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RANDOLPH, N.J. — As he works to flip a vacant U.S. Home seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey, Republican Joe Hathaway is just not shy about mentioning the place he disagrees with President Donald Trump, at the same time as he fees that his Democratic rival is simply too far to the left.
“I will name balls and strikes on this race. I am not going to be a rubber stamp for anyone,” Hathaway mentioned in a Fox Information Digital interview this week, when requested about Trump.
Hathaway is dealing with off in opposition to Democrat Analilia Mejia, who’s backed by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of neighboring New York, in Thursday’s particular election in New Jersey’s eleventh Congressional District. The winner will succeed Gov. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic consultant who stepped down from Congress in November after profitable New Jersey’s gubernatorial election.
Thursday’s particular election comes because the GOP clings to a fragile Home majority, and would relish the chance to flip a suburban district Sherrill received by 15 factors in her 2024 re-election and carried by roughly the identical margin in final 12 months’s gubernatorial election.
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Consultant Mikie Sherrill, Democratic gubernatorial candidate for New Jersey, throughout an election night time occasion in East Brunswick, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
A assured Hathaway mentioned, “I believe we’re going to have a broad coalition come collectively to decide on frequent sense over socialism on this race.”
Mejia, a progressive organizer who served as nationwide political director on the 2020 Sanders presidential marketing campaign, pulled off an upset within the February Democratic major as she narrowly edged out extra reasonable rival former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a area of 11 candidates. Whereas Mejia was the clear selection of the celebration’s left flank, the remainder of the sphere appeared to divide the extra reasonable and center-left vote.
Her victory was one other increase for the left in opposition to the institution after democratic socialist New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani despatched shock waves throughout the nation together with his Democratic major victory in June 2025.
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Hathaway, a former Randolph Township mayor and present council member who was uncontested for the GOP congressional nomination, emphasised that the selection for voters is “between a standard sense, sensible unbiased chief who’s gotten issues completed on the local level in New Jersey and is aware of the problems, contrasted with somebody who’s working on pure ideology, far left-wing ideology, Squad backed ideology.”
Mejia not too long ago appeared at a city corridor with Malinowski and this previous weekend teamed up with Sherrill on the marketing campaign path, as she goals to unite Democrats, who get pleasure from a large registration benefit within the district.
Analilia Mejia secured the Democratic Celebration nomination in a particular election to seek out out who will take over newly-elected New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s vacant Home seat. (Heather Khalifa/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)
Hathaway claimed that Mejia is now attempting “to cover from that a bit of bit in a few of her rhetoric, as a result of she is aware of that these insurance policies are fully out of contact, nevertheless it’s not fooling voters. It is definitely not fooling us.”
Jewish voters make up a key a part of the district’s voters, and Hathaway, in the one debate within the particular election showdown, claimed Mejia was antisemitic, noting that she has mentioned Israel dedicated genocide in Gaza.
“She blamed Israel for the assaults by Hamas on October 7,” Hathaway mentioned. “I believe Jewish people throughout this district, Republican or Democrat are very afraid of this sort of rhetoric.”
Hathaway mentioned, “I’ve spoken to extra members of the Jewish neighborhood who’ve instructed me they’ve by no means voted for a Republican of their life, who’re going to vote for me on this race. I imply, that reveals you the place the Jewish neighborhood is on the significance of this race and the way they don’t seem to be aligned with Mejia….and her platform.”
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Mejia has pledged to “shield the rights of Jewish constituents,” and has mentioned her criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza shouldn’t be conflated with antisemitism.
In an announcement to Fox Information Digital, Mejia mentioned that “Joe Hathaway’s incapacity to tell apart between criticism of a authorities or authorities official and bigotry is troubling and disgusting in equal measure.”
Mejia final week wrote that she was “honored” after being endorsed by the liberal pro-Israel political group J Road PAC. However her acceptance of the endorsement triggered pushback on the left, with the North Jersey Democratic Socialists of America calling her transfer a “heel flip.”
Hathaway, as he goals to win over unbiased and Democrats, is mentioning the place he agrees, and disagrees, with Trump, who misplaced the district by eight factors in his 2024 presidential election victory.
Republican congressional candidate Joe Hathaway speaks with voters on the Randolph Diner, on April 13, 2026, in Randolph, New Jersey. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox Information)
“I’m all the time going to do what’s proper for this district first. And I’ve been clear: If the president’s going to do issues which can be good for the district, growing the SALT cap deduction, placing a refund in folks’s pockets, particularly New Jersey, affordability is so robust right here. If we’re doing issues like border safety, lowering fentanyl deaths like we’ve seen.. in our neighborhood. These are good issues. I help these insurance policies,” Hathaway mentioned.
“However alternatively, if the president’s going to do issues that are not in the most effective curiosity of our district, it is my job to push again, and that is precisely what I’ve completed,” he spotlighted.
Hathaway pointed to Trump’s transfer final 12 months to terminate billions of federal {dollars} for the Gateway Challenge, which is funding a brand new practice tunnel underneath the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York, and the president’s plans to chop roughly 1,000 jobs and practically $1 billion in funding for an Military base situated in New Jersey.
“I will name balls and strikes on this race. I am not going to be a rubber stamp for anyone,” Hathaway mentioned.
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Hathaway mentioned his message to independents and Democrats is, “even in case you’ve by no means voted for a Republican earlier than, you bought the prospect to check drive one for the following six months. Ship me to Washington. Let me show to you I will do what I say I will do, and that is how we will construct the coalition to win.”
And he touted, “I believe we’ve the precise math, the precise bipartisan coalition to return collectively to win this factor on April 16.”
Marketing campaign indicators for Republican candidate Joe Hathaway and Democrat Analilia Mejia in New Jersey’s eleventh District congressional election, in Randolph, New Jersey, on April 13, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox Information)
However Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson College political science professor and pollster, calls Hathaway’s hopes of capturing crossover Democrats “a pipe dream.”
“Democrats as a complete don’t appear enthusiastic about discovering frequent floor with Trump,” he mentioned as he predicted that almost all voters within the particular election will probably be robust partisans. “Democratic turnout is thru the roof and Republican turnout is depressed at this level.”
Cassino famous that “proper now nationwide politics drives the whole lot. We are saying all politics is native. Right this moment, sadly, all politics is nationwide.”
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Mejia, in the meantime, has tied Hathaway to Trump and Republicans in Congress.
“MAGA Republicans are driving up on a regular basis prices with excessive insurance policies my opponent helps. Healthcare and important packages are being gutted simply to fund tax breaks for the ultra-rich. We will’t afford one other vote for Trump in Congress,” she wrote in a social media submit.
