NJ special election brings together GOP centrist AOC, progressives supported by Sanders

RANDOLPH, NJ – As he works to canvass a vacant US House seat in the blue-leaning state of northern New Jersey, Republican Joe Hathaway is not shy about pointing out where he disagrees with President Donald Trump, as he charges that his Democratic rival is too far to the left.

“I’m going to call balls and strikes in this race. I’m not going to be a rubber stamp for anybody,” Hathaway said in a Fox News Digital interview this week, when asked about Trump.

Hathaway faces Democrat Analilia Mejia, who is backed by progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of neighboring New York, in Thursday’s special election in New Jersey’s 11th District. The winner will succeed Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democratic representative who resigned from Congress in November after winning the gubernatorial election in New Jersey.

Thursday’s special election comes as the GOP clings to a fragile House majority, and could relish the chance to flip a suburban district Sherrill won by 15 points in his 2024 re-election bid and carried about the same in last year’s gubernatorial election.

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A confident Hathaway said, “I think we’re going to have a broad coalition to choose common sense over socialism in this race.”

Mejia, a progressive activist who served as a national political director for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, vented his anger in February’s Democratic primary as he narrowly edged out his rival for former Rep. Tom Malinowski in the field of 11 people. While Mejia was the clear choice for the left wing of the party, the rest of the field appeared to split the middle and center left vote.

His victory was another boost to the left versus the establishment after New York City’s democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent shock waves across the country with his Democratic primary victory in June 2025.

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Hathaway, a former Randolph Township mayor and current council member who did not run for the GOP congressional nomination, emphasized that voters’ choice is “between a common-sense, independent leader who has done things at the local level in New Jersey and knows the issues, versus someone who uses pure ideology, far-left theology.

Mejia recently appeared at a town hall with Malinowski and this past weekend joined Sherrill on the campaign trail, as he aims to rally Democrats, who enjoy a big registration advantage in the district.

Analilia Mejia received the nomination of the Democratic Party in a special election to determine who will fill the vacant seat of Gov. New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill. (Heather Khalifa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Hathaway said Mejia is now trying to “hide from that a little bit in some of his speeches, because he knows those policies aren’t completely working, but he’s not fooling the voters. He’s certainly not fooling us.”

Jewish voters make up a significant portion of the state’s electorate, and Hathaway, in the only debate at the special election conference, said Mejia was anti-cultural, noting that he said Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

“He blamed Israel for the October 7 attack on Hamas,” Hathaway said. “I think Jewish people throughout this region, Republican or Democrat, are very afraid of this kind of rhetoric.”

Hathaway said, “I’ve talked to many members of the Jewish community who have told me that they’ve never voted Republican in their life, they’re going to vote for me in this race. I mean, that shows you where the Jewish community is on the importance of this race and how it doesn’t support Mejia….and his platform.”

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Mejia has pledged to “defend the rights of the Jewish people,” and said his criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza should not be conflated with anti-Semitism.

In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, Mejia said “Joe Hathaway’s inability to distinguish between criticizing the government or a public official and racism is troubling and disgusting in equal measure.”

Mejia last week tweeted that he was “honored” after being endorsed by the liberal pro-Israel political group J Street PAC. But his acceptance of the endorsement caused a backlash on the left, with the North Jersey Democratic Socialists of America calling the movement “turned heel.”

Hathaway, as he aims to win over independents and Democrats, points out where he agrees, and does not agree, with Trump, who lost the district by eight points to win the 2024 presidential election.

Republican Congressman Joe Hathaway speaks to constituents at the Randolph Diner, April 13, 2026, in Randolph, New Jersey. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

“I will always do what is right for this state first. And I have been clear: If the president is going to do good things in the state, to increase the release of the SALT cap, to put money back into people’s pockets, especially in New Jersey, affordability is very difficult here. If we do things like border security, reduce fentanyl deaths as we have seen those policies in our community.

“But on the other hand, if the president is going to do things that are not compatible with our region, it is my job to back off, and that’s exactly what I did,” he said proudly.

Hathaway pointed to Trump’s move last year to cut billions of dollars from the Gateway Project, which is funding a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York, as well as the president’s plans to cut about 1,000 jobs and defund a military base in New Jersey.

“I’m going to call balls and strikes in this race. I’m not going to be anybody’s rubber stamp,” Hathaway said.

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Hathaway said her message to independents and Democrats is, “even if you’ve never voted Republican before, get a chance to test drive one in the next six months. Send me to Washington. Let me prove to you that I’m going to do what I say I’m going to do, and that’s how we’re going to build a coalition to win.”

And he said, “I think we have the right numbers, the right bipartisan coalition to come together to win this thing on April 16.”

Campaign signs for Republican candidate Joe Hathaway and Democrat Analilia Mejia in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district election, in Randolph, New Jersey, on April 13, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

But Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson University political science professor and researcher, calls Hathaway’s hopes of capturing a Democratic crossover “a pipe dream.”

“Democrats in general don’t seem interested in finding common ground with Trump,” he said as he predicted the majority of voters in the special election would be hardliners. “Democratic polling is through the roof and Republican voters are depressed right now.”

Cassino noted that “at the moment national politics drives everything. We say all politics is local. Today, unfortunately, all politics is national.”

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Mejia, meanwhile, tied Hathaway with Trump and Republicans in Congress.

“MAGA Republicans are driving daily spending with the worst policies my opponent supports. Health care programs and critical issues are being gutted to fund tax breaks for the super rich. We can’t afford another Trump vote in Congress,” he wrote in a social media post.