Analilia Mejia

The newest member of Congress, Analilia Mejia, was back in her district on May 6 to hold her first town hall and recruit constituents to help her "impact" the issues she said will affect them the most.

"Y'all, I can't do it alone," she told a small gathering inside Madison's historic council room at the Hartley Dodge Memorial Building.

Mejia, an unabashedly progressive labor organizer and activist who beat long odds in a special election on April 16 to replace Mikie Sherrill in Congress after her election to governor in November, was sworn into office on April 20. Having already introduced a bill to establish a $25 minimum wage, Mejia said she was eager to get back home and meet with the public.

"No member of Congress can actually represent us fully on their own. If we are able to work together, whether it's here in the district or even coming out to D.C., which we would facilitate so we could uplift the consequences of these policy decisions together, I want to do that," she said on Wednesday night.

"I believe if you're going to have the audacity to say you want to be a representative, then you need to be very closely connected to the people that you are, in fact, representing," she said.

Mejia talked of her first days on Capitol Hill, which included an assignment to the House Homeland Security Committee. She is awaiting her second committee assignment. "I was very insistent that I wanted to find myself in committees that really deal with issues of significance and impact within the district."

She said she was "thrilled" with the Homeland Security assignment. "You know, it was the perhaps sexy, obvious part of it is immigration, but in fact the reason I really wanted to be on Homeland Security is that it oversees FEMA. And it is a center spoke for flood mitigation, and for dealing with issues that are of tremendous impact across the district."

District 11 includes much of Morris County and portions of Essex and Passaic counties, where many towns along the Rockaway and Passaic rivers experience significant flooding. "I'm trying to identify ways in which I can work with all of my colleagues on flood mitigation," Mejia said.

The freshman congresswoman is also shopping for caucuses to join within the House. So far, she has met with the Democratic Women's Caucus, which has been focusing on paid family leave, health care and what Mejia said she calls "sandwich generation issues, issues impacting families, caring for children and caring for parents."

Mejia is also considering the Mamas' Caucus. "It was shocking for me to find out that only 7% of members of Congress are women with school-age children," she said. "I believe that in many ways, it's a reason why some of the bills and things that are moving through Congress are moving in the way they are."

The short-notice town hall, which was simulcast on social media, generated only a few questions from the online audience. The topics included what she would do for young people. Mejia replied that she would, among other things, fight to expand access to public education and public colleges, not just for the young, but for older adults as well.

Addressing affordability, she talked of tax fairness. Often accused of being a socialist, Mejia said that with all that talk, "it turns out we have corporate socialism." She said the middle class is "footing the bill and allowing for lucky corporations, or individuals, we're essentially subsidizing their wealth. This is untenable."

The entire event lasted less than an hour, but she took the time to introduce her district staff, share contact information and encourage the public to follow her on social media. "Stay tuned," she said.

Mejia's district office is at 357 South Livingston Ave., Suite 201, in Livingston. The office phone number is 973-526-5668.

Elected only to serve out Sherrill's term, Mejia will have to run again in the June primary, win that and win again in the November general election to get a full term. She beat Republican Joe Hathaway, a Randolph councilman, by a comfortable 20-point margin in the special election.