It feels like a lifetime ago, and maybe it was now, that I worked as Field Director for Bonnie Watson Coleman. It was 2014 and she was running for her first term in the Congress to replace Congressman Rush Holt. She had served in the New Jersey State Assembly for years by that point, holding the same seat as her father before her, and rising to be the Majority Leader of the Assembly from 2006 to 2010. When she won, I am fairly certain she represented the whitest Congressional seat of any CBC member. She also made history when she won. She became the first African-American woman to represent New Jersey in the Congress. Yes, that’s New Jersey, one of the original 13 colonies. That night in Trenton when she declared victory was extremely satisfying.

I’m going to mostly gloss over the politics of that campaign because they’re the least important thing I’ll write here. The 12th Congressional District at that time was quite different than it is today. Parts of four counties- Union, Middlesex, Somerset, and Mercer- were in the district. While they were areas that voted fairly blue for President, Chris Christie had done decently well in them, Trump hadn’t happened yet, and we had to be concerned about some of the demographic politics of Central Jersey, one of the most diverse places in the country. Cory Booker was running for his first full term at the time too, and our ground operations were, for lack of any better way to put it, entirely coordinated. I came on after the primary and Bonnie had an incredible campaign operation already in place. I built out a general election field team. She got 61% and won all four counties that year, so everything went well.

Ok, so here’s the part I want to tell you about- Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman was an awesome person with one of the best teams of people I ever worked with. Her first two Chiefs of Staff, James Gee and Kari Osmond, were incredibly smart and two of the best people you could work for. It was easy and fun to go to work every day and work long, hard hours for them all. I don’t try to make friends in this business. I would tell you that even on the worst day they were some of the best people I ever worked with. When she said she wanted to serve and be an advocate for her community, she meant it. Not once did I have to say one thing about her to activists, party leaders, or voters, that I did not consider to be 1,000% truth. That was one of the easiest hard jobs I ever had.

With her announcement today that she is retiring, she has decided to end her incredible political career on her own terms. As with any member of Congress, she took positions I liked and I didn’t like, but she always stayed true to who she is. I suspect there will be an incredibly vibrant primary to replace her in the solidly Democratic seat. That can wait for another day. For today I salute her incredible career and service.