Malinowski, Mejia locked in tight race in New Jersey congressional primary 

TRENTON, N.J. (CN) — The Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District remains too close to call, with Tom Malinowski and Analilia Mejia locked in a close race.

Early Thursday evening it seemed as if Malinowski would win the crowded field based on tallied votes, and several media organizations — including Courthouse News — had projected he would win.

However, by midnight the race had tightened and Mejia took the lead.

With more than 61,000 votes counted, Mejia led Malinowski by 486, or less than 1 percentage point. Roughly 6,000 votes have yet to be tallied, according to The Associated Press.

Mejia, an activist with the backing of former boss Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, jokingly posted on X a picture of the infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” photograph Thursday evening.

Malinowski, who previously served two terms in Congress in another district, was thought to be the name to beat. He also was the sole target of a blitz of negative ads over his failure to properly disclose stock trades while in Congress. Nearly all the negative campaigns focused on Malinowski’s former tenure representing the 7th Congressional District.

The truncated campaign featured 10 other Democrats seeking to succeed Mikie Sherrill, who last fall gave up her seat following her gubernatorial win.

After polls closed at 8 p.m. Thursday, tallies quickly showed Malinowski with about 31% of the total vote, adding to the tens of thousands of mail-in votes already counted, most of which had gone Malinowski’s way. By 8:30 p.m., several media outlets had declared Malinowski the winner.

However, the tide began to turn later in the night, with Mejia leading as 91% of the vote had been counted.

Among the other candidates were former Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way, who ran on successfully beating Trump and the GOP in court over voter registration records and mail-in ballots.

Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill had support from former New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, local labor unions and the Essex County Democratic Committee. Gill, whose wife is Colombian, has also made immigration a major hallmark of his campaign, saying Trump’s crackdown on immigrants is “not abstract” for his family.

Other Democrats in the crowded field were Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, who ran for the seat in 2018; businessman and veteran Zachary Beecher; attorney and comedian Jean-Louis Cauvin; former Obama administration staffer Cammie Croft; Morris Township Committeeman Jeff Grayzel; Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland; and activist Anna Lee Williams.

Without such competition, Republican Joe Hathaway nabbed his party’s nomination uncontested and will face off against Malinowski on April 16.

Hathaway, who currently serves as Randolph Township’s mayor, announced his candidacy for the seat in October 2025 before Sherrill even won the governor’s race. In recent weeks, he has taken to local radio, saying he is happy to have run opposed and hoping the April primary staves off talk of a blue wave come November.

For more than three decades, the 11th Congressional District — comprised of slivers of Essex, Morris and Passaic counties—was considered a “red” district. In 2018, Sherrill flipped NJ-11 blue when she handily beat opponent Jay Webber 57% to 42%. Her reelection in 2020 was much tighter, though after redistricting in 2022, Sherrill’s margins of victory again widened, as NJ-11 is more reliably blue.

Fundraising was particularly high in the race, even drawing national donors. Malinowski had led the pack with $1.1 million, with Gill in a close second with $808,000, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Election Committee filed mid-January.

While not much was done in late 2025, in recent weeks, Democratic voters in the district have been bombarded with fliers, text messages and phone calls from volunteers electioneering for the top candidates.

National groups also weighed in on the race, spending more than $4 million in the race. Among them was the United Democracy Project, which poured about $1.8 million against Malinowski. The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association also spent $1.6 million, according to filings, much of which went to support Way.

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