RANDOLPH, N.J. â As he works to flip a vacant U.S. House seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey, Republican Joe Hathaway is not shy about pointing out where he disagrees with President , even as he charges that his Democratic rival is too far to the left.
“I’m going to call balls and strikes in this race. I’m not going to be a rubber stamp for anybody,” Hathaway said in a Fox News Digital interview this week, when asked about Trump.
Hathaway is facing off against Democrat Analilia Mejia, who is backed by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of neighboring New York, in Thursday’s special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. The winner will succeed Gov. , the Democratic representative who stepped down from Congress in November after winning New Jersey’s gubernatorial election.
Thursday’s special election comes as the GOP clings to a fragile House majority, and would relish the opportunity to flip a suburban district Sherrill won by 15 points in her 2024 re-election and carried by roughly the same margin in last year’s gubernatorial election.
A confident Hathaway said, “I think we are going to have a broad coalition come together to choose common sense over socialism in this race.”
Mejia, a progressive organizer who served as national political director on the 2020 Sanders presidential campaign, pulled off an upset in the February Democratic primary as she narrowly edged out more moderate rival former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a field of 11 candidates. While Mejia was the clear choice of the party’s left flank, the rest of the field appeared to divide the more moderate and center-left vote.
Her victory was another boost for the left against the establishment after democratic socialist New York City Mayor sent shock waves across the nation with his Democratic primary victory in June 2025.
Hathaway, a former Randolph Township mayor and current council member who was uncontested for the GOP congressional nomination, emphasized that the choice for voters is “between a common sense, practical independent leader who’s gotten things done at the and knows the issues, contrasted with someone who’s running on pure ideology, far left-wing ideology, Squad backed ideology.”
Mejia recently appeared at a town hall with Malinowski and this past weekend teamed up with Sherrill on the campaign trail, as she aims to unite Democrats, who enjoy a sizable registration advantage in the district.
Hathaway claimed that Mejia is now trying “to hide from that a little bit in some of her rhetoric, because she knows that those policies are completely out of touch, but it’s not fooling voters. It’s certainly not fooling us.”
Jewish voters make up a key part of the district’s electorate, and Hathaway, in the only debate in the special election showdown, claimed Mejia was antisemitic, noting that she has said Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
“She for the attacks by Hamas on October 7,” Hathaway said. “I think Jewish individuals across this district, Republican or Democrat are very afraid of this kind of rhetoric.”
Hathaway said, “I’ve spoken to more members of the Jewish community who have told me they’ve never voted for a Republican in their life, who are going to vote for me in this race. I mean, that shows you where the Jewish community is on the importance of this race and how they are not aligned with Mejia….and her platform.”
Mejia has pledged to “protect the rights of Jewish constituents,” and has said her criticism of Israels actions in Gaza should not be conflated with antisemitism.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Mejia said that “Joe Hathaways inability to distinguish between criticism of a government or government official and bigotry is troubling and disgusting in equal measure.”
Mejia last week wrote that she was “honored” after being endorsed by the
