New Jersey 11th District Special Election: Voters Head to Polls

Polls are open today in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, where voters in parts of Morris, Essex, and Passaic counties are picking a new representative for the first time since Mikie Sherrill left the seat to become governor in 2025.

Three names are on the ballot: Democrat Analilia Mejia, Republican Joe Hathaway, and independent Alan Bond. Not sure if you’re in the district? A map and voting information are available at the New Jersey Globe, and you can also check the 11th district’s boundaries through the state legislature’s site.

Sherrill flipped this seat in 2018, ending a long stretch of Republican dominance. Democrats redrew the lines in 2021 to strengthen their position, and Sherrill held the reconfigured district twice before heading to Trenton. Her move to the governorship is what triggered today’s special election on this Thursday in April.

Getting to today wasn’t simple for either party. The Democratic primary was genuinely crowded. Former 7th district Rep. Tom Malinowski, former Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way, and an Essex County Commissioner all ran serious campaigns, collecting endorsements and raising real money. None of them survived. Mejia, a progressive organizer who ran Bernie Sanders’ presidential operation, won the February 5 primary as the race’s clearest left-wing candidate. Her argument that Democrats need to fight hard against Trump cut through. It also didn’t hurt that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee dropped $2 million attacking Malinowski, which cleared some of the lane in front of her.

Hathaway, a former mayor of Randolph who currently sits on the town council, ran unopposed on the Republican side. He’s made electability his central argument, saying the district’s moderate history makes Mejia a liability. “She is unquestionably the furthest left, radical progressive, socialist candidate that they could have put forward,” Hathaway said at a campaign event.

Mejia’s answer to that line of attack has been sharp. She’s framed Hathaway as someone who’d go to Washington, vote with Trump on everything, and call it a day. “He’s a one-trick pony,” Mejia said during a campaign stop. She didn’t stop there. “My kids, when they don’t have an argument to make, when they’re losing because they don’t have a substantive thing to present, they fall to name-calling. That’s what Joe Hathaway is doing.”

Public polling on this race has been almost nonexistent. One internal poll from Mejia’s own campaign showed her ahead by 17 points. That’s an 8-letter word for unreliable without independent confirmation, but the money numbers do offer her side something real to point to. She’s held a consistent fundraising edge over Hathaway throughout the race. A pro-Hathaway super PAC called The American Centerpoint has been spending on his behalf, so it’s not like the Republican side has been completely dormant.

Special elections on off-cycle Thursdays don’t draw huge crowds. Turnout will likely be low, which cuts both ways. Mejia’s operation has been banking on an energized progressive base. Hathaway’s team is counting on moderate voters who don’t want a Sanders-style Democrat representing them. We’ll know tonight which theory held up.