the New Jersey State League of Municipalities (NJLM), the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the NJ Legislative Committee, the Gateway Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the Government Finance Officers Association of NJ (GFOA).

He said he plan to run a vigorous campaign throughout the district.

"You go into all 32 municipalities that are part of the district," Mapp said. "I am here in Plainfield - and Plainfield and Trenton are the bookends of the 12th District - and I think we all have an obligation to go into all these municipalities to tell our stories about what we will do if elected to this office. I have a resume. I have been involved in a number of causes that have given me reach, including on issues pertaining to affordable housing and healthcare. The district is very diverse, and I'm in the race because I've done the work. I believe, given my statewide presence and reputation, people know who I am. I'm not worried about the notion of one municipality from Union in the district. People see my work over the last 12 years."

Asked about at least two of his Democratic Primary rivals in the race, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds Jackson and Somerset Commission Director Shanel Robinson, Mapp said. "They are two wonderful human beings who do great work. They are decent human beings. Yes, we have spoken, and we all are in this because we all believe we can represent the 12th district."

Asked specifically about what he wants to tackle in the nation's capital as congressman from New Jersey's 12th District, Mapp said, "I want to address the affordability issue we face as a nation. We are known as the highest taxed state in the nation. I want to revisit the property tax crisis and address the housing we need. I want to make sure we are getting the necessary revenue into the state and into the district so mothers - so parents - don't have to worry about childcare. I want funding for all-day kindergarten and childcare. I want to make sure parents don't have to worry about that funding to support all day childcare programs in schools across the district and across the state." In addition, he wants optimal tax credit vouchers for housing in areas where there exists a desperate need.