Republican seeks blue-state breakthrough, distances from Trump while taking aim at 'socialist'
RANDOLPH, N.J. — As he works to flip a vacant U.S. House seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey, Republican Joe Hathaway is not shy about pointing out...
By Fox News · Fox News
RANDOLPH, N.J. — As he works to flip a vacant U.S. House seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey, Republican Joe Hathaway is not shy about pointing out where he disagrees with President Donald Trump , even as he charges that his Democratic rival is too far to the left. "I'm going to call balls and strikes in this race. I'm not going to be a rubber stamp for anybody," Hathaway said in a Fox News Digital interview this week, when asked about Trump. 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 succeed Gov. Mikie Sherrill , the Democratic representative who stepped down from Congress in November after winning New Jersey's gubernatorial election. Thursday's 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. FIRST ON FOX: HOUSE REPUBLICANS TARGET DOZENS OF 'VULNERABLE' DEMOCRATS ON EVE OF TAX DAY A confident Hathaway said, "I think we are going to have a broad coalition come together to 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 as she narrowly edged out more moderate rival former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a field of 11 candidates. While Mejia was the clear choice of the party's left flank, the rest of the field appeared to divide the more moderate and center-left vote. Her victory was another boost for the left against the establishment after democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent shock waves across the nation with his Democratic…