Experts detail how loss affecting congressional district’s residents
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — They talked and Zack Mullock listened as speaker after speaker detailed how they think U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew has failed the Second Congressional District.
Mullock, the mayor of Cape May, is challenging the four-term MAGA Republican congressman in the election Nov. 3.
He heard from leaders in education, independent living, support services, social justice and disability protections during the Moms for Mullock event Sept. 9 at Stockton.
Mullock said when he hears from constituent groups, he tries to break the message down into what they want.
“I try to boil everything down to what are people asking for, and so often it is literally boiling down to dignity and respect. These are not big asks,” he said. “Dignity and respect — these are not big requests from our federal government.”
Mullock criticized Van Drew for supporting President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut Medicaid payments and made it more difficult for beneficiaries to secure needed funding.
He said the budget bill “cut everything at the bottom so that we make sure that the top 1 percent gets their cut. It’s insane. You can’t listen to these stories and not recognize these are changes that we need to make to protect those who are most vulnerable. If we’re not doing that as a government, what are we actually doing?”
The South Jersey Democratic Women’s Forum hosted the event, which was moderated by Atlantic City Council Vice President Kaleem Shabazz.
“The things that we are talking about are everyday concerns that speak to all of us, and unfortunately, we don’t have a representative in Congress that is concerned about these real life, everyday issues that affects everyone across the board,” Shabazz said in his opening remarks. “Tonight, you’re going to hear something different. And I would just encourage all of you who are here to be a committee of one, to go back and talk to your friends and talk to your circle that you influence and tell them that we have an alternative. We have a real choice.”
Mullock heard from six panelists:
— Brenda Brathwaite, senior board director, New Jersey National Education Association
— Donald Campbell, executive director, Atlantic Center for Independent Living
— Maura Collingsgru, policy and advocacy director, New Jersey Citizen Action
— Laura Gaffney, director of Family Support Services, Durand Inc.
— The Rev. Julia Hankerson, clinical social worker and psychotherapist; member, Atlantic Cape Community College Human Services Rehabilitation Board
— Susan Coll-Guedes, educator, disability policy advocate and doctoral researcher who has spent more than two decades helping families navigate special education and disability service systems
Coll-Guedes, who founded Moms for Mullock, said the event is about working together to get him elected.
“We deserve to have someone who listens and cares about us, cares about our families, and will fight for us and make policy decisions that will make our lives better,” she said.
Brenda Brathwaite
“I’m here tonight because I believe in something simple and American — strong public schools for every student. Not strong schools for some students and some zip codes. Strong public schools for every child,” Brathwaite said.
She detailed how Van Drew’s votes are “poised to touch every classroom, every school nurse’s office and every child’s lunch tray in our communities.”
Brathwaite stressed that the worst of the cuts have not taken effect yet but are scheduled for 2027. “That means we still have time to stop them if we act now.”
She said Medicaid cuts harm the state’s most impoverished residents.
“In South Jersey, hunger is not an abstract idea,” Brathwaite said, noting 80 percent of CD2 is agricultural land with a significant rural population.
She used figures to detail just how bad things are in CD2:
— $187 billion: Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over 10 years via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
— $84,183: Median income, well below the state median of $104,294
— 28.8: Percent of children facing food insecurity in Cumberland County, the highest in the state, compared to 13.5 statewide.
— 15.5: Percent of school-age children live in poverty in Atlantic County
— 43.1: Percent of children, more than 24,000 kids, live below the 200 percent of the poverty line. “The exact threshold where free and reduced-price meals and SNAP matter most.”
“These are the children whose meals are now on the chopping block,” Brathwaite said, adding the SNAP loss was “the largest cut to food assistance in American history.”
Donald Campbell
“Jeff Van Drew has supported a direct attack on disability rights through the Trump administration,” Campbell said, noting he has cerebral palsy. “These Medicaid cuts are devastating. It’s about $6 billion projected statewide.”
He said cuts to disability protections and support affect many more people than most believe, noting 25 percent of the U.S. population has a disability.
“If you live long enough, you’re going to have a disability. So this is your interest. Somebody you love is going to have a disability,” Campbell said.
He said Medicaid is not only a health care program, but a jobs program.
“Medicaid is what allows people with disabilities to get to work,” he said. “Jeff Van Drew doesn’t understand if you don’t have health care, it’s hard to maintain your job. If you don’t have food, it’s hard to maintain your job. If you can’t afford to get to work because of these highest gas prices and this stupid war that Jeff Van Drew supports, it’s hard to get a job.”
Campbell said work requirements for people with disabilities is just a scheme to get people not to file for benefits. He also said that work requirements are big government, something Republicans are supposed to be against, requiring an enormous effort just to process the paperwork.
“You need to pay people out of your pocket to enforce these ridiculous requirements. So it’s the worst type of big government. It’s the government that makes people’s lives harder and doesn’t accomplish anything,” Campbell said.
Maura Collingsgru
Collingsgru said outcome of the election will have sweeping ramifications.
“There is not anyone living in the state of New Jersey, or in this country, who is not going to feel the effects of these cuts,” she said.
The working poor will suffer greatly under the cuts, Collingsgru said. The United Way’s Alice Report details people who are working but whose assets are limited and they are facing financial hardship because they cannot pay for essentials.
“If you couple the poverty limit here in this district and those who fall under that financial hardship, you’re looking at nearly 40 percent of the people,” she said.
They are people who are having to make difficult choices every day, she said, between food and medicine, child care and gas money.
“There are real decisions that are going on every day in this district and across the United States,” Collingsgru said. “So we’re looking at a wealth gap here under this administration and being exacerbated by these cuts that is growing wider and deeper by the day.”
She also discussed struggles with health insurance.
“We had nearly 50 million people in this country who had no access to health care. We cut that in half in the decade that followed (passage of the Affordable Care Act). In New Jersey, we had over 500,000 people signed into that program. They are the people that they have basically said, Jeff Van Drew and his colleagues in Congress and Donald Trump have said, we need to make sure you’re working and earning this.” She said the vast majority of people in that Medicaid expanded population are full-time workers.
“We’re cutting these benefits and putting roadblocks in the way for people when we have to process all of this paperwork they’re calling for,” Collingsgru said, noting the state has 1.8 million on Medicaid. “If you want to see a huge job, just verify eligibility for 1.8 million people every six months.”
Laura Gaffney
Gaffney discussed the struggles of her son, Andrew, 35, who is on the autism spectrum. He is able to live independently in a network and has a part-time job at an assisted living facility.
“This is personal for us. Every time we hear about Medicaid cuts, we know the numbers. They’re extremely scary,” she said, adding that Andrew also relies on SNAP for groceries.
Gaffney said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is scheduled to cut $3.6 billion in annual Medicaid funds starting in 2027, and that includes support services, transportation and other items.
“Many people with disabilities cannot or choose not to drive. Many also cannot use regular buses or light rail. They need affordable alternatives,” she said. “Those services are on the chopping block. They are the first ones that are going.”
Julia Hankerson
Quoting the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, Hankerson said the document was meant to protect all people, not just the favored few.
“There is no disclaimer there. There is no exclusion there. It’s we the people, everybody. That includes folks of all colors, of all nationalities, of all races, of all ethnicities, regardless of disability or sexual orientation. It doesn’t matter. It includes us all,” she said.
Hankerson noted the 14th Amendment declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, and includes the Equal Protection Clause, which states, no state shall deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.
“Again, no exceptions, no exclusions,” she said, but added that the amendment was written in 1868, 92 years after America was formed.
So slavery continued legally for nearly a century, and racism and discrimination continue today, Hankerson said.
“So when you hear someone say, make America great again, they’re asking that we go back to such a time when racism and discrimination was fine. That’s what the MAGA group thinks, that racism and discrimination are fine,” she said.
She said many individuals and organizations have worked to change that, “but today, all of those rights are in danger because we have a group who says, ‘let’s make America great again. So let’s go back to the time when the rights were not equal and folks were discriminated against and it was legal.’”
Hankerson said Trump “has openly embraced white supremacist organizations and has made fun of people with disabilities and has reversed laws that have to do with the rights of the LGBTQIA+ folks and persons of color and women. Sam Cooke sang the song, a change is going to come, but we did not expect the change to be going backwards.”
“Today we have a congressional leader in our district who has embraced our national leader, who has embraced oppressive and discriminatory practices, and today we have an opportunity to make a change. Today we have a young man who stood up and said, ‘here I am, send me.’”
Susan Coll-Guedes
Coll-Guedes is studying Medicaid home and community-based services because her son, Alex, has Down syndrome and needs lifetime support. She said she never was interested in politics and is a “reluctant advocate.” “Alex’s life has forced me to become involved and to become aware and to become engaged,” she said.
Coll-Guedes said when her son was 2, they could not afford to keep him at home.
“Medical care was costing more than our mortgage, and we applied to all the programs and were denied. There wasn’t a solution for us,” she said.
That’s when she reached out to her legislator for help.
“He kept our family together because all the other solutions were get a divorce,” she said. “That’s when I learned, too, that our elected officials have an incredible power to help people if they listen.”
She said many issues came to a head when her son turned 21. His eligibility for Medicaid ended while he was hospitalized, and they were told they could not take him home to live with them.
After living in the hospital with their son for 297 days, racking up a $770,000 bill, they finally got to take Alex home. That was three years ago, she said, and now he is home and has 16 hours a day of nursing care.
“So mom works full time, dad works full time, the other kids go to school, and there is care in the house because of Medicaid home and community-based services,” she said.
When federal funds are cut, states decide what they trim, putting services like those Alex gets in jeopardy.
“Here we have a situation where it has happened. Jeff Van Drew voted for cuts to Medicaid. It is going to happen, and each state will decide who is going to suffer,” Coll-Guedes said, noting no state is legally required to provide funds to disabled adults older than 21.
“I want you to know that Medicaid, Medicaid makes it possible for Alex to live with mom and dad. So the desperation that I had of living in that hospital for 297 days to be able to get my son home, I am feeling that terror again with waiting for what’s coming and who is it going to get,” she said.
Mullock’s response
Mulock said he recognizes how important these issues are to everyday people.
“I know, I feel the weight. I do. I want you to know that I know how important this is to so many people, but that is what motivates me every day to make sure we are doing everything we can to fight for the people of South Jersey,” he said, noting CD2 contains “three of the poorest counties in the state.”
He said Van Drew voted against so many of the interests of the people who are in need in those counties.
“As mayor, I look at those things and say, you know what, we all have to deal with budgets. We have to figure things out. But what is insulting to me is when you see the very wealthiest getting tax cuts so that we can take away things at the very bottom,” Mullock said. “That to me is extremely insulting and sad, and those are the things that we are going to fight against in Congress.”
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff