Analilia Mejia

In three months, Rep. Analilia Mejia has gone from insurgent to incumbent — and now, chief target — in North Jersey politics.

Mejia was the unexpected winner in an 11-way special Democratic primary in February, then easily beat a Republican challenger in April to fill the remainder of Gov. Mikie Sherrill's term representing the 11th Congressional District.

But thanks to the quirks of the political calendar, she'll be back on the ballot for the third time in four months in June 2's regular Democratic primary, seeking the nomination for a full term in Sherrill's old seat.

This time, she's not sneaking up on anyone.

Mejia faces three challengers. Can she hold them off?

Three candidates are running against Mejia, and in interviews with NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network New Jersey, they all drew sharp distinctions.

Mejia, a former labor organizer and campaign staffer for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, is "out of step" and "too far to the left" of the district, said Joseph Lewis, a software tech lead from Morris County making his first run for office. He warned that small businesses would take a hit from Mejia's bid to more than triple the federal minimum wage and also questioned her commitment to Israel.

Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland, another challenger, said Mejia is practicing "politics as usual" with her minimum wage promise and calls for "Medicare for All" — two measures that Strickland said have little shot of passing a divided Congress.

Former Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello, meanwhile, complained that Mejia is beholden "to the liberal wing" of the Democratic Party. He contrasted her organizing work with his decades owning and running a construction company.

"I'm in a good position in my life today, having started a business at 16 years old. Can my opponent say that?" asked Cresitello, 79. "I don't know what an organizer does, what her background is. But I can tell you that I have so much more experience."

Mejia shows no signs of trimming her agenda

Mejia, 48, was sworn in on April 20, after an election many saw as a victory for the Democrats' progressive wing. Her campaign website promises a long, ambitious and expensive series of initiatives and reforms: Medicare for All, more childcare subsidies, tuition-free community colleges and trade schools, canceling all student loan debt, abolishing taxes on the first $40,000 of income, and a new "ultra millionaires" tax, as well as a minimum tax for billionaires and the elimination and replacement of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In an interview, Mejia showed no sign of moderating that agenda. She sounded very much like her former boss Sanders, warning of "a rigged economy and a rigged democracy" so corrupt its effects can be felt even in the well-off suburbs of the 11th, one of the nation's wealthiest congressional districts by average household income. The district stretches across parts of Essex, Passaic and Morris counties.

"My platform is about how do we unrig that economy? How do we restore the integrity to our government?" said Mejia, who helped lead campaigns for a higher minimum wage and paid sick time in New Jersey. "I am simply a fed-up New Jersey-11 resident who spent 25 years behind the scenes watching the sausage get made. I know that big money runs our government and is skewing our democracy."

Whoever wins in June will seek a full term in the Nov. 3 general election. On the Republican side, former Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway is the sole candidate, after losing by almost 20 points to Mejia in April.

Mejia, a Glen Ridge resident, won the February primary in a crowded field and then beat Hathaway in a low-turnout race. So the June contest may offer a cleaner verdict on whether her brand of left-leaning, activist government is truly welcome in the 11th, which not too long ago elected the same Republican, Rodney Frelinghuysen, for 25 years before turning to Sherrill, generally seen as a moderate.

The district has since been redrawn to favor Democrats, but, stretching from the streets of Belleville to the shores of Lake Hopatcong, it still includes plenty of affluent bedroom communities and rural towns. Voters want a problem-solver and not an ideologue, said Strickland, 47, an Iraq War veteran who now works in enterprise IT.

"The idea that the progressive part of the Democratic Party has decided to weigh in on all these Democratic primaries nationwide, Dem on Dem, ... that's not the norm," said Strickland, who finished sixth in February. "We have to be careful that we don't turn into, you know, a blue version of what we have been fighting against the last 10 years."

In truth, Mejia and her challengers share many of the same priorities. All have focused on the soaring costs of medical care, childcare and college tuition. All want to transform the current health insurance system, though they differ on the exact prescription: Lewis wants to restore Obamacare subsidies slashed by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, Strickland supports a "public option" modeled on the Veterans Affairs health system, and Mejia supports Sanders' Medicare for All: a government-run and taxpayer-funded insurance system.

All want to rein in or abolish ICE. And all focus their attacks on President Donald Trump, whom they portray as a reckless, corrupt and authoritarian force, guilty of an inconclusive war in Iran, deep cuts to social spending and profiteering stock trades.

Mejia's challengers point to unrealistic positions

But the challengers also paint Mejia's positions as too extreme or unrealistic.

The $25 minimum wage proposal — the first piece of legislation Mejia signed on to as a congresswoman — was a prime target. Lewis said going from the current federal floor of $7.25 an hour to $25 an hour would devastate small businesses in the 11th District and other parts of the country. He supports a federal minimum of $15 an hour, just below what New Jersey law now requires.

Strickland said the $25 proposal, like Medicare For All, is another unrealistic goal that will only fuel cynicism in Americans desperate for real solutions.

"Of course, we absolutely need to give people a working, living wage," he said. "But it feels like the first piece of legislation, right out of the gate, is just something we know is not gonna happen. And to me, that's politics as usual."

Mejia said her minimum wage proposal would exempt many small businesses and would be phased in over time to ease the impact.

As in the last two races, Mejia's opponents continue to think — or hope — that her criticisms of Israel are a vulnerability. Mejia has said Israel has a right to exist, but she also has been highly critical of its actions in the Gaza war, where some 70,000 Palestinians died in Israel's response to the 2023 terror attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages. Mejia has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes, and at a January candidates' forum, she raised her hand in agreement to a question about whether Israel had committed "genocide" in Gaza.

Lewis also cited Mejia's failure to say that Israel has a right to exist "as a Jewish state."

"To quote one of NJ-11's Jewish constituents that I've spoken with, what she doesn't say, her lack of clarity, speaks volumes," said Lewis. "When asked directly does she support Israel's right to existence as a Jewish state, her answer was a thesaurus of words, but, you know, she didn't really answer the question."

Mejia, in the interview, said she believes Israel "can be both Jewish and free" and that it should "ensure that everyone that lives within it is treated with equality, with dignity and with opportunity."

"What I have said over and over is that I believe Jewish people have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. And so do Palestinians. And I think the United States can play a very key and important role in upholding the well-being of both communities, and I look forward and I continue to be an active partner in exactly that."

Asked if the United States should put conditions on its aid to Israel, she said, "I support placing conditions with any nation that isn't upholding international law or human rights."

Mejia rejects the idea that she's out of step with her new constituents. They want bold action, she said, to fix the economy and end "the chaos" of the Trump years.

"Honestly, the thing I hear most at the door from everyday voters is that they want to trust their government," she said. "We're at a crossroads in America. This feels like a very critical moment for us to restore decency and integrity and justice into our government and our republic."

Alex Nussbaum, a veteran New Jersey journalist who has worked as a reporter and an editor in the Garden State, covering the environment, business and local news, is opinion editor for NorthJersey.com and The Record.