Analilia Mejia, a far-left Democrat backed by New York socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, won New Jersey’s 11th District special election.
Mejia defeated Republican Joe Hathaway on Thursday night in the special election to succeed New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill in Congress.
Mejia won a crowded primary in February in the 11th District of New Jersey, which included seasoned Democrats like Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, former Representative Tom Malinowski, and former Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way. For the Republican nomination, Hathaway, a councilman from Randolph Township, faced no opposition.
In 2024, Sherrill defeated her Republican congressional opponent by 15 points, and former vice president Kamala Harris won the 11th District by 9 percentage points.
Mejia will now serve the rest of Sherrill’s term this year. There will be a regularly scheduled primary in June for the full term.
Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Mejia and recently held a rally with her and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in Wayne as part of his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
“Analilia Mejia is a fighter for working people who has been on the frontlines of some of our most critical battles — from immigrant rights and universal healthcare to higher wages and real accountability for the powerful. I know she will bring that fight to Congress on day one, and I am proud to support her run to represent NJ-11 in Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
VoteHub projects Analilia Mejia to win the New Jersey U.S. House District 11 election. pic.twitter.com/PcaJfoNUbE
— VoteHub (@VoteHub) April 17, 2026
🚨 NOW: Democrats are about to elect a FAR-LEFT SOCIALIST MARXIST to Congress in New Jersey
People are voting right now to send Analilia Mejia to Congress and she will IMMEDIATELY become one of the most far-left members
– Surge taxes
– “Free” college
– Abolish ICE
– $25 minimum… pic.twitter.com/nrAbt0uUmS— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 16, 2026
Mejia recently came under fire when she likened the Trump administration’s federal immigration efforts to those of segregationists in the South during the 1960s.
Mejia also called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide” and called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be abolished.
During an interview Mejia conducted with The American Prospect after securing her nomination, she defended calls to abolish ICE and said that the “murders in Minnesota,” referring to the deaths of anti-ICE agitators Renee Good and Alex Pretti, “feel very similar to that moment in our nation’s history, when in the middle of evening news, the American people couldn’t turn away from what was happening in the South, they couldn’t turn away from fire hoses turned on children.”
“You can’t turn away from this madness, and you can’t unsee this injustice, and they want leaders who say you’re not crazy, what you’re seeing is real,” Mejia told The American Prospect when asked about her stance to abolish ICE position. “People get it, voters are not dumb.”
During her primary campaign, Mejia took aim at President Trump’s unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration.
“I say abolish ICE now,” Mejia said on the campaign trail in January. “You can’t reform it. It’s not fixable. Get it out.”
Mejia, like many on the left, has also railed against rulings by the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court has been captured by right-wing radicals who care more about doing Trump’s bidding than the rule of law,” Mejia charges on her campaign website.
She supports “articles of impeachment against Justices Thomas and Alito” for what she says is “their corruption and conflicts of interest.”
On her campaign website, Mejia states, “We’re going to cancel all student loan debt.”
And she pledges that she’ll “fight to make college tuition free at community colleges and trade schools for everyone.”
And she highlights that she helped lead the fight in New Jersey to “win the $15 minimum wage.”
If she makes it to Congress, Mejia says, “with the cost of living rising every day, it’s time to raise the minimum wage at the national level to $25/hour.”
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