Progressive Ana Mejia held a slim lead Friday in the crowded Democratic primary race for N.J. Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s old seat.
Mejia, a former staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders, led with about 28% of the vote compared to about 27% for ex-Rep. Tom Malinowski, an early favorite who previously represented a neighboring North Jersey district.
With Mejia’s lead sitting at just 496 votes with 90% of precincts reporting, both campaigns said the race was still too close to call.
Tahesha Way, a former lieutenant governor who ran with controversial support from the pro-Israel AIPAC lobbying group, trailed with 17% while Brendan Gill, an Essex County commissioner who was endorsed by ex-Gov. Phil Murphy, had 14%.
Either Mejia or Malinowski will be favored to beat Republican Randolph Township Councilman Joe Hathaway — who won unchallenged in a GOP primary — in an April 16 special general election to fill the seat for the rest of the term. Sherrill won the seat in 2024 by double digits.
Democratic turnout surpassed expectations in the affluent and well-educated suburban district, outpacing the number of party loyalists who voted in the regular 2024 congressional primary.
That’s yet another data point suggesting liberal Democratic voters are energized to vote against President Trump’s Republican allies in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.
Malinowski forged a big lead in early voting ballots that were counted first in the unusual Thursday primary, and some media outlets even wrongly crowned him the projected winner.
But Mejia roared back to take the lead with a stronger performance in election day batlloting.
Mejia, who boasted an endorsement from progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), reveled in her underdog success story, posting the iconic photo of President Truman holding a newspaper with the erroneous “Dewey Beats Truman” headline.
More ballots are expected to be counted Friday.
But mail ballots that are postmarked by Thursday will still be counted if they arrive before Tuesday. And an undetermined number of provisional ballots will also be tallied.
Assuming a Democrat wins the seat, it would help keep majority in the House of Representatives very small. The GOP now has a four-vote majority but that edge is likely to expand to five when a deep-red Georgia district elects a replacement for Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene by early April.
