Two more unions – the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the Teamsters Joint Council 73 – are getting behind Democrat Analilia Mejia in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district.
Mejia, who will go up against Republican nominee Joe Hathaway in next week’s special election, won the February primary for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s House seat in an upset, defeating several other candidates with more money and institutional backing. Since then, a number of unions with closer ties to the Democratic establishment have gotten behind Mejia, who is considered the substantial favorite to be the light-blue district’s next congresswoman.
“Analilia led the fight for $15 and won paid sick days for hundreds of thousands of workers across New Jersey,” RWDSU leaders Stuart Appelbaum, Charles Hall, and Danny Righetti said in a joint statement. “Our members need that kind of proven ally in Washington. We’re fired up and ready to send Analilia to Congress!”
Beyond the April 16 special election – early voting began today and will run through April 14 – Mejia will go before voters once again in the June 2 primary for a full term, where she’ll face three minor challengers.
“We know that Analilia will fight for workers when she gets to Congress because she’s been fighting for workers her entire life,” President of Teamsters Joint Council 73 President Alphonse Rispoli Jr. concurred. “She came up as a union organizer, she took on fights in Trenton that other people walked away from, and she won. Our members need that kind of fighter in Washington right now.”
Mejia has a background in labor organizing, working for SEIU for five years before becoming the executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Party. During the special primary, she had the support of the SEIU State Council, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, and the Communications Workers of America; after her primary win, she also picked up endorsements from the New Jersey Education Association and the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.
