Analilia Mejia, a progressive organizer, will replace New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill in Congress after winning a special election Thursday night.

Mejia defeated Republican Joe Hathaway, the former Randolph mayor, The Associated Press projected at 8:07 p.m., shortly after polls closed. The 11th District includes parts of Essex, Morris, and Passaic Counties in North Jersey.

Mejia, 48, has held various leadership roles for progressive causes and organizations, including the New Jersey Working Families Party and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. She campaigned on fighting corruption, taxing billionaires to bolster social services, and criticizing President Donald Trump and ICE.

She was only elected to finish the remainder of Sherrill’s term, which lasts until Jan. 3. She will face three primary challengers in June, and if she wins, she’ll face Hathaway again in November.

Mejia’s election narrows the slim Republican majority in the U.S. House after Sherrill vacated her seat after being elected governor. The progressive won a crowded primary earlier this year by such a close margin that the Democratic National Committee and some outlets prematurely called the race for her top competitor, former U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski.

Sherrill, who will move from Montclair to the official governor’s mansion in Princeton, flipped the district red in 2018 after the Republican incumbent retired. The district has since leaned blue, but Hathaway tried to differentiate himself from President Donald Trump by speaking out against him on certain issues, such as his handling of the Gateway Tunnel and a planned detention center in nearby Roxbury.

Here’s what to know about Mejia.

What’s Mejia’s message?

Mejia ran on being an “unbossed” and “unbought” champion for working families who the economy isn’t working for.

“We deserve courageous leaders in Congress with the integrity to take on a corrupt system where billionaires and greedy corporations get all the benefits, and we get the bill,” she said.

She’s been outspoken against “MAGA extremism,” has called to “abolish “ICE,” and has criticized Trump’s high spending on the war in Iran over social support services.

Here’s some of what she wants to do in Congress:

— Create federal sick leave laws.

— Raise billionaire and corporate taxes to pay for universal child care.

— Raise the federal minimum wage to $25 and make workers’ first $40,000 tax-free.

— Break up monopolies while cutting red tape for small businesses.

— Hold tech companies accountable for the energy they use, sponsor Sanders’ moratorium on new AI data centers, and invest in clean energy.

— Support Medicare for All.

— Build 8.5 million units of public housing over the next decade and ban hedge funds and private equity from buying homes.

— Cancel student loan debt and make community colleges and trade schools tuition free.

— Make it easier for workers to unionize.

What is Mejia’s background?

Mejia is the daughter of Colombian and Dominican immigrants and grew up in Elizabeth. She said her parents struggled financially until her mom got a union job, which inspired her to go on to advocate for a $15 minimum wage and paid sick days in New Jersey.

She says she wouldn’t be where she is now without Pell Grants and the Educational Opportunity Fund at Rutger’s.

She now lives with her husband and two sons in Glen Ridge in Essex County, where she says she has lived for 13 years.

She has a long resumé in progressive activism, politics, and government.

Mejia worked as the national political director for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, the deputy director for the U.S. Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau under former President Joe Biden, the executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Party, and as a union organizer.

Most recently, she worked as the co-executive director of Popular Democracy, a network of organizations across the country that call for “transformational change for Black, brown and low-income communities,” according to its website.

Mejia, who has integrated both Spanish and English into her campaign, said she also campaigned for Sherrill’s gubernatorial bid last year, whose organizers prioritized reaching Spanish-speaking voters.

Which notable Democrats backed Mejia?

Mejia has had the support of national progressive leaders Sanders (I., Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Ma.), as well as U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.).

After her primary victory, she picked up support from Sen. Andy Kim, a South Jersey Democrat who supported Malinowski in the primary, and Sherrill, who stayed neutral in the primary. U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) also recently came to Jersey to campaign with Mejia.

Sherrill said in her endorsement of Mejia that she’s known the organizer for years.

In a recent campaign appearance, the new governor said Mejia will help hold Trump accountable on behalf of the district.

The governor, a mother of four, also emphasized that Mejia is a mother like her.

“People say to me, Mikie why are women so effective at governing? I say to them, because we just don’t have time for this,” Sherrill said.

“We need somebody who is going to fight, who is going to make sure that all of our kids have a great future, who is going to make sure that all of our children have a seat at the table,” she added.

Sherrill, who is in court battles with the Trump administration surrounding its immigration tactics, also said Mejia will make sure New Jerseyans “have the protections we need from a police force the president has put together that has taken away our rights,” referring to ICE.

Why is everyone talking about Israel?

Malinowski, Mejia’s top competitor in the primary, faced attacks from a super PAC funded by American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel national lobbying group, on topics that weren’t even about Israel.

The group said it was unsatisfied with Malinowski’s support of the country, but the strategy backfired because Mejia has been much more critical of Israel.

Malinowski said his primary loss could “not be understood” without looking at the “dishonest ads” funded by the group, but went on to support Mejia. Mejia spoke out against AIPAC’s attacks on Malinowski and said they represent her concerns about money in politics. But she rejected the idea they pushed her to victory, pointing to her campaign’s ground game.

Israel also emerged as a prevalent issue in the election with Hathaway.

The Republican, who serves on the Randolph council, has criticized Mejia‘s stances on Israel, including her describing Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide a little less than a month after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

At a Democratic primary forum hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ in January, Mejia was one of just two out of 11 candidates who did not raise their hand when asked, “Do you believe that the Jewish people have the right to self determination in their ancestral homeland, what is commonly referred to as Zionism?”

She said she felt “incredible discomfort at the idea that a land ... can only belong to one group of people, to one religion, to one ethnicity.” The moderator took issue with that characterization since not all Israelis are Jewish, and asked if Mejia would consider traveling to Israel on a federation-sponsored trip to learn about the country. Mejia said she is “in complete openness.”

She more recently told Politico that “ultimately, it’s on the Israeli people to decide and lead their own government.” And just last week, she announced an endorsement from J Street, a progressive pro-Israel organization that supports a two-state solution.

“I look forward to working in partnership in our shared commitment against antisemitism, bigotry and hate,” Mejia said.

“We can and must be critical of the Israeli government, call out the war crimes committed by Netanyahu, and stand with Palestinian communities in their pursuit of peace and dignity,” she added.

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