The re-election of Donald Trump reignited a simmering feud between the progressive and centrist wings of the Democratic Party. While centrists have cautioned against alienating “moderate” voters, progressives have urged the party to rally around universal healthcare, raising wages, and other populist measures.

If recent elections are any indication, moderate voters seem plenty receptive to progressive appeals.

Newly minted Rep. Analilia Mejia recently won a special election for New Jersey’s 11th district in the House of Representatives. Mejia replaces moderate Democrat Mikie Sherill, who vacated her seat in the affluent, suburban district after winning the state’s gubernatorial election.

Mejia gave a fiery inaugural address on April 20 calling on her colleagues to “Stand up, defend, and restore not only our democracy, but also a just economy that actually works for working people.”

Centrism means preserving the status quo—and the status quo is a failure for most Americans.

Mejia has built a political career championing economic populism. Not only did she serve as Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 2020 campaign political director, but was also co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy and director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance.

Poll after poll shows majorities of the public back taxing corporations and the very rich, prefer a Medicare for All healthcare system to our patchwork private insurance system, and are deeply concerned about climate change. Mejia says that makes those issues good politics as well as policy.

I talked to Mejia in the run-up to the 2022 midterms. “The policies that really motivate people, that work for working families,” she told me then, “are also popular ideas.”

She’s right. This year, Mejia won her suburban district handily, beating out Republicans and more centrist or conservative Democrats. Her populist, morally unambiguous platform included a demand to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a denunciation of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

In November 2026, Mejia will run........

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