Mejia wins NJ special election to replace Gov. Sherrill in Congress

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+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Mejia wins NJ special election to replace Gov. Sherrill in Congress Democrat Analilia Mejía won a special election Thursday to fill the House seat vacated by Democratic Gov.

+ Politics Mejia wins NJ special election to replace Gov. Sherrill in Congress April 17, 20264:41 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition From By Mike Hayes , Leila Fadel Mejia wins NJ special election to replace Gov. Sherrill in Congress Listen &middot; 3:30 3:30 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5785061/nx-s1-9733943" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Democrat Analilia Mejía won a special election Thursday to fill the House seat vacated by Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Sponsor Message LEILA FADEL, HOST: Northern New Jersey has a new representative in Congress - Analilia Mejia. She's a progressive Democrat who won a special election Thursday, defeating moderate Republican Joe Hathaway in New Jersey's 11th District. That's according to a race call by The Associated Press. This was a special election to fill the seat vacated by New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill. WNYC's New Jersey politics reporter Mike Hayes has been covering the race and joins me now. Good morning.

+ MIKE HAYES, BYLINE: Hey, Leila. Good morning. FADEL: Hi. So what kind of results did Mejia see last night? HAYES: So the polls in this district closed at 8 p.m. Eastern. And, Leila, the AP called the race for Mejia at 8:07 p.m. FADEL: Wow. HAYES: That just speaks to how decisive a victory this was from a candidate who was relatively unknown in New Jersey electoral politics until a - just a few months ago. Mejia won by about 20 percentage points last night. That's better than Mikie Sherrill's margin of victory in 2024 in the same district. Let's hear some of Mejia's victory speech from last night. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) ANALILIA MEJIA: I deeply believe that we are at a turning point in this nation. My people, do you feel it? (CHEERING) MEJIA: Do you want it? HAYES: And, Leila, in the Democratic primary earlier this year, she pulled off an upset victory over 10 competitors, including some more well-funded, well-established political figures in the state. FADEL: So her primary campaign was one of many that we've seen trying to beat more established Democratic candidates this year, and one of the first to actually win both the primary and the general election. How'd she do it? HAYES: So during the short, two-month general election race against Joe Hathaway, Mejia did not waver. Sometimes we see candidates on the far left or right move to the center in a general election. She did not do that. She stuck with her progressive platform that got her here. And given the convincing margin of victory here, it seems a broad set of voters liked her message. One of her more memorable campaign slogans was that she's unbought and unbossed. She refused to accept PAC money for her campaign. This is something we've seen from - other progressive candidates doing in races around the country, even as we continue to see a lot of outside money being spent in the Democratic primaries to try to influence the outcomes. But let's remember, Leila, Mejia's only guaranteed the job for the rest of the year. If she hopes to be reelected, she's got to win again in November. But before she can even think about that, she'll actually face a primary in June. FADEL: OK. So what can she realistically hope to get done in the less than a year she has in this term? HAYES: Yeah. A lot of her proposals aren't going to move with Republicans, who are holding all the power in Washington - certainly abolishing ICE or clawing back Trump's tax cuts for billionaires. But there are places I expect her to try to hit the ground running and get something done. I expect her to be active on housing, for instance. When it comes to cost of living, that's one of voters' top concerns. FADEL: And really quickly, other midterm races we should be watching in New Jersey? HAYES: Yeah. Mejia performing strongly should give some pause to Rep Tom Kean, a Republican incumbent in the 7th District just next door. The Cook Political Report recently moved his race - leaning R to toss-up. And there's a set of well-funded Democratic challengers looking to take Kean on. That primary is June 2. FADEL: WNYC's New Jersey politics reporter Mike Hayes. Thank you, Mike. HAYES: Sure. Thank you for having me. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor MessageBecome an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{1167:function(e,n,c){e.exports=c(323)},323:function(e,n,c){"use strict";c.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([c.e(1),c.e(2),c.e(3),c.e(4),c.e(82)]).then(function(e){c(3),c(1140),c(116),c(94),c(52),c(493),c(239),c(102),c(104),c(1141),c(143),c(1142),c(238),c(48),c(1143)}.bind(null,c)).catch(c.oe)}},[[1167,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();