Analilia Mejia, likely to become the next congresswoman for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district in this week’s special election, is still sounding a lot like the progressive organizer and Bernie Sanders staffer she once was.
In her first, and probably only, general election ad before Thursday’s special election, Mejia pledges to take on a “corrupt system” that benefits “billionaires and greedy corporations” at the expense of everyday people. That’s a message that helped her win a crowded February primary in an upset against several better-funded and better-known candidates, and it’s one she’s carrying through into the general election against Republican Joe Hathaway.
A brief tag at the end of the ad, though, does gesture at the broad coalition Mejia has assembled, referencing three of the many endorsements Mejia has received: Sanders, her former boss and the de facto leader of the nation’s progressive movement; Senator Andy Kim, a leading reformist Democrat in New Jersey; and Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a more moderate Democrat who previously represented the 11th district. (Sanders supported Mejia in the primary, Kim supported a rival Democrat, and Sherrill stayed out of the primary entirely.)
Mejia’s campaign said that the ad began airing digitally late last week, and it will start airing on streaming today. It may be one of the only things voters see before April 16; outside groups got heavily involved in the special primary, spending more than $5 million combined, but they have not made a peep in the two months since then.
That’s likely because Mejia is strongly favored to win in a district that regularly supports Democrats by solid, if not overwhelming, margins. Kamala Harris won the district by nine points in the 2024 presidential election, and in every other House special election around the country since then, Democrats have substantially overperformed their 2024 baseline.
And while Hathaway has run a serious and competent campaign, he’s facing a two-to-one financial deficit against Mejia, making it harder for him to reach voters. He began airing a digital ad in March promoting himself as a problem solver and denigrating Mejia as a “radical.”
This story was updated at 2:12 p.m. with a clarification: while Mejia’s campaign initially characterized the ad as a TV ad, it is not yet airing in traditional television formats and is instead airing digitally and on streaming.
Script
Mejia: “This is simple: We deserve courageous leaders in Congress with the integrity to take on a corrupt system where billionaires and greedy corporations get all the benefits and we get the bill. I’ve spent my whole life fighting that system for an economy and a democracy that works for all of us. My name is Analilia Mejia, your candidate for Congress with the courage to fight that corrupt system, and so I approve this message.”