House showdown: Democrat backed by Sanders, AOC faces Republican trying to flip blue-leaning district
RANDOLPH, N.J. — Republican Joe Hathaway aims to flip a vacant U.S. House seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey."I think we have the right math, the right...
By Fox News · Fox News
RANDOLPH, N.J. — Republican Joe Hathaway aims to flip a vacant U.S. House seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey. "I think we have the right math, the right bipartisan coalition to come together to win this thing," an optimistic Hathaway said this week in a Fox News Digital interview. Hathaway is facing off against Democrat Analilia Mejia, who is backed by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of neighboring New York, in Thursday's special election in New Jersey's 11th Congressional District. The winner will fill out the final eight months of the term of Gov. Mikie Sherrill , the Democratic representative who stepped down from Congress in November after winning New Jersey's gubernatorial election. FIRST ON FOX: HOUSE REPUBLICANS TARGET DOZENS OF 'VULNERABLE' DEMOCRATS ON EVE OF TAX DAY The special election comes as the GOP clings to a fragile House majority and would relish the opportunity to flip a suburban district Sherrill won by 15 points in her 2024 re-election and carried by roughly the same margin in last year's gubernatorial election. But given a rough political climate and traditional headwinds for the party in power, it's a tough task for a candidate with an R next to their name on the ballot. To have any chance of winning, Hathaway will need the support of independents and crossover Democrats. He said his message to those voters is "even if you've never voted for a Republican before, you got the chance to test drive one for the next six months, send me to Washington. Let me prove to you I'm going to do what I say." Pointing to Mejia, Hathaway argued that voters in the district will "choose common sense over socialism in this race." Mejia, a progressive organizer who served as national political director on the 2020 Sanders presidential campaign, pulled off an upset in the February Democratic primary, narrowly edging out more moderate rival former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a field of 11 candida…