In a closely watched political race, Democrats won a vacant U.S. House seat in northern New Jersey. Democrat Analilia Mejia won the New Jersey special election by a large margin over Republican Joe Hathaway. The Associated Press called the race just minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m. ET.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who is next door, were two of the most well-known progressive supporters of Mejia, who was the national political director for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. Her victory fills the last eight months of the term that Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, held before stepping down from Congress in November after winning the New Jersey gubernatorial election.
High Stakes and a Weak Republican Majority
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The special election in New Jersey happened at a very important time for politics in the US. The Republicans have a very weak majority in the U.S. House right now. The GOP would have gotten a big prize if they had flipped this seat. But the district, New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, has been leaning Democratic. In her 2024 re-election, Gov. Sherrill won the district by 15 points. She won by about the same amount in last year’s gubernatorial race.
Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, praised Mejia for her win. He said that her “grassroots campaign spoke to hardworking families in New Jersey.” I know she will fight to lower costs, protect health care, and deal with the problem of high costs directly.
It wasn’t easy for Mejia to win. She first shocked everyone by winning the February Democratic primary, beating out a more moderate opponent, former Rep. Tom Malinowski, by a narrow margin in a field of 11 candidates. Mejia was clearly the best choice for the party’s left wing, but the rest of the candidates split the moderate and center-left votes. Her win in the primary was seen as another win for the progressive movement, following the shock win of democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in June 2025.
The Israel-Gaza Debate and Antisemitism Claims
Hathaway, a former mayor of Randolph Township and now a council member, ran for the GOP congressional nomination without any challengers. He tried to make Mejia look too far left for the district throughout the campaign. He told Fox News Digital that voters had to choose “between a common sense, practical independent leader who’s gotten things done at the local level in New Jersey and knows the issues, and someone who’s running on pure ideology, far left-wing ideology, Squad-backed ideology.”
The conflict between Israel and Gaza was one of the most heated issues in the New Jersey special election. A lot of the people who vote in the district are Jewish. Hathaway said in the only debate of the race that Mejia was antisemitic because she said that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.
Hathaway said, “She blamed Israel for the Hamas attacks on October 7.” “I think Jewish people in this district, no matter what party they belong to, are very scared of this kind of talk.”
Hathaway went on to say, “I’ve talked to a lot of people in the Jewish community who have never voted for a Republican and are going to vote for me in this race.” That shows you how the Jewish community feels about this race and how they don’t agree with Mejia and her platform.
Mejia firmly denied the charge. She promised to “protect the rights of Jewish constituents” and said that her criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza should not be confused with antisemitism. Mejia told Fox News Digital, “Joe Hathaway’s inability to tell the difference between criticism of a government or government official and bigotry is both troubling and disgusting.”
Mejia said last week that she was “honored” to have the liberal pro-Israel political group J Street PAC support her. But that endorsement made people on the left angry. The North Jersey Democratic Socialists of America called her move a “heel turn.”
Hathaway’s Balancing Act with Trump and the Final Results
Hathaway tried to stay away from President Donald Trump while also finding things they could agree on as he worked to win over independents and Democrats. He said that Trump lost the district by eight points in the 2024 presidential election.
“I’m always going to put what’s best for this district first.” And I’ve made it clear: If the president is going to do things that are good for the district, like raising the SALT cap deduction and putting money back in people’s pockets, especially in New Jersey where it’s so hard to afford things. It’s good that we’re doing things like keeping the border safe and lowering the number of fentanyl deaths we’ve seen in our community. “I agree with those policies,” Hathaway said.
“But if the president is going to do things that aren’t good for our district, it’s my job to stop him, and that’s exactly what I’ve done.” He talked about Trump’s choice to end billions of dollars for the Gateway Project, which is building a new train tunnel under the Hudson River, as well as planned cuts to an Army base in New Jersey.
“I’m going to call balls and strikes in this race. Hathaway said, “I’m not going to be a rubber stamp for anyone.” “I think we have the right math and the right bipartisan group to come together and win this thing on April 16.”
But Hathaway didn’t win on election night. Mejia kept saying that he was connected to Trump and Republicans in Congress. In a recent post on social media, she said, “Extreme policies that my opponent supports are making everyday costs go up for MAGA Republicans.” To pay for tax breaks for the very rich, healthcare and important programs are being cut. We can’t afford to vote for Trump again in Congress.
Dan Cassino, a political science professor and pollster at Fairleigh Dickinson University, said that Hathaway’s hopes of getting crossover Democrats were “a pipe dream.” He said that a lot of Democrats showed up to vote, but not many Republicans did.
Hathaway said in a statement on Thursday night that he still thinks the people of NJ-11 want balanced, practical leadership, not the far-left policies that Ms. Mejia supports. He is looking forward to a likely rematch with Mejia in November. That talk is not done yet.
