Malinowski conceded Tuesday to Analilia Mejia in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s U.S. House special election, with the Associated Press saying it had not yet called the race from Thursday’s balloting. The special election is intended to replace Mikie Sherrill, who stepped down from the House seat to become governor.
The primary drew national attention as Democrats fought over the strategy for winning voters in the district in the lead-up to this year’s midterms. The Associated Press described Mejia’s campaign as featuring an aggressive progressive platform in a suburban area that typically favors more moderate candidates, while Mejia argued during a Tuesday news conference that organizers’ experience positioned her to listen to voters.
“In this moment, what we want are real representatives: real representatives who will listen to the people, who will ask questions about what is keeping you up at night, who will prioritize your interest over special interests,” Mejia said.
The race included friction over the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the role of an affiliated super PAC that, according to the Associated Press, tried to thwart Malinowski after he questioned unconditional aid to the Israeli government. Mejia said she agreed Israel committed genocide in Gaza, and the Associated Press said she overtook Malinowski with a narrow lead on election night.
Malinowski said in a statement that the result “cannot be understood without taking into account the massive flood of dark money that AIPAC spent on dishonest ads during the last three weeks.” He then threw his support behind Mejia, whose campaign was also consolidating backing from other Democratic rivals. U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, who had backed Malinowski, endorsed Mejia, and Sherrill also endorsed Mejia on Tuesday.
Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist Democratic organization Third Way, said in comments carried by the Associated Press that AIPAC had made “a catastrophic error,” and that “there’s a lot of anger about that.” Bennett also said he had concerns that a Mejia victory would push the party too far to the left ahead of the midterms, adding, “This idea that there’s a demand either among the Democratic electorate, primary or the general electorate for radical candidates, is baloney. It’s just not true.”
Mejia criticized AIPAC but said the group was not the reason she prevailed. “What they didn’t do was win this for us. How we won — it was people power,” she said.
The district includes parts of Essex, Morris and Passaic counties in northern New Jersey, including some of New York City’s wealthier suburbs. All three counties reported some mail-in ballots still to be processed, and the Associated Press said ballots postmarked by Election Day could arrive as late as Wednesday and still be counted.
The Associated Press also reported that the Democratic National Committee prematurely congratulated Malinowski on election night, but on Tuesday it issued a new statement backing Mejia, saying, “New Jersey deserves a fighter and not a spineless Trump lackey.” The special election between Mejia and the unopposed Republican nominee Joe Hathaway is scheduled for April 16, with the outcome determining who will serve the remainder of Sherrill’s term until next January. A regular primary is also set for June 2, and the general election for Nov. 3.
Republicans were already attacking Mejia’s political direction, with the National Republican Congressional Committee’s spokesperson Maureen O’Toole saying Mejia wants to “turn New Jersey into a socialist hellscape,” according to the Associated Press.
Malinowski’s concession capped an effort to return him to Congress after he lost a separate House district to a Republican in 2022. Other candidates who sought the nomination included Brendan Gill, Tahesha Way and a field that also included John Bartlett, Zach Beecher, J-L Cauvin, Marc Chaaban, Cammie Croft, Dean Dafis, Jeff Grayzel, Justin Strickland and Anna Lee Williams.
The Associated Press said Sherrill represented the district for four terms after her 2018 election, and it reported that while the region had historically leaned Republican, that dynamic began shifting during Donald Trump’s first term.