Democrats continued their dominance in special elections on Thursday, when New Jersey voters overwhelmingly elected progressive organizer Annalia Mejia to Congress.
Mejia, a former top Bernie Sanders The presidential campaign staffer, who once headed the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, led Republican Joe Hathaway by nearly 20 points with 94 percent of the vote counted on Friday, despite the Republican calling him a “radical socialist.”
His convincing victory shows that the “radical” label had limited political consequences in such a polarized and charged environment in which anger at President Donald Trump was fueling Democratic turnout. This could signal major electoral problems for Republicans in the midterms.
“I think it’s a clear sign that the MAGA movement is fading, diminishing, and democracy is at the forefront of voters’ agenda,” Leroy Jones, chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, said in a phone interview.
The question now is what this means for Republicans Representative Tom Kean Jr.Which is in the neighboring 7th District – demographically similar, but less Democratic. Kean won re-election in 2024 by 5 points and is expected to face a tough re-election in November, with four Democrats running to take on him in the June primary.
“It makes the Democratic primary more interesting,” said Republican consultant Carlos Cruz, adding that he thinks Democrats will be more of a threat if they nominate a moderate rather than a progressive in the district’s crowded Democratic field.
Mejia performed significantly better than the Democratic 2024 margin in NJ-11, a wealthy, suburban and already Democratic district. He appears to have won the district by about 11 points more than Kamala Harris and about 5 points more than his predecessor, Governor Mickey Sherrill.
But it was not as large a swing as seen in some other recent special elections across the country.
That may be because Mejia is to the left of Sherrill, who had a record of strong performance in the district and vacated the seat after her landslide gubernatorial victory in November. Mejía did not attempt to soften his message by running on progressive social and economic issues. His criticism of Israel appeared to have alienated a large number of Jewish voters in the district, but it was not enough to make the race close.
He rejected the “radical” label and imposed it on Republicans and ultra-wealthy barons of industry.
“I would say the real radicals are Jeff Bezos, (Speaker) Mike Johnson, Palantir, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and even Joe Hathaway — radicals who are willing to dismantle our democracy, destroy our Constitution, and act with impunity, and we have to stop them,” Mejia said in her victory speech. “These radicals who clap for a president are so twisted that they insult the God they purport to protect. These radicals would rather watch Rome burn with all of us, and they are simply cowards – cowards unwilling to stand up against this madness.”
Hathaway — a council member and former mayor of the small Morris County town of Randolph — served as a moderate who was willing to criticize some of Trump’s decisions that threatened to harm district residents, such as his efforts to block funding to build a new rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan.
Hathaway attributed the lopsided margin to the unusual timing of the election set by former Democratic Governor Phil Murphy. He said in a statement, “This was a unique and, frankly, unusual election. The structure and timing, set by a partisan Democratic governor, created exactly the kind of low-turnout environment that benefits one party. We saw heavy vote-by-mail participation, limited Election Day turnout, and too many Republican and unaffiliated voices being shut out of the process.”
Nevertheless, Hathaway made significant cuts in Livingston and Millburn, the district’s most Jewish towns.
Mejia has said that she believes Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and when asked at a candidate forum whether she believed Jews “have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, commonly referred to as Zionism, she did not raise her hand.” She also angered some Jews by being photographed wearing a kaffiyeh, a headscarf that has become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
Josh Katz, president of the Montclair Jewish Community Relations Council and a Democrat who voted for Hathaway, said, “There’s no doubt there were some Jews who were going to vote for the Democrat. But it was a remarkable shift.” He said, “I know Jewish people who were once Bernie supporters and voted for Hathaway. That’s a huge change.”
Ironically, it was the pro-Israel group AIPAC that paved the way for Mejia by spending millions of dollars to damage former Representative Tom Malinowski, the front-runner in the Democratic primary. Now voters in the relatively liberal district have elected a progressive who would be at home in “The Squad.” Indeed, Mejia was supported by a squad member, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Mejia is the New Jersey version of AOC, but NJ-11 is not the New Jersey version of AOC’s district,” said Cruz, who produced the Hathaway ad. “It’s not like Queens or the Bronx.”
Jones, the Democratic state chairman, expressed confidence for his party in the upcoming contest in the neighboring 7th District, where Keane is trying to retain his seat. He said, “Whoever the Democratic nominee is in the Seventh Congressional District, I believe Tom Kean may be ready to figure out what he’s going to do when he’s no longer a congressman.”
Mejia, who faced some minor primary challenges in June, will face Hathaway again in the November regular election.
