Former Rep. Tom Malinowski on Tuesday conceded the race for the Democratic nod in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District to progressive activist Analilia Mejia.
The Associated Press has yet to declare Mejia the winner in the 11-person special primary, but vote tallies show her with an 889-vote lead over Malinowski. Mejia is scheduled to give remarks at her Montclair campaign headquarters Tuesday afternoon.
“I congratulate Analilia Mejia on her hard won victory in the NJ-11 special primary. I look forward to supporting her in the April general election. It is essential that we send a Democrat to Washington to fill this seat, not a rubber stamp for Trump,” Malinowski said in a statement posted to social media.
Rising anti-ICE sentiment seen in NJ special primary results
Mejia is set to face Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway (R) in the special general election on April 16, a Thursday. That race’s winner will take the remainder of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s unexpired term in the House of Representatives.
The district’s voters will select nominees and elect a representative to a full two-year term in June and November, as normal.
Final margins in the Democratic primary aren’t expected to come into sharp relief until late this week, when election officials count late-arriving mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and provisional ballots.
It’s not likely those votes are enough to shift the result. Mejia, who led on election night last Thursday, has increased her lead as more ballots have been counted.
Though Malinowski praised the tenor of Mejia’s campaign, he warned against the influence of outside money in the race.
Filings with the Federal Election Commission show the former congressman saw more than $2.3 million in independent expenditures against him from the United Democracy Project, a PAC affiliated with American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group.
Among other things, the ads highlighted a “yes” vote on a 2019 Democratic appropriations bill that funded humanitarian assistance and border security in response to migrants at the nation’s southern border. All but four House Democrats voted for the bill, and all but three Republicans voted against it. The ads said Malinowski “voted with Trump and the Republicans to fund ICE.”
“The outcome of this race cannot be understood without also taking into account the massive flood of dark money that AIPAC spent on dishonest ads during the last three weeks,” Malinowski said. “I wish I could say today that this effort, which was meant to intimidate Democrats across the country, failed in NJ-11. But it did not.”
Malinowski pledged to oppose a candidate backed by AIPAC in the general and said he would urge his supporters to do the same.
He said the group “demands absolute fealty to positions that are outside the mainstream of the American pro-Israel community” and smears those who don’t share their positions.
“The threat unlimited dark money poses to our democracy is far more significant than the views of a single member of Congress on Middle East policy,” Malinowski said.
The organization said it would continue to remain active in elections. Mejia has been vocally critical of Israel and has said she believed the nation has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Some Essex County officials, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-Essex), Rep. LaMonica McIver, and Democratic State Chairman LeRoy Jones, and other party leaders have endorsed Mejia for elections in April and June.
Others, including Sherrill, have said they would back her in April but have stopped short of saying they would back her in June primaries for a full term.
“Our six million members will be very active this election cycle supporting Democrats and Republicans who strengthen the U.S.-Israel partnership and opposing those — of either party — who may seek to undermine it,” AIPAC spokesperson Deryn Sousa said in a statement.
Nine others — Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, U.S. Army veteran Zach Beecher, attorney J-L Cauvin, former Obama staffer Cammie Croft, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, Morris Township Deputy Mayor Jeff Grayzel, Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland, Lt. Gov Tahesha Way, and community activist Anna Lee Williams — also sought the Democratic nod to run for Sherrill’s former seat.
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