Could there be two different ex-leaders of the New Jersey Working Families Party serving in Congress by this time next year? The organization, a stalwart of New Jersey progressive politics, sure hopes so.
Earlier this cycle, the WFP supported now-Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-Glen Ridge), who was its New Jersey state director from 2014 through 2019, in her successful special election campaign for the 11th congressional district. Mejia’s successor at the New Jersey WFP was Sue Altman, who is running to be the Democratic nominee in the 12th district – and who now also has the party’s endorsement.
“We need to send a fighter to D.C., and in her years managing the New Jersey Working Families Party, Sue proved herself as that person,” WFP national director Maurice Mitchell said in a statement. “She stood up to the Jersey machine’s corruption more than anyone else and helped deliver fair primary elections for people across the state. In Washington, Sue will support progressive priorities like Medicare-for-All and abolishing ICE.”
Altman was the New Jersey WFP’s executive director from 2019 until 2023, a tenure during which she helped kick off the ultimately victorious fight to end the county line ballot design system and found herself getting forcibly ejected from a State Senate committee hearing after protesting a tax incentive bill. She left the post to run for Congress in the 7th congressional district, a race she lost to Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), and later became Senator Andy Kim’s state director.
It shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise that the WFP is supporting Altman in the 12th district, given their close ties; WFP was also one of Altman’s early backers during her 2024 campaign. But in a race with lots of liberal candidates vying for attention and support, the endorsement gives Altman’s progressive credentials an important boost.
When Mejia ran for the 11th district, she did so as the most unambiguously left-wing candidate in the race, giving state progressives an easy option to rally behind. The ideological lanes in the 12th district, though, aren’t as straightforward, and some of Altman’s top foes have in fact accused her of not being progressive enough to be retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)’s successor.
WFP’s backing could help Altman push back on those attacks, as could a separate new endorsement from New Jersey Citizen Action PAC, another leading progressive group (one that similarly endorsed Mejia in the 11th district).
“In a crowded field, Sue Altman stands out with the strongest track record on the NJCA candidate priorities of advancing economic justice and equity, working to strengthen and revitalize our democracy, and standing up to powerful, corrupt interests,” NJCA executive director Dena Mottola Jaborska said in a statement.