Far-left activist Analilia Mejia won a major upset victory over a former congressman in a Democratic House primary, the Associated Press projected Thursday — one week after the Feb. 5 special election.
Mejia won 29.3% of the vote, compared to former Democratic New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski who won 27.6%, former New Jersey Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, who won 17.4% and Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, who won 14.4%, with over 95% of the vote in, according to the AP. Mejia is now all but certain to win the April 16 special general election against Republican nominee Joe Hathaway in the Democratic-leaning New Jersey’s 11th congressional district — which former Vice President Kamala Harris won by nine percentage points in 2024.
Mejia, who served as the national political director of Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ 2020 presidential campaign, is running for the seat on a far-left platform. During the primary, she touted endorsements from a litany of left-wing figures, including Sanders, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Democratic Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost.
The activist made headlines in late January when she led a crowd in a loud “Abolish ICE” chant.
“I say abolish ICE now,” Mejia told the crowd, adding, “You can’t reform that.”
“In a moment of rising authoritarianism, of economic insecurity, of state-sanctioned violence, any old blue just won’t do,” she said at the time. “If you send ‘weak sauce’ to Congress, we will get ‘weak sauce’ back.”
The 11th district was last held by Democratic New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill who resigned the seat Nov. 20, 2025, more than two weeks after winning the Garden State’s gubernatorial election by a wide margin. She took office, succeeding former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, on Jan. 20.
While Mejia had been leading in the vote count for a week, the race remained uncalled by virtually all media outlets as mail-in ballots were counted. The AP finally called the race Thursday evening, as did The New York Times. CNN, meanwhile, projected the race’s outcome on Tuesday.
Malinowski conceded the election Tuesday and endorsed her in the April general election, stating, “It is essential that we send a Democrat to Washington to fill this seat, not a rubber stamp for [President Donald] Trump.” Sherrill endorsed Mejia the same day.
Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) prematurely called the race for the former congressman Feb. 5 before much of the late reporting vote came in largely for Mejia that night.
“We have deleted the race projection tweet,” the website wrote in an X post announcing the retraction of its call. “At the time of our initial projection, all absentee and early vote had been recorded in all three counties, and we had 66/240 precincts in Essex County (expected to be Analilia Mejia strongest) that had reported election day vote & two election day vote drops in Morris County (expected to be Thomas Malinowski’s strongest).”
“As the night progressed, margins in Morris County quickly tilted toward Mejia; Mejia began winning drops by 20%-30%, representing a swing of 65 points compared to the absentee vote,” DDHQ added. “This trend reversal prompted us to re-examine our race projection and ultimately retract it. Our apologies for the inaccurate projection on this race, and we hope our swift retraction and transparency are seen as a sign of our intent to be quick and accurate in all things elections now and going forward.”
The New Jersey Globe called the race for Malinowski on Feb. 5, only to retract the call less than two hours later.
Mejia still has to win a June primary to secure the Democratic nomination for the regularly scheduled November election to a full two-year term. One of her special election primary opponents — Way — is considering running against her a second time, according to the New Jersey Globe.
Malinowski previously represented the more moderate New Jersey’s Seventh congressional district for two terms from 2019 to 2023. He lost his 2022 reelection bid by three points in a rematch with New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr., whom he narrowly beat in 2020.
The former congressman’s failed comeback bid was notably endorsed by Democratic New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin and Democratic Colorado Rep. Jason Crow — a participant in a viral video calling on the military to disobey the Trump administration’s “illegal orders.”
Gill came in fourth place despite receiving significant support from labor unions and state legislators. Gill also received the endorsement of Murphy, who served as his campaign manager during his first successful gubernatorial run. Murphy backed Gill over Way, who served as lieutenant governor under him.
Nine additional candidates ran in the 11th district’s Democratic Primary, each receiving under 3% of the vote.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
