By Kimberly Clark
This May marked sixteen years since my mother lost her battle with cancer. I am reminded, as I am every year when this anniversary passes, of her long battle with stomach cancer.
She suffered from a rather rare form of stomach cancer, one that is barely detectable as it does not form a tumor but rather infiltrates the interstitial lining of the stomach. She had been ill for several years prior to her diagnosis, and perhaps if it had been found sooner, she would have survived.
During my mother’s treatment, I decided that I wanted to become a nurse. My prior career as a retail store manager wasn’t very fulfilling, and while I had an arts degree in graphic design, those jobs were few and far between. While I cared for my mother throughout hospice, we encountered a rather…uncompassionate hospice nurse who further solidified for me that I could do this job—and do it with the empathy and compassion necessary to do it well. After my mother’s death, I took the life insurance policy she left me as an inheritance and went to nursing school, vastly changing the course of my life.
Throughout my nursing career, I have worked in a variety of settings: with children, special-needs children and adults, critically ill patients, rehab patients, and long-term and dementia care, and I’ve provided hospice care. The greatest responsibility a nurse can have is caring for those who are dying—to comfort them and ensure they do not feel alone, are comfortable, and are not in pain. Cancer, no matter who it strikes, is a thief. It robs people of their well-being—emotionally, mentally, and physically. It robs families of quality time with their loved ones. It steals your mind, your body, and your very soul. It is not something to be trifled with.
As a nurse, part of my oath is to advocate for my patients. That is what I am doing for you now: advocating for you. I advocate by educating you and the people of the Great State of New Jersey about a person running for office, promising things they cannot and will not deliver.
Stephen N. Zielinski, the Green Party candidate for our state, is running on a healthcare platform (despite no professional healthcare experience or education in the field) and promises a healthy New Jersey through organic farming.
He also has ideas that make me concerned.
From his website:
“Private hospitals may prioritize high-revenue procedures and treatments over essential but less profitable services.”
What does less profitable mean? Meditation instead of chemotherapy?
He claims concern for rural New Jersey? New Jersey is the most urban state in the United States.
This platform alone demonstrates Stephen’s lack of experience, qualifications, and education in this specialized field. He lacks a basic understanding of this complicated disease and its causes. Like RFK Jr.’s MAHA agenda—promising an autism “cure” while falsely claiming vaccines contain toxins and microchips—Stephen’s stance that organic farming cures cancer is pseudoscience lacking peer review or scientific rigor.
Through light a light Facebook search, I found Stephen (or a person using his name and photograph) is a member of MAHA-NJ. He could be there to educate the group on its ignorance. That is possible.
MAHA is RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, rife with pseudoscience about toxins and seed oils. RFK Jr. is anti-vaccine and contributed to 89 preventable Samoan deaths in 2019 through his rhetoric. With record U.S. measles cases today, he still pushes pseudoscience instead of proven vaccines.
Every research scientist and oncologist knows not to promise a “Cure for Cancer.” They understand “cancer” is an umbrella term for thousands of distinct diseases with similar origins. Stephen plays on your emotions by promising one.
As a nurse with sixteen years of experience and education, I know cancer occurs in human bodies constantly. In its simplest form, it is routine cell division gone awry. Our lymphatic system usually handles these misdivided cells. They become problematic when they spread or form malignant tumors. Cancer treatment is specific to the person, cancer type, potential causes, etc. Oncology is a complex field requiring years of education, study, practice, and emotional discipline. Stephen has none of these qualifications to tell you, the voter, he’ll cure cancer through organic farming. Stephen sells solar panels. As a nurse, I would not trust my health—or New Jersey—to a solar panel salesman.
I also have a special relationship with vaccines. My great aunt, Magret Gibbs, was a microbiologist who worked alongside Dr. Jonas Salk on his polio vaccine, saving millions worldwide. I know vaccines work, have a proven track record of saving lives, fertility, hearing, and speech. They absolutely do not cause autism—proven repeatedly. The physician who fabricated this data lost his medical license, and billions have been wasted disproving it.
We know MAGA is dangerous. MAHA is another facet of that cult, rocketing Project 2025’s horrors into our state—threatening lives with anti-vaccine rhetoric, pushing pseudoscience, endangering the neurodivergent community, and destroying progress with conspiracies.
Stephen in my opinion is unqualified to lead our state during a constitutional crisis. He silences critics when questioned and has no standing to imply that he will end or even lessen cancer through organic farming. At the bare minimum, he would have to win and not take valuable votes away from the pragmatic choice. With Project 2025 at our throats, can we afford to take chances? No.
The Green Party has admirable values I sometimes share. In less dire times, I might protest-vote third-party. But these are not peaceful times for protest votes. We are voting for our lives and our community’s survival.
The choice is clear. New Jersey needs calm, competent leadership—not a man turning personal tragedy into a comic-book superhero mission. Vote to keep NJ MAGA-free. Vote for Mikie Sherrill.
