Progressive labor activist and organizer Analilia Mejia has pulled off a stunning upset in the Democratic primary to fill New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s vacated seat in Congress. Former Rep. Tom Malinowski conceded Tuesday morning.
"I congratulate Analilia Mejia on her hard won victory in the NJ-11 special primary. I look forward to supporting her in the April general election," Malinowski said in a written statement.
Mejia bested a field of 10 other New Jersey Democrats running in the truncated special primary that officially began in November, when Sherrill resigned the seat following her victory in the governor’s race. She is leading Malinowski, who turned out to be her primary opponent, by just over 1 percentage point.
The vote count has dragged on for days in Essex, Morris and Passaic counties where the district is located, and the Associated Press has not yet officially declared a winner of the race. Local election officials expect to finish counting votes later this week.
On election night last Thursday, Malinowski had quickly vaulted to what looked like a healthy 9-point lead over the Mejia in early tallies of vote-by-mail and early in-person votes. Several news outlets reported that he had won the nomination.
But Mejia overtook the former congressman as day-of primary votes were counted. She performed exceptionally well in her home Essex County, while also beating Malinowski in Morris and Passaic Election Day votes.
“Mejia focused on ground game throughout, mobilizing volunteers to knock on doors, and doing so earlier and more than her opponents. That paid off for her,” said Dan Cassino, government and politics professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. “Voters in this district went for Sherrill in the primary last year, which tells us a lot about how the tenor of the Democratic Party has changed. Every candidate was against Trump, against ICE, and voters went for the one that was perceived as being the most progressive among those."
Malinowski faced a slew of attack ads from a political action group linked with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee pointing to his previous votes in Washington to fund ICE. He called the ads misleading and recently told Gothamist he is “proud” to be the candidate in the race most attacked by outside groups. The AIPAC-linked organization spent nearly $2 million attacking Malinowski
In his statement Tuesday, Malinowski decried the “massive flood of dark money that AIPAC spent on dishonest ads during the last three weeks.”
“I wish I could say today that this effort, which was meant to intimidate Democrats across the country, failed in NJ-11,” he said. “But it did not. I met several voters in the final days of the campaign who had seen the ads and asked me, sincerely: “Are you MAGA? Are you for ICE?””
Malinowski added that if AIPAC backs a candidate in a June NJ-11 Congressional primary, he will oppose that candidate and urge my supporters to do so as well.
Tom Malinowski
Democratic enthusiasm was on full display following Sherrill’s decisive victory in last year’s gubernatorial election. By 6 p.m. on the night of the election, overall vote totals had eclipsed those of the 2024 Democratic primary. In November, Sherrill was thrust to victory by the highest turnout in an off-year gubernatorial election in the state in over two decades.
Mejia’s apparent victory builds on a recent trend of outsider, progressive candidates defeating members of the Democratic establishment in New Jersey and New York City.
Several left-wing outsiders won seats on the New Jersey State Assembly in November. In Jersey City, the state’s second most populous city, voters picked progressive insurgent James Solomon over former Gov. Jim McGreevey as their next mayor. And across the Hudson in New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani out-campaigned former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Mejia was one of the last candidates to enter the race, but she quickly built a large, motivated volunteer force to drive her campaign. In the three days leading up to Thanksgiving, she collected more than 1,500 signatures — three times the required amount — to get her name on the ballot. She also earned key endorsements from heavy-hitters in the progressive lane of the party, most notably Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Her other opponents included well-known New Jersey political insiders such as Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill and former Lt. Gov Tahesha Way
Key issues for voters included top affordability matters, like rising health care, child care and grocery costs. But immigration enforcement ultimately dominated the race in the wake of the fatal shootings by immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota. Many voters in the district expressed anger over the Trump administration’s policies.
While most of the Democratic candidates in the race called for a stop to ICE’s funding, Mejia went further than her competitors by saying the agency should be abolished.
Mejia, who is the daughter of immigrants from Colombia and the Dominican Republic, grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She currently resides with her family in Glen Ridge. Prior to running, she was the director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, where she lobbied to pass state legislation including bills that raised the state minimum wage to $15. She also served as Sanders’ political director during his 2020 presidential run.
Mejia will now face Republican Joe Hathaway, who ran unopposed in the district’s GOP primary. The special general election for the seat is scheduled for April 16.
The seat is largely seen as a safe one for Democrats. In 2018, Sherill flipped the district by more than 30 points, defeating Republican Jay Webber after three-decade incumbent Rodney Frelinghuysen sat out the race. After the 2020 Census, New Jersey’s 11th District was redrawn to make it even safer for Democrats.
The winner of the general election will serve out Sherrill’s term through the rest of 2026. They’ll be up for re-election in November — but could face a primary challenger as soon as June.
This is a developing story that may be updated.
