Analilia Mejia, Bernie Sanders' former national political director and an activist who led a crowd in an "Abolish ICE" chant just days before the election, has won the Democratic House primary in New Jersey's 11th congressional district, defeating former congressman Tom Malinowski and a field of twelve other candidates.

The Associated Press projected the result Thursday, one week after the Feb. 5 special election. Mejia took 29.3% of the vote.

The Daily Caller reported that Malinowski finished at 27.6%. The man once considered the frontrunner conceded Tuesday and endorsed the woman who beat him.

So the Democratic Party's nominee in a district Kamala Harris carried by nine points isn't a moderate retread or a cautious party operator. It's a candidate who told voters, plainly:

"I say abolish ICE now. You can't reform that."

The Field That Couldn't Stop Her

Thirteen candidates ran. The anti-establishment activist won. That tells you everything about where the Democratic base is right now.

Malinowski, a former two-term congressman who represented neighboring NJ-7 from 2019 to 2023, entered the race as the credentialed choice.

He carried endorsements from Democratic Sen. Andy Kim and Reps. Jamie Raskin and Jason Crow. His pitch was electability — a familiar Democratic refrain that keeps failing Democratic voters.

"It is essential that we send a Democrat to Washington to fill this seat, not a rubber stamp for Trump."

Voters heard that argument and chose the candidate promising to abolish a federal law enforcement agency instead.

Former lieutenant governor Tahesha Way grabbed 17.4%. Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill — backed by former governor Phil Murphy and propped up by labor unions and state legislators — managed just 14.4%. Nine additional candidates each pulled under 3%.

The fractured moderate lane gifted Mejia a path, but her margin wasn't an accident. She assembled endorsements from the progressive movement's biggest names: Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, Pramila Jayapal, and Maxwell Frost.

This wasn't a candidate who snuck through. She organized, mobilized, and ran on exactly what she believes.

A Chaotic Count

The race itself was a mess before it was a story. On election night, DDHQ prematurely called NJ-11 for Malinowski with only 66 of 240 precincts reporting in Essex County — Mejia's strongest territory. The New Jersey Globe followed suit, then retracted its call less than two hours later.

DDHQ pulled its projection and issued an explanation:

"As the night progressed, margins in Morris County quickly tilted toward Mejia; Mejia began winning drops by 20%–30%, representing a swing of 65 points compared to the absentee vote."

A 65-point swing in a single county. Mejia wasn't just winning — she was running up margins that broke the models. CNN projected the outcome Tuesday. The AP and The New York Times followed Thursday.

The Democratic Party's Base Problem

This result is clarifying. For years, Democratic leadership has insisted the party's progressive wing is a vocal minority — loud on social media, weak at the ballot box. Mejia's win suggests otherwise, at least in primaries where the base actually picks its candidates.

Consider what she ran on. In late January, with the primary days away, Mejia led a crowd in a chant to abolish ICE. She didn't soften it. She didn't qualify it. She framed the election in the starkest possible terms:

"In a moment of rising authoritarianism, of economic insecurity, of state-sanctioned violence, any old blue just won't do. If you send 'weak sauce' to Congress, we will get 'weak sauce' back."

That's a direct rebuke of every moderate in the race — and every moderate strategy the Democratic establishment has deployed since 2020. The base heard it and agreed.

Malinowski, for his part, lost his old congressional seat in 2022 to Tom Kean Jr. by three points. The "electable" candidate had already proven he wasn't. Voters in NJ-11 apparently noticed.

What Comes Next

The seat opened when Mikie Sherrill resigned on Nov. 20, 2025, more than two weeks after winning the New Jersey governor's race by a wide margin. She took office as governor on Jan. 20, succeeding Phil Murphy. On Tuesday — the same day Malinowski conceded — Sherrill endorsed Mejia.

Mejia now faces Republican nominee Joe Hathaway in the April 16 special general election. In a district Harris won by nine, she enters as the heavy favorite.

But the calendar doesn't stop there. She still has to win a June primary to secure the Democratic nomination for the regularly scheduled November election for a full two-year term.

Way is reportedly considering a rematch in June, according to the New Jersey Globe. Whether the moderate lane can consolidate behind a single candidate — something it spectacularly failed to do on Feb. 5 — will determine if this was a one-time upset or the beginning of a progressive lock on the seat.

For Republicans, Mejia's nomination is almost too clean. An "Abolish ICE" candidate heading to Congress in the middle of a national debate over immigration enforcement practically writes the opposition research. Every campaign ad Hathaway runs between now and April 16 can simply replay that chant and let voters decide.

The deeper problem for Democrats is structural. Their base demands candidates who promise to dismantle enforcement agencies. Their swing districts demand candidates who don't. Those two realities are on a collision course, and NJ-11 just showed which side wins when the base gets to choose.

Democrats didn't lose this primary. They revealed what their party actually wants — and it's not moderation.