One of the most common questions disguised as a criticism I receive on social media is: How does being a mom make you qualified to serve in Congress?
In fact, one of my favorite haters on Facebook started calling me the “Mob Mom” because he doesn’t like that I talk about motherhood—despite the fact that I also talk about my roots in this community and career as a special victims prosecutor.
The implication in the question is that motherhood has nothing to do with leadership or governing.
First, I’m legitimately in love with this nickname—and I’m grateful for him bestowing it upon me. Second, I’m here to answer this question, because I think the answer is important.
Motherhood provides valuable experience and leadership skills that are desperately needed in Congress right now.
A real Mob Mom if I ever saw one.
Only about 7% of members of Congress are moms with children under the age of 18. That means the everyday realities that millions of American families navigate—school schedules, childcare, rising grocery bills, worrying about your kids’ safety and future—are experiences most lawmakers simply don’t understand right now.
Furthermore, the kind of work we often describe as caregiving is one of the most important forms of leadership and it is constantly overlooked.
So many people expect our leaders to look like Captain America. But maybe it’s time we have more leaders who think like caregivers:
Are families able to afford a safe place to live?
Are our children safe at home, at school, and online?
Are we able to afford to go to the doctor and get the treatments we need?
Are our parents able to retire with dignity?
A remarkable number of caregivers are women who have spent their lives doing the kind of work society often undervalues: organizing families, caring for neighbors, and building community. They keep going even when progress is slow and recognition is rare. They move us forward in a steady, patient, and collaborative way. They make sure everyone in the room feels welcome.
Caregiving doesn’t usually get framed as leadership, but it should.
Anyone who has ever raised kids—especially folks who have raised kids while taking care of aging relatives—knows that caregiving is constant problem-solving while trying to remain patient and loving. It’s planning doctor’s appointments and what time you need to leave work to pick your kiddo up, it’s figuring out how to stretch a budget, it’s making sure homework gets done, and it’s worrying about whether your kids are safe when they leave the house.
Caregiving requires paying attention to what people need, even when they can’t always articulate it themselves.
It requires planning for the future instead of reacting only to the crisis of the moment.
It requires protecting what matters most and making sure the people around you are safe and supported.
It also requires persistence—the quiet discipline of showing up every day, doing the work that keeps everything running.
None of that looks dramatic. There are no victory speeches or dramatic turning points. Still, it is real leadership.
When you’re responsible for other people, whether that’s children, a community, or a country, you learn quickly that the job isn’t about being the loudest person in the room. It’s about stewardship—it’s about making sure people are safe, that resources are protected, and that the future is stronger than the present. In short, it’s about taking care of things that matter.
We might not look like superheroes. But we are organizers, problem-solvers, and caretakers of the common good.
And when I win, I intend on focusing on our community and going back to those questions I posed earlier about housing, food, safety, healthcare, and retirement. Because we need more people in Congress who are focusing on what working families need and on the future generations who are depending on us to make good decisions.
That’s why I think the “Mob Mom” nickname fits better than my critic intended. Because I’m ready to look out for our kids. I’m ready to make sure our neighborhoods are safe. I’m going to expose the Epstein class. I’m going to keep an eye on the future and protect what matters—and anyone who tries to stop me? Then we’ll go to the mattresses.
Our water, our jobs, our schools, our healthcare system, and Social Security—these aren’t abstract policy debates to me. These are the things we depend on every day. They are the things our children and grandchildren will inherit from us if we make good decisions right now.
That’s the kind of leadership I believe Congress needs more of: people who think like caregivers, who protect, who see governing as stewardship, and who understand that protecting our communities today is how we build a stronger future tomorrow.
So if being a mom who fights for her community makes me the “Mob Mom,” I’m proud to wear the title.
And if you believe in building a future that puts families and communities first, then I’d love for you to be part of this movement.
Click below to:
Because someone has to take care of us and our future — and that’s what moms do.
Go Mob Mom! GO! I love it too!
Bravo. Good luck. We need people like you to be in charge.