PLAINFIELD - High energy Mike Anderson walks into the coffee shop here downtown but he doesn't want to sit down and have coffee. Not immediately. He wants to take a walk around his hometown, and he's practically already out the door and down the street, past the YMCA, the barbershop, the former boxing gym, the church, the school, talking about why these very streets uniquely prepared him to run for Congress in the 12th District.

The crisis now with Donald Trump in charge doesn't seem too different from what it's always been around here, in Anderson's judgement, as the President tries to pit people against one another as part of a cynical divide and conquer strategy for maximum personal financial gain.

"It's the history of America," says Anderson, Democrat. "As long as you can get poor disenfranchised uneducated white people to think somebody else is the enemy you can manipulate people. Trump doesn't care about the poor guy in West Virginia waving a MAGA flag. His thought is 'as long as I can keep him distracted and fighting someone else who doesn't have anything, I don't have to deliver any solutions."

Youthful, energetic, Anderson doesn't believe his own party with its largely lukewarm messaging effectively counters Trump's sulfuric self-interest, because establishment Democrats are part of the problem. The Harvard University government graduate, veteran of the Wall Street banking industry, promises a congressional campaign of substance - because he knows the issues, especially on the economic front - and passion - because he's from here and refuses to yield to society's confections and caricatures.

"This is Jersey man, people want to hear that fire," says a man who in 2020 led a boycott of the supermarket store where authorities falsely arrested him.

At the core, Democrats have not adequately addressed people's economic struggles, which he cites as a primary reason for young males shying away from the party. "Everyone's struggling out here," he says. Half the people I know, even if they went to Ivy league schools, can't afford to buy a house. If you can't provide for yourself, you feel like there's no equity in the system."

Winner of the Paul Robeson Award as a young man and recognized by the NAACP and AFL-CIO for his leadership and activism, Anderson interned at Merrill Lynch in Plainsboro before working in the city. He later transitioned into socially impactful venture capital and global ministry, focusing on economic inclusion and community development, most recently as Chief Philanthropic Officer of an international impact investment crypto and AI foundation. The married father of a daughter, Anderson is the grandson of Bishop Edward Philson, a pioneer who founded Plainfield’s Rose of Sharon Community Church, and he continues that legacy through tangible results.

"The guns been pointed at us our entire lives," says the candidate. "I can go to Newark and read about how Robert Treat came here and civilized the land of the savages. The history we're taught is 'we use guns to civilize savages.' It's the same thing now. People are just used to being the underclass and being enslaved and controlled in so many ways. I'm here for freedom and sovereignty." That's why, for example, he supports 2nd Amendment rights, where the Bill of Rights makes specific provision for a well-regulated militia.

Anderson's reaction to the killing of Renee Nicole Good last week in Minneapolis, MN by an ICE agent?

"Of course, it's a tragic situation," he says. "She shouldn't have been killed. The agent could have practiced more restraint. The truth? The truth is I went to Austin, Texas, to the LBJ museum and listened to a conversation between LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover when the white boys who came down with the freedom riders were dead and the car was still burning. ...White America had to see white American savagery for things to change. This has been happening. I'm from here. You want me to run down the list of men who have been tortured and mutilated by the government? For us this is every other day. White people had to see other white people get killed to realize 'we've gone too far.'"

As he dives deeper into the congressional primary that will decide the party nominee to fill the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12), Anderson intends to roll out multiple policy points with details about bills he wants to write and champion. He says he does not want to disrespect any of the other candidates but plans to shake up the contest with some long overdue truth telling and a high-octane campaign.

"Put me in a ring and I'll fight whoever. I'll fight the machine," says Anderson, an admirer of the late state Senator Ronald L. Rice ("Although we disagreed on marijuana legalization.").

He's intensely and eagerly on to the next set of questions, the next issues, and everyone's back at the coffee shop by now, but Anderson's so immersed and galvanized - "Mamdani's just the beginning," he proclaims, almost emitting sparks in the crossfire of politics, history, and public service, as other patrons look over, curious, and for the moment, the candidate for Congress doesn't slow down long enough even to grab a cup of coffee.