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RANDOLPH, N.J. — As he works to turn a vacant U.S. Area seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey, Republican Joe Hathaway isn’t shy about mentioning the place he disagrees with President Donald Trump, whilst he fees that his Democratic rival is just too a long way to the left.
“I’ll name balls and moves on this race. I am not going to be a rubber stamp for any one,” Hathaway stated in a Fox Information Virtual interview this week, when requested about Trump.
Hathaway is going through off towards Democrat Analilia Mejia, who’s sponsored through revolutionary 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 be triumphant Gov. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic consultant who stepped down from Congress in November after successful New Jersey’s gubernatorial election.
Thursday’s particular election comes because the GOP clings to a delicate Area majority, and would relish the chance to turn a suburban district Sherrill gained through 15 issues in her 2024 re-election and carried through kind of the similar margin in closing yr’s gubernatorial election.
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Consultant Mikie Sherrill, Democratic gubernatorial candidate for New Jersey, all over an election night time tournament in East Brunswick, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
A assured Hathaway stated, “I believe we’re going to have a large coalition come in combination to select commonplace sense over socialism on this race.”
Mejia, a revolutionary organizer who served as nationwide political director at the 2020 Sanders presidential marketing campaign, pulled off an dissatisfied within the February Democratic number one as she narrowly edged out extra reasonable rival former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a box of eleven applicants. Whilst Mejia was once the transparent number of the celebration’s left flank, the remainder of the sector perceived to divide the extra reasonable and center-left vote.
Her victory was once every other spice up for the left towards the status quo after democratic socialist New York Town Mayor Zohran Mamdani despatched surprise waves around the country together with his Democratic number one victory in June 2025.
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Hathaway, a former Randolph Township mayor and present council member who was once uncontested for the GOP congressional nomination, emphasised that the selection for citizens is “between a commonplace sense, sensible impartial chief who is gotten issues executed on the native degree in New Jersey and is aware of the problems, contrasted with somebody who is operating on natural ideology, a long way left-wing ideology, Squad sponsored ideology.”
Mejia just lately seemed at a the town corridor with Malinowski and this previous weekend teamed up with Sherrill at the marketing campaign path, as she targets to unite Democrats, who revel in a large registration merit within the district.
Analilia Mejia secured the Democratic Celebration nomination in a different election to determine who will take over newly-elected New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s vacant Area seat. (Heather Khalifa/Bloomberg by means of Getty Photographs)
Hathaway claimed that Mejia is now making an attempt “to cover from that a bit bit in a few of her rhetoric, as a result of she is aware of that the ones insurance policies are totally out of contact, however it isn’t fooling citizens. It is not at all fooling us.”
Jewish citizens 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 once antisemitic, noting that she has stated Israel dedicated genocide in Gaza.
“She blamed Israel for the assaults through Hamas on October 7,” Hathaway stated. “I believe Jewish people throughout this district, Republican or Democrat are very terrified of this sort of rhetoric.”
Hathaway stated, “I have spoken to extra contributors of the Jewish group who’ve informed me they have by no means voted for a Republican of their existence, who’re going to vote for me on this race. I imply, that displays you the place the Jewish group is at the significance of this race and the way they aren’t aligned with Mejia….and her platform.”
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Mejia has pledged to “give protection to the rights of Jewish constituents,” and has stated her complaint of Israel’s movements in Gaza must no longer be conflated with antisemitism.
In a remark to Fox Information Virtual, Mejia stated that “Joe Hathaway’s incapability to tell apart between complaint of a central authority or executive reliable and bigotry is troubling and disgusting in equivalent measure.”
Mejia closing week wrote that she was once “venerated” after being recommended through the liberal pro-Israel political crew J Boulevard PAC. However her acceptance of the endorsement prompted pushback at the left, with the North Jersey Democratic Socialists of The united states calling her transfer a “heel flip.”
Hathaway, as he targets to win over impartial and Democrats, is mentioning the place he concurs, and disagrees, with Trump, who misplaced the district through 8 issues in his 2024 presidential election victory.
Republican congressional candidate Joe Hathaway speaks with citizens on the Randolph Diner, on April 13, 2026, in Randolph, New Jersey. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox Information)
“I’m at all times going to do what’s proper for this district first. And I’ve been transparent: If the president’s going to do issues which might be excellent for the district, expanding the SALT cap deduction, hanging a refund in other people’s wallet, particularly New Jersey, affordability is so tricky right here. If we’re doing such things as border safety, decreasing fentanyl deaths like we’ve observed.. in our group. The ones are excellent issues. I fortify the ones insurance policies,” Hathaway stated.
“However then again, if the president’s going to do issues that are not in the most efficient passion of our district, it is my process to thrust back, and that is the reason precisely what I have executed,” he spotlighted.
Hathaway pointed to Trump’s transfer closing yr to terminate billions of federal greenbacks for the Gateway Challenge, which is investment a brand new educate tunnel underneath the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York, and the president’s plans to chop kind of 1,000 jobs and just about $1 billion in investment for an Military base situated in New Jersey.
“I’ll name balls and moves on this race. I am not going to be a rubber stamp for any one,” Hathaway stated.
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Hathaway stated his message to independents and Democrats is, “even though you might have by no means voted for a Republican sooner than, you were given the danger to check force one for the following six months. Ship me to Washington. Let me end up to you I’ll do what I say I’ll do, and that is the reason how we are going to construct the coalition to win.”
And he touted, “I believe we have now the precise math, the precise bipartisan coalition to return in combination 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 shooting crossover Democrats “a pipe dream.”
“Democrats as an entire don’t appear enthusiastic about discovering commonplace flooring with Trump,” he stated as he predicted that the majority citizens within the particular election might be sturdy partisans. “Democratic turnout is in the course of the roof and Republican turnout is depressed at this level.”
Cassino famous that “at the moment nationwide politics drives the entirety. We are saying all politics is native. Lately, 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 using up on a regular basis prices with excessive insurance policies my opponent helps. Healthcare and important methods are being gutted simply to fund tax breaks for the ultra-rich. We will be able to’t come up with the money for every other vote for Trump in Congress,” she wrote in a social media publish.