Democrat Analilia Mejia Wins New Jersey Special Election, Slashing GOP Majority to One Vote

Progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia won New Jersey's 11th Congressional District special election on Thursday, defeating Republican Joe Hathaway by roughly 20 percentage points to claim the House seat vacated when Gov. Mikie Sherrill took office in January. The victory, projected by CNN, NBC News, and CBS News shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m., further narrows House Speaker Mike Johnson's already razor-thin Republican majority to a single vote—a development with immediate implications for the rest of the congressional term.

Mejia, who has never held elected office, brings extensive political experience from outside Washington. She served as national political director for Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign and later led the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, where she played a central role in securing a $15 minimum wage for the state. She ran on a platform of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, taxing billionaires and corporations, implementing universal health care and childcare, and pushing permanent SALT tax deductions for middle-class homeowners. Her endorsers included Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

"The odds were stacked against us, but we did the impossible and we won," Mejia told a crowd of cheering supporters gathered in Montclair Thursday night, her voice rising over the noise. "It is not radical to say that in the wealthiest nation in the world we should do more to protect the health of its people."

The district, which encompasses parts of Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties, has an approximately 65,000-voter Democratic registration advantage over Republicans, making it favorable ground despite Mejia's progressive profile. The February special primary to select the Democratic candidate was itself a hard-fought affair, with Mejia narrowly prevailing over a crowded field that included former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who conceded after losing in an expensive primary.

With the new partisan breakdown standing at 217 Republicans to 214 Democrats, with one independent and three vacant seats, Johnson can now afford only a single defection on any party-line vote. The dynamics represent a sharp contrast to the commanding majority Republicans held after the 2024 elections. Democrats are banking on continued favorable special elections through the midterm cycle to either flip the House or maintain sustained pressure on Republican leadership.

Mejia, the daughter of a Dominican factory worker and a Colombian seamstress, also faces a June primary to compete for the full two-year term beginning in January 2027. Thursday's victory locks in Democratic control of the seat only through the end of the current Congress, meaning both parties will mobilize aggressively for the general election. Republicans had outspent Democrats in earlier special elections this cycle but fell significantly short in the 11th District, where voters have shifted leftward since Trump's first term.