In New Jersey, progressive Democrat Analilia Mejía has won a special election to fill the House seat left vacant by New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill. Mejía’s victory further narrows Republicans’ razor-thin majority: Once she’s sworn in, House Speaker Mike Johnson will only be able to afford a defection by a single Republican in order to pass legislation on a party-line vote. Mejía is the daughter of a Colombian garment worker and a Dominican laborer, and a former union organizer who served as national political director for Bernie Sanders in 2020. On the campaign trail, she called for the abolition of ICE and was the only candidate to say that she believed that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

Analilia Mejía: “Eighty percent of Gaza is in rubble. Can we agree that that is wrong? Can we agree that cutting the electricity to water desalinization plants is not only wrong, but it goes against the Geneva Convention and it is a war crime?”