SOMERVILLE - When President Donald Trump said the Gateway Tunnel is dead and U.S. Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. did not adequately forcefully respond, Somerset County Commissioner Sara Sooy knew she had to do something.

This is a commuter corridor and transit the lifeblood of family economic livelihood.

"I've probably seen him a handful of times," Democrat Sooy said of Republican Kean, ally of Trump, whose golf course is here in the 7th District.

Kean's near invisibility at times is bad enough.

But "When Donald Trump says he wants to cut our entire project and you're completely silent, that's when I decided to run for Congress," said the commissioner, the county's liaison for the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, now serving in her seventh year.

Kean did release a statement on Facebook.

"I strongly support the Hudson Gateway Tunnel project and am adamant that it be completed. Democrat leaders in New Jersey and New York need to stop playing senseless political games, which are threatening to result in real delays in construction. We need to do everything necessary to keep this vital project moving forward. I am bringing leaders together on this issue because New Jerseyans are counting on us to get this job done."

But that's not good enough, in Sooy's judgement.

It's not strong enough.

A month ago, Trump doubled down with an attack on the Gateway Tunnel Project, one of the largest and most important investments in public transit in the country, saying it is “dead” and that he is “cutting the project.”

Sooy wants to fight back.

The commissioner sees this as a crisis, and she wants to be there, as an advocate for better transportation, healthcare, and consumer protections.

She flipped her commission seat from Republican to Democrat back in 2019.

Now she wants to flip Kean's seat.

That's what she does.

She was in office during Hurricane Ida, a 100-year flood that turned the county upside down, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I was living in Bound Brook at the time of Ida and my apartment had to be evacuated because the flood gates didn't close," recalled the commissioner, who helped coordinate emergency response.

People died in that storm. Sooy recalls the heartbreak of seeing ruined homes and the goods of people's lives piled on their front lawns or on the sidewalks. She remembers too the aftermath of improving county protocols and deepening those relationships among all responders critical to emergency services. During the COVID crisis and the months following, Sooy worked at the county level to maintain government and business partnerships to endure the survival of Somerset businesses.

The commissioner sees Congress at this moment in time as another kind of disaster, failing people not only on the transportation front, but also when it comes to healthcare and consumer protection. Sooy serves on the board of NJPTA, the largest nonprofit grassroots children's advocacy association in New Jersey. Daughter of an Ecuadoran-born mother saved by Obamacare, the Spanish-speaking public servant and head of the county finance committee that works directly with RWJBarnabas, she wants to go to Congress to overhaul healthcare and health insurance so these systems serve real Americans. Too many people pay exorbitant costs for terrible coverage, she says. She wants to fix that.

"We need to address this at the root, and it is not being addressed right now," said the congressional candidate. "My mother was not covered for two and a half weeks between jobs when her appendix burst."

The situation may worsen between now and the swearing-in of midterm congressional winners.

From CNN: Roughly 22 million Americans use enhanced Obamacare subsidies. If the subsidies lapse at year-end, Americans face hundreds of dollars – and in some cases close to $1,000 – in monthly premium increases for their health care. Many people would be forced into difficult choices, including abandoning health insurance altogether.

Trump is now fighting with his own party after campaigning on getting rid of the ACA. "We have gone so far astray from protecting our citizens first instead of corporations, and we need a baseline for our people," said Sooy, who wants the Affordable Care Act expanded but also streamlined and made more effective, competitive, and efficient.

"We want to be able to expand it on the principle," she told InsiderNJ.

Was the ACA perfect when first launched? No. But Democratic leaders backed it from the beginning. Sooy acknowledges the need to refine its imperfections, while Trump campaigned on getting rid of it and now finds himself playing politics amid cries to keep the critical care program.

"This is about values," said the commissioner. "We see people falling between the cracks, and Democrats by far have been more consistent, while Republicans appear to be learning about this for the first time."

Maybe they didn't have a mother, for example, directly impacted - and saved.

"How can you trust a leader [Trump] flip-flopping on something like this?" she wanted to know.

As for Kean, amid GOP mangled priorities on Obamacare, he appears to be pivoting to prescription drug prices, in step with Trump's pollster advice.

Sooy is equally concerned about the overreach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the lives of working people. "Our immigration policy is completely broken," she lamented. She expressed support for state Senator Joe Cryan's (D-20) legislation to prohibit ICE operatives from wearing masks, but she wants to lead greater federal oversight.

A daughter of Somerset County, the future commissioner grew up in Bernardsville in a multigenerational household, town of the late Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick. As a girl she lived within walking distance of the downtown and church and learned about volunteering as part of her family values foundation. She is what she describes as a recovering banker who now owns her own private sector Wall Street-meets-Main Street consulting firm.

"I'm a Democrat," Sooy told InsiderNJ. "I believe in libraries and public schools and public services. People forget what those words mean. What it means to be a Democrat is to provide an economy that serves all people. It is to deliver on the idea that when life didn't give you the best opportunities, there is a safety net. We want to make sure we have the ability to provide a baseline of education. I'm a Jersey girl through and through and nobody will work harder than a New Jerseyan. That's what we need for this district."

Democrat Mikie Sherrill beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the district by one percent.

It's a district that numbers 20,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.

"Tom Kean, jr. is less liked than Jack," said Sooy. "People need to be reminded that he tried to present himself as an extension of his father. His father was a hard worker. His son not so much. Tom Kean, Jr. is nowhere to be found. He's doing the bare minimum. I don't see the heart in it.

"And what I always tell people as we look to flip this seat, is my specialty is flipping seats," Sooy added with a smile.