Former Rep. Tom Malinowski on Tuesday conceded his comeback bid in New Jersey’s open 11th District, clearing the path to the Democratic nomination for progressive organizer Analilia Mejia.
Mejia led Malinowski by nearly 900 votes as of Tuesday morning, according to The Associated Press, which has yet to call the special election for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s former House seat.
With 93 percent of votes counted, Mejia had 29.1 percent to Malinowski’s 27.7 percent, according to the AP. Ballots postmarked by Thursday ― the day of the election — can still be counted if they arrive by Wednesday, Feb. 11, according to New Jersey state law.
“Analilia deserves unequivocal praise and credit for running a positive campaign and for inspiring so many voters on Election Day,” Malinowski said in a statement. “But the outcome of this race cannot be understood without also taking into account the massive flood of dark money that AIPAC spent on dishonest ads during the last three weeks.”
Malinowski, who served two terms representing the neighboring 7th District, faced $2.3 million in opposition spending from the United Democracy Project, the super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The group targeted him over his 2019 vote on a bipartisan measure that included funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the ads ended up confusing voters, according to Malinowski.
“Our Democratic Party should have nothing to do with a pro-Trump-billionaire-funded organization that demands absolute fealty to positions that are outside the mainstream of the American pro-Israel community, and then smears those who don’t fall into line,” he said.
Malinowski said he would oppose any candidate that AIPAC “openly or surreptitiously” supports in the regular June primary for the 11th District. He vowed to support Mejia in the April general election against Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, who was unopposed for the Republican nomination. Hathaway slammed Mejia in a statement Tuesday, saying her “far-left politics are way out of step with District 11 values.”
The special election for the blue-leaning North Jersey seat drew a crowded field of Democrats, including former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, who was in third place Tuesday morning with 17.4 percent, and Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill who followed with 14.3 percent.
Mejia, the daughter of Colombian and Dominican immigrants, worked for several unions before becoming the executive director of New Jersey’s Working Families Party. She then worked for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential bid.
Those connections helped her campaign secure strong union support, as well as the backing of influential progressives such as Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal. Sanders headlined a rally with Mejia last month, as well as a virtual get-out-the-vote event on the eve of the election.
In an interview last month, Mejia said she had relied on her experience as an organizer, leaning on relationships she’d built across the district and the country to mobilize a large network of campaign volunteers.
Immigration enforcement emerged as a major through line in the race amid the violent unrest in Minnesota over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown there. That has resonated in New Jersey’s 11th District, which is near Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark where protests last year led to assault changes against Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver.
Mejia touted the fact that she was the first candidate in the field to call for abolishing ICE and that she held town halls that doubled as training sessions to teach constituents how to respond if federal immigration agents come into their communities.
“I’m running to win this race, but I’m also an organizer that understands that regular, everyday Americans deserve the kind of information, are hungry for the kind of political and community organizing that empowers them,” she said last month.
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