When President Donald Trump threatened funding for the massive Gateway tunnel project between New York and New Jersey, vulnerable Republicans expressed their dissatisfaction — but largely stayed away from publicly criticizing the president directly.
One GOP candidate running in a blue-leaning seat in northern New Jersey had a different approach.
“The president should not be using Gateway as a pawn,” said Joe Hathaway, a local councilmember who is looking to succeed Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey’s 11th District, an affluent suburban seat that she flipped in the 2018 blue wave. “It's the right thing to do for the district,” he later said in an interview with POLITICO. “This isn't just a party-line thing.”
While the fight over Gateway seems to have quieted for now, with the administration releasing millions of dollars but still fighting it in court, Hathaway has also spoken out on other hot-button topics that Republicans are worrying will drag them down in the midterms.
He disagrees with a controversial immigrant detention facility in a neighboring district, and has advocated for reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including better training and deescalation techniques. Banning masks and body-worn cameras "will end up keeping people more safe,” he said. Hathaway also said that he would have supported subsidies in the Affordable Care Act, which he acknowledged that “the president and a lot of Republicans weren’t in favor of.”
It’s an uncommon strategy these days in the GOP, where candidates hope that cozying up to Trump will boost turnout. But as recently as last year in New Jersey, the Trump affiliation proved to be Republicans’ downfall in the race for governor as the president faced low approval ratings and criticisms over the economy.
And in NJ-11, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 60,000 voters and its most recent representative — Sherrill — won her gubernatorial election by double digits with a staunch anti-Trump message, there’s little appetite for a candidate who ties themselves to the president.
Hathaway isn’t going out of his way to bash Trump or claim an anti-MAGA lane — like others have done in New Jersey — and has commended some of Trump’s signature policies, like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But unlike many other Republican candidates across the country, he’s not making Trump a focal point of his campaign.
“My plan is to take this thing in the special, completely reshape the narrative going into November and give Republicans a new sense of swagger and a blueprint to how we can win again in a place like New Jersey, and make sure that our party continues to grow and be the party of common sense and practical leadership,” Hathaway said.
Next month’s special election will be an uphill climb for Hathaway, especially as the national environment continues to favor Democrats and Republicans in Congress continue heading for the exit ahead of November’s midterms.
But some Republicans hope that Hathaway’s bipartisan approach — he said he’d want to join the Problem Solvers Caucus — and his local network from serving as mayor and on the Randolph Township Council can make the race competitive. Another factor: the Democrat he’s up against, longtime progressive organizer Analilia Mejia.
“You have a technocratic Republican who talks about improving peoples’ lives and isn't venturing into your standard Republican campaign lore versus someone who is very emblematic of where the Democratic Party is going,” said GOP strategist Carlos Cruz, who worked on a super PAC during the gubernatorial campaign.
National Democrats not too worried
Mejia, the co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy and a former executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Party, emerged victorious in last month’s crowded special primary election. (Hathaway did not face a primary challenger.)
She defeated former Rep. Tom Malinowski in an unexpectedly close race, due in part to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, spending $2 million attacking him because he would not support unconditional aid for Israel. The group did not target Mejia, who has said that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza. Unlike other progressive candidates across the country, Mejia did not make Israel and Palestine prominent parts of her campaign messaging, with her primarily focusing on affordability, immigration and democracy.
Shortly after the special primary election, Jewish Insider published an article with a quote from Jeff Grayzel, one of the other Democrats who ran for the seat, saying that Mejia “said that Israel has a right to exist, but not as a Jewish state.” When asked in an interview if she thinks Israel has a right to exist as Jewish state, Mejia said that “Israel has both the right and a responsibility to exist as a free and fair democracy” and “Israelis have a right to self determination.”
“If the concern is whether or not I support a free and just democracy in Israel, I repeatedly said I do. If the concern is, do I support Israelis’ rights to have self determination, I clearly do,” she said. “As someone in the United States that is currently pushing against a movement to impose religious ideology on my fellow friends and neighbors, I do pause around the idea of church and state. Maybe that's an American sensibility, but ultimately, it's on the Israeli people to decide and lead their own government. And I think I've been clear about that.”
UDP left the door open to spending in the race in the future — its “focus remains on who will serve the next full term in Congress,” a spokesperson said after the February primary. But it is unclear if it will engage in the April election. A spokesperson for UDP, which is active in other races across the country this cycle, did not respond to a request for comment.
Even without AIPAC’s involvement, Hathaway has repeatedly suggested that he is a staunch supporter of Israel, while Mejia is not. When asked if he is looking for AIPAC’s endorsement, Hathaway said that it’s up to them if they want to get involved and added that he “would expect that a number of pro-Israel groups have an interest in this race.”
Neither Mejia nor Hathaway were particularly strong fundraisers in the primary, and outside investment could shake up the race. But mail-in ballots are already out, and no outside groups on either side of the aisle have made a significant investment — suggesting that national players aren’t expecting that close of a fight. National Democrats especially do not see this seat in danger of flipping.
Democratic leaders across the spectrum, including Sherrill, have coalesced around Mejia’s campaign. And even some in the party who are most outspoken against those further to the left aren’t concerned about her chances in April.
“This is not the NJ-11 of [former Republican Rep.] Rodney Frelinghuysen,” said David de la Fuente, deputy director for politics and research at center-left group Third Way. “The district was shored up to be reliably Democratic, and while I think the district as a whole is probably more of a Mikie Sherrill district than a Mejia district overall, it’s a special election when Donald Trump is in the White House doing everything but fixing the economy, and I don’t think Democrats have anything to worry about.”
GOP calls opponent a 'far-left radical'
Still, Republicans are leaning into Mejia’s progressive accolades, arguing that she is much further to the left of Sherrill. After Mejia won the Democratic nomination, Hathaway posted a video linking her to other Democrats like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — a frequent boogeyman of choice for the GOP — along with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mejia's former boss Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), both of whom endorsed Mejia in the primary. It’s a strategy Republicans hope can bring unaffiliated voters — the second-largest voting bloc in the district — and more moderate Democrats on their side.
Luke Ferrante, executive director at the New Jersey Republican Party, said that Democrats “picked a more partisan option” who is “not as close to the district.”
“While far-left radical Analilia Mejia wants to raise taxes, defund the police, and turn New Jersey into a socialist hellscape, Republican Joe Hathaway wants to lower costs and make communities safer,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Maureen O’Toole said in a statement. “New Jerseyans have no interest in Mejia’s proven-to-fail socialist agenda, and voters will reject her because of it.”
Mejia pushed back on Republicans’ attacks labeling her as a socialist: “I have two sons, and whenever they have lost the argument or they don't have a constructive thing to actually say, they resort to name calling,” she said. “And so that's actually how I feel about it.”
“I'm a Democratic county committeewoman in Essex County, so it just goes to show their ignorance that they don't actually know what they're talking about,” she continued. “If they were curious about my party affiliation, they could see that I've been helping build the Democratic Party for quite some time in New Jersey.”
When asked if there are caucuses she’d like to join if she wins the election, Mejia said she “got a lot of support” from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, adding that her “top priority is going to be, how do I establish an office that is responsive to the needs and concerns and questions of voters in New Jersey's 11th Congressional District.” As for becoming a member of the progressive “Squad,” she said, “My focus isn't labels or squads or this or that. My focus is, can I get in there and do the job to the best of my abilities?” Hathaway has claimed that Mejia is attempting a “political makeover” in the general election.
Mejia’s team has taken to describing Hathaway as a “MAGA Republican” and criticized him for appearing at an Italian-American group’s event with Joseph Belnome, a Republican who previously ran for the seat and attended a Stop the Steal rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Democrats similarly attacked GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli last year for campaigning with Belnome. Hathaway accused Mejia of “grasping at straws” and said that he has crossed paths with Belnome on the trail over the years, but does not have a “relationship” with him. He also condemned Jan. 6 rioters, calling it “one of the darkest days in American history.”
After April, a rematch is in the cards. Candidates have to run again in the June primary for the full term, and Hathaway has said he’s in it “for the long haul.” No prominent challengers have emerged against Mejia nor Hathaway for the June elections.
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