Progressive activist Analilia Mejia declared victory in the 11th Congressional District’s special Democratic primary on Tuesday, a stunning upset in the closely watched race to succeed Gov. Mikie Sherrill in Congress.
Mejia celebrated her victory after the runner-up, former Rep. Tom Malinowski, conceded his defeat. The Associated Press has yet to declare a winner, though Mejia leads by nearly 900 votes.
“People will say that this district is not the kind of district in which a progressive or a lefty could win. But it’s not about left, right,” Mejia told reporters outside her Montclair campaign headquarters. “It’s about right and wrong.”
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Mejia is set to face the Republican candidate, Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, in a special general election on Thursday, April 16. That race’s winner will finish out the remainder of Sherrill’s term, which expires on Jan. 3, 2027 (Sherrill stepped down from the House last year after winning the governor’s race). The 11th District includes towns in Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties.
Mejia’s win stunned much of New Jersey’s political establishment, most of which had backed other, better-funded candidates in the 11-person primary. Antoinette Miles, state director of New Jersey Working Families Party, which supported Mejia, addressed that sentiment at Mejia’s Tuesday rally.
“This was not an upset. This is exactly who Analilia is. She is someone who puts in the work, puts in the effort, but she makes sure to say that it’s not about her, but it’s about us,” Miles said.
Mejia formerly ran New Jersey Working Families Party.
More than 63,000 voters cast ballots in the Democratic primary. Some mail-in and provisional ballots remain to be counted, but as of Tuesday afternoon, Mejia had about 29% of the vote, with Malinowski in second place with 27%, and former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way in third place with 17%.
Malinowski, who said he supports Mejia in the April special election, attributed his loss in part to an advertising blitz on behalf of a super PAC linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which used Malinowski’s support of a 2019 appropriations bill in Congress to tie him to President Donald Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Malinowski joined several other New Jersey Democrats, including Sherrill, in supporting the 2019 bill.
Mejia on Tuesday said it was “horrendous” how AIPAC confused voters and created division among Democrats, but she denied that the group’s involvement handed her victory in the primary.
“What they didn’t do is win this for us. How we won it was people power,” she said.
Mejia credited her victory to 10 weeks of knocking on doors with volunteers, spending early mornings talking to commuters at train stations, and grassroots support from unions and energized voters. She also had the support of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who campaigned for Mejia in January, and other progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York).
In a joint statement, Democratic Reps. Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman endorsed Mejia, calling her “the fighter the 11th district needs.”
“Unifying behind Analilia is critical to our efforts for a Democratic House majority and defeating House Republicans’ agenda of chaos and terror. We should all be united in our support for her as she joins our delegation in the battle for the soul of our nation,” they said.
Republicans quickly attacked Mejia as a “socialist.”
“Her far-left politics are way out of step with District 11 values, will make our towns less safe, and voters will reject her record on April 16,” Hathaway said in a statement.
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