Democrat Analilia Mejia won a New Jersey special election for the US House on Thursday, defeating Republican Joe Hathaway on a message of standing up to President Trump and defending progressive policies. Mejía, 48, a former head of the Working Families Alliance who had support from Vermont US Sen. Bernie Sanders, will fill the seat previously held by Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill and serve until January. Her victory is a win for progressives and means Democrats hold on to the 11th District seat in the House, where Republicans hold a thin majority, the AP reports. It also adds to a string of victories for Democrats heading into this year's midterm elections.
Mejia spoke in Montclair to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters who called out in unison with her that she was an "unbought, unbossed, sassy new member of Congress." After she is sworn in, there will be 217 Republicans, 214 Democrats, one independent, and three seats vacant in the House, CNN reports.
- Republicans criticized her throughout the campaign as too far to the left. She pushed back against those arguments, calling for better health care and education and attacking billionaires for having a "stranglehold" on the economy. "It is not radical to say that a worker who toils every day cannot make ends meet, that they deserve justice, that they deserve higher wages," Mejla said Thursday night. "That is not radical, that is good conscience. That is a good economy."
- Her speech echoed Sanders, who congratulated her in a social media post and said she would be a "great progressive addition" to Congress. Mejia, who was national political director of Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, emerged from a crowded primary in February and cast the race as a test of Trump's leadership. She criticized his pardons of people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes and faulted him for freezing funds authorized by Congress.
- She campaigned on populist economic policies and pushing to abolish ICE. She has criticized the Israeli government and said she stands with Palestinian communities in their "pursuit of peace and dignity."
- Hathaway, 38, tried to use Mejia's progressive credentials to his advantage, as national Republicans cast her as a socialist. After her victory, he congratulated Mejia and wished her well. He added that he still believes the district is looking for "balanced, pragmatic" leadership, not "far-left policies." The two could go head to head again in November's election for a full two-year term.
- Asked if she would be a member of the progressive "squad" in the House, Mejia said the squad she is focused on is her constituents, CNN reports. "If you were going to define me as anything, it's a scrappy New Jersey soccer mom that is willing to stand up for you," she said.
- The 11th District, which covers parts of Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties in northern New Jersey's wealthy suburbs, was long a Republican stronghold but has become increasingly Democratic since Trump's first term.
- Sherrill first won the seat in 2018's midterm elections, when Democrats flipped dozens of seats to take control of Congress. In 2024, she won reelection by about 15 points, while Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, carried the district by nearly 9 points. Mejia's margin of victory was greater. With more than 90% of votes counted late Thursday, she led Hathaway by about 20 percentage points.
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