New Jersey Progressive Democrat Dominates in Special House Election, Further Slimming Republican Majority

Congresswoman-elect Analilia Mejia will soon represent New Jersey’s 11th congressional district after winning an overwhelming majority of the vote on Thursday night. Ms. Mejia, a former national political director for Senator Bernie Sanders, will succeed Governor Mikie Sherrill who resigned upon winning the governorship last year. Ms. Mejia ran an unapologetic left-wing campaign in the suburban district, endorsing a universal healthcare program, student loan forgiveness, free public higher education, and the abolition of ICE. Though she has never held elected office, she has long been active in New Jersey’s Democratic Party and most recently served as deputy director of the United States Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor during the Biden administration. As on Friday morning, Ms. Mejia is on track to win the special election with about 60 percent of the vote, while her Republican opponent will take around 40 percent — a margin of 20 points. In 2024, when she was running for re-election to the House, Ms. Sherrill won the district by just 15 points, which is the same margin she won it by in the 2025 gubernatorial election. Ms. Mejia’s path to Congress is an unlikely one. Despite being well-known to local activists and party officials, she still faced an uphill climb in the special Democratic primary when a former lawmaker, Congressman Tom Malinowski, announced that he would run to take Ms. Sherrill’s seat. Mr. Malinowski served in the House from 2019 to 2023. Ms. Mejia, who has accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza, was inadvertently boosted in the primary by none other than AIPAC. Despite his past support for Israel, Mr. Malinowski did not commit to supporting unconditional aid for Israel in the future, which led AIPAC to start running negative ads against him in order to direct more moderate voters toward the state’s former lieutenant governor, Tahesha Way. “Malinowski voted with Republicans to fund ICE — over $200 million for Trump’s deportation force,” an ad run by the United Democracy Project, an AIPAC expenditure group, stated. Instead of siphoning off some of Mr. Malinowski’s more moderate supporters and shifting them toward Ms. May, AIPAC ended up taking some of Mr. Malinowski’s more progressive backers and pushed them toward Ms. Mejia. She would go on to win the primary by just 1.8 percent. Despite their disagreements, Mr. Malinowski got behind the woman who had defeated him in the Democratic primary. “A couple of months ago, Analilia and I were rivals for the Democratic nomination,” Mr. Malinowski, seated next to Ms. Mejia, said in a video posted to social media earlier this month. “Together, we are here united as Democrats in common cause.”With Ms. Mejia’s victory, Speaker Mike Johnson’s House majority gets slightly narrower. Mr. Johnson will now have 218 Republican members and 214 Democratic members in his chamber, meaning he can afford to lose only one GOP lawmaker on any party-line vote in order to pass legislation.

New Jersey Progressive Democrat Dominates in Special House Election, Further Slimming Republican Majority

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