‘WE NEED RESISTANCE EVERYWHERE,’ SAYS CITIZEN ACTION’S LEADER

But much of the Democratic Party is “asleep,” she says

In 2025, NJ Citizen Action has been at the forefront of building opposition to the Trump-Musk agenda, including holding town halls with Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, Senator Andy Kim, union leaders, and a wide range of progressive groups.

But Dena Mottola Jaborska, NJCA’s executive director, says that many leaders of the Democratic party in New Jersey are “asleep,” and that it’s up to activists to lead the way until the party leadership comes around.

For 43 years, since its founding in 1982, New Jersey Citizen Action has billed itself as a “statewide coalition and grassroots organization that fights for social, racial, and economic justice.” Its roots go back further. In 1980, Citizen Action groups were founded in five states, with a national headquarters in Washington, D.C., and there were predecessor Citizen Action groups as early as 1970. Since then, Citizen Action chapters have been involved in major get-out-the-vote drives and in support of single-payer health care reform.

The following is an edited and condensed version of an interview with Mottola Jaborska by The New Jersey Democrat.

TNJD Do you think that New Jersey’s politicians, and the population, are ready to resist Trump's budget cuts and gutting of health, safety, environmental regulations, and his assault on the rule of law?

Dena Mottola Jaborska Well, that's a big question. For me the question is whether the whole nation is ready. We need resistance everywhere. It keeps growing, and that's hopeful. Trump's approval rating continues to drop, which is a good trend. Judges are starting to issue rulings against his executive orders. So, I feel like I'm a little bit optimistic that the movement we need is growing. I don't think we're there yet. We need to do more. And we need more outspoken opposition from independents and Republicans, like, “This is not the guy we elected. We did not elect him to dismantled democracy and take away our rights.”

Statewide, folks everywhere are standing up and organizing, smaller groups, individuals, with acts of resistance everywhere. But we need to get more strategic and more central. We need to coordinate all of the actions. I stay up at night thinking about it, like what's gonna make us pull together and really make a difference?

TNJD What do you mean by that? Are you talking about something like April 5?

Mottola Jaborska Yeah, April 5 is a great example of something like that. … An escalation might be some sort of strike, where we all don't go to work or school. I don't know that we're there yet, that we have people ready to do that, but that's an example of the kind of action I'd like to see us get to at some point. I'd like to see some peaceful civil disobedience. I know that this is a difficult environment to do that in, but when has it ever not been difficult?

TNJD You're referring to spontaneous and bottom up and people-powered events and protests. But what's your opinion about how the Democratic party around the state is responding?

Mottola Jaborska They're totally asleep. I don’t know what it's gonna take to wake them up. … In New Jersey, for example, the governor isn’t speaking out like other governors are. We don't have [Illinois Governor J.B.] Pritzker or Pennsylvania Governor Josh] Shapiro in New Jersey. And the legislature is kind of silly. I mean, it's ridiculous how silent they are.

TNJD What are they afraid of? I mean that the polls show overwhelming opposition to Trump, especially among Democrats. What's holding them back?

Mottola Jaborska I think they're afraid that Trump's vindictive. He's gonna take their funding away. Murphy is worried about losing funding. He's worried that some really important stuff, like big transportation projects, things that we really need, could be taken away. I get it, but I don't think there's anything more serious and problematic than the dismantling of our democratic rights, so I would just put everything else aside right now and fight for our democracy.

TNJD Senator Andy Kim seems to be everywhere now.

Mottola Jaborska Andy has been really active. We have done multiple events with him, and he has been doing virtual meetings, too. Cory Booker, I think, is doing what he can. I think he's also trying to create a lot of fight in DC, which is a place where we do need fight. But, honestly, a lot of our elected officials have their head in Washington and they don't have their head in New Jersey. Kim does have his head in New Jersey.

TNJD Matt Platkin, the attorney general, is doing a lot.

Dena Mottola Jaborska Yeah, he's all in. He’s the top opposition leader in our state. He's the only Democrat really, at the highest level, fighting for us.

TNJD For a long time, New Jersey has been under the thumb of the machine, the county bosses.

Mottola Jaborska Yes.

TNJD Is that an obstacle to getting out the vote? In the election last year, half a million Democrats didn't bother to vote, right?

Mottola Jaborska I think it hampers us, to be honest with you. A lot of the progressive organizations are working around them and despite them, and we're gonna keep doing that. … I'll give you an example of this, and I hope this is not too much of a sidebar, but I've been thinking about the governor’s race a lot.

You see the Republicans doing massive voter registration drives everywhere in New Jersey. They're on the move. They're registering more Republicans and they're doing it intentionally, and they have more stuff planned. What are we doing to register Democratic voters in New Jersey as Trump dismantles our democracy? I mean, I can only speak from where I sit as the executive director of New Jersey Citizen Action. If they don't act, we'll go out and register those voters. Our membership is swelling. Our followers on social media are swelling. Our events and town halls are gonna be completely sold out and there will be rallies outside. If the Democrats can't mobilize and won't mobilize, we can and we will.

TNJD Can you say a little bit about Citizen Action?

Mottola Jaborska Yeah, we're both a community and labor coalition and grass roots, so we have grassroots members and then we have affiliate groups. We see ourselves as a people-powered organization. Statewide, a lot of our affiliates are unions, and we have a very large base of progressive unions, and that I think gives us power. And because we've been around for decades we've been able to help in building the social safety in our state and advance the rights of vulnerable people.

We're a very broad, multi-issue organization and I think we've been successful because we've used the power of our base to push the Democrats to make changes, like the paid family leave program, the adoption of the Medicaid expansion when [former Governor Chris] Christie was here. … We also operate financial empowerment services, working directly with low- and moderate-income families to help them climb out of poverty and achieve economic security. We are on the ground in places like Camden or Cherry Hill, Highland Park and Newark, where we meet face-to-face with people to help them file their taxes, do housing counseling, health counseling, and help them become first time homebuyers.