Jim Keady, the pro-Bernie Sanders tavern owner from Spring Lake who was once told by Governor Chris Christie to “sit down and shut up,” intends to run for the 4th District Congressional seat again in 2020.

“At my desk logging new campaign contacts for #Bernie2020 and #Keady2020 that we got over the weekend,” Keady posted on Facebook. “Always be organizing. Always be talking to people. Never leave the conversation without a phone number and email. Follow up and plug people in to action. This is how we win.”

A progressive Democrat, former Asbury Park councilman, and dedicated activist worldwide who recently returned from a humanitarian trip to the Bahamas, Keady ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2018, and unsuccessfully for the Assembly in 2015.  In a competitive contest in which he competed off the line, Keady lost the Democratic 2018 nomination in CD4 to Josh Welle, 14,177 to 10,490.

A champion of poor people’s campaigns and other forgotten and broken-hearted ventures, who went up against Nike in an effort to expose slave labor, and infamously went toe to toe with Christie at the Jersey Shore in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Keady in 2018 said the foundation of his political philosophy boils down to a simple frame of reference.

“At a very fundamental level, I don’t like bullies,” the CD4 Democratic Party candidate told InsiderNJ.

“I’ve grown up to be 6 ft. 4, but it wasn’t always like that. I got bullied quite a lot as a kid. I am running to be a voice for those people who don’t have a voice in D.C. Whether it’s Christie or Donald Trump, big banks or corporations, I’m against bullies.”

This year it’s possible the hardcore, self-identified progressive will have the advantage in a larger field of candidates interested in trying to knock off U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4), the state’s last Republican member of the New Jersey Congressional delegation.

At the very least, Keady will have company – some of financially well-connected – from those already-declared other Democrats in CD4: Steph Schmid of Little Silver, David Applefield of Red Bank, representative for special projects for The Financial Times Newspaper; Tiffany Kaszuba of Howell, vice-president of Cavarocchi, Ruscio, Dennis Associates LLC;  Hassan Shehadeh; and Christine Conforti of Ocean Grove, a leadership and business coach.