Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp is running to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), adding another prominent name to the increasingly crowded Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district.
Mapp, a major figure in Plainfield politics for nearly three decades, is the first Union County politician to enter what could end up becoming a heavily regional contest.
“I am running because service is my calling,” Mapp said in his campaign announcement yesterday. “I am running because New Jersey’s middle class deserves a fighter. And I am running because the people of the 12th District deserve a representative who will deliver, not just promises, but progress.”
Mapp began his political career on the Plainfield City Council, serving two non-consecutive stints from 1999 to 2006 and again from 2009 to 2013. He also spent a short period on the Union County Board of Freeholders.
In 2009, Mapp made his first try at the mayor’s office, losing a close Democratic primary to incumbent Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs. He came back for a rematch in 2013 and won, unseating Robinson-Briggs by a wide margin; he’s won re-election three times since then, though he’s faced a serious Democratic primary challenge each time, only narrowly defeating Councilman Richard Wyatt earlier this year.
Mapp said in his campaign launch that, if elected to Congress, he’ll fight for affordability-focused policies like expanding the mortgage interest deduction, building more affordable housing, and restoring the full State and Local Tax deduction (which Republicans in Congress partially restored earlier this year).
“[The 12th district] is a strong, diverse, middle-class district, and our families deserve a representative who understands both their challenges and their aspirations,” Mapp said. “We cannot afford politics that tear communities apart. We need leadership rooted in unity, integrity, and the belief that every person in this district deserves to be heard and seen.”
Mapp’s prominence in Plainfield could provide him a strong geographic base in the 12th district, but it also comes with a major downside: Union County is home to only around 6% of the district’s Democratic voters (Plainfield is the district’s sole Union County town). In the 2014 open primary for the same seat, Union Democrats didn’t even field a candidate, instead supporting Watson Coleman, a Mercer politician, against opponents from Middlesex and Somerset Counties.
Mapp would also be 70 years old when he takes office, on the older side for a House freshman. Then again, Watson Coleman was elected in 2014 at the age of 69; she was older than the congressman she replaced, former Rep. Rush Holt (D-Hopewell).
Four other candidates are already officially in the race for the district: Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton), Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson (D-Franklin), East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, and fitness studio owner Kyle Little, the latter of whom was already challenging Watson Coleman prior to her retirement announcement.
Plenty more Democrats could soon join the field for the safely Democratic district, among them State Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick), former Energy Department official Jay Vaingankar, attorney Squire Servance, and any number of other local ambitious politicians.
