The Working Families Party, a progressive group that has lately been at the center of many of New Jersey’s biggest political battles, is throwing itself into a new fight today, endorsing Analilia Mejia in the crowded Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district.
The endorsement perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that Mejia was previously the New Jersey Working Families Party’s executive director. But after Bernie Sanders endorsed Mejia on the first day of her campaign, the WFP’s backing – which comes from both the national organization and its state-level affiliate – represents further progressive consolidation behind her candidacy.
“We’re thrilled to endorse Analilia Mejia for Congress. She’s a proven fighter and policy leader who knows exactly what it takes to deliver for working families,” NJ WFP state director Antoinette Miles said in a statement. “When leaders in both parties said we couldn’t raise wages or guarantee sick days for workers, Analila got it done. She knows that the status quo has left far too many families behind, and she won’t fold to corporations or billionaires. The WFP is all-in to get her to Washington.”
After spending years in union organizing, Mejia joined the NJ WFP in 2014 and remained its leader until 2019, when she joined Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign. Following a brief stint in the Biden administration, Mejia returned home to New Jersey, and kicked off her campaign for the 11th congressional district shortly after Mikie Sherrill was elected governor.
Facing no fewer than 11 primary opponents, Mejia’s campaign revolves heavily around convincing 11th district voters that she is the most committed progressive in a race full of loyally liberal Democrats. Endorsements from Sanders, the WFP, and other national progressive figures like California Rep. Ro Khanna and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will likely help her do that.
If Mejia were to win, it would cap off a remarkable era for the NJ WFP. After years of toiling away against the county line, the WFP joined forces with now-Senator Andy Kim’s in his 2024 lawsuit and successfully got office-block ballots implemented statewide; in the state’s first legislative primary elections post-county line earlier this year, WFP endorsees won a handful of tough primaries and came close to pulling off huge upsets in several others.
(Kim, for his part, is supporting a different 11th district candidate: his old colleague, former Rep. Tom Malinowski.)
Mejia isn’t the only former NJ WFP executive director to launch into electoral politics in recent years. Her successor, Sue Altman, was the Democratic nominee in the 7th congressional district last year; after losing that race, Altman became Kim’s state director.
