Analilia Mejia’s lead in the special Democratic primary for Congress in New Jersey’s 11th district has increased from 676 votes to 868 after more votes were counted in Essex County.
Mejia now leads former Rep. Tom Malinowski, 18,512 to 17,644. Former Lt. Governor Tahesha Way is in third place with 11,032 votes, followed by Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill with 9,116.
A former labor leader and New Jersey Working Families state director, Mejia served as national political director of Bernie Sanders’ 2024 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
More votes are expected to be counted on Monday.
Essex County has 704 uncounted vote-by-mail ballots and 1,171 provisionals; Morris is showing 440 VBMs still unprocessed and 694 provisional ballots still uncounted; and Passaic reports 294 uncounted mail-in ballots and 85 provisionals. An unspecified number of these ballots were cast in the Republican primary.
The special primary was to pick a nominee for the April 16 special election to fill the vacancy left by Mikie Sherrill’s resignation to become governor. The winner — increasingly looing like Mejia — will face Republican Joe Hathaway, the mayor of Randolph, in April.
Click HERE to see a town-by-town map of the election results as of Friday.
