After primary win, Analilia Mejia pivots to high-stakes April showdown, upcoming debate

ATLANTA – A month into the primary election victory of progressive organizer Analilia Mejia, she is preparing for yet another voting day. 

Mejia secured a victory last month in a crowded Democratic primary for the U.S. House seat vacated by New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D).

Mejia is a former staffer of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who campaigned for her, and she has secured additional support from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Her win presents Mejia as the progressive voice in the race to fill the open 11th District seat against Republican Joe Hathaway. But there are still more voting days ahead. First, there’s the April 16 special election; the winner serves the balance of Sherrill’s term. The regular Democratic primary is in June for the full two‑year term that begins next January. The November general election will then decide who holds the seat for the next full Congress.

“Three more to go. It’s like Groundhog Day,” she said. “This is a marathon of sprints. As a grassroots organizer who is focused on putting constituents first, it really means that I have to spend as many hours on doors, talking to voters, to make sure that I connect so that I could withstand what inevitably is happening across the country. We know it’s Citizens United that has created these conditions. And until we correct that, our electoral system is going to be defunct in many ways.”

Mejia will debate Hathaway on April 1. It’s a key test for both candidates. They are working to define themselves before voters. 

Hathaway’s campaign has also been ramping up outreach efforts and sharpening its message in the lead-up to the debate, aiming to draw contrasts on economic and fiscal issues.

Mejia is gathering energy for additional town halls and a push to drive early voting turnout beginning Monday.

She quickly and vigorously defends her progressive positions: “I find it fascinating, What is radical about the idea that if you work a full day, that you should get a decent wage? What is radical about the idea that in a nation, one of the richest nations in the world, that people go home and die without access to health care? That we have elderly people rationing their insulin, their heart medication, because they can’t afford to eat and buy their medicine?”

Mejia went on to attack permanent tax breaks and recent budget changes outlined in the One Big Beautiful Bill. 

“Because these short-term, this big, bad, ugly bill, it has some short-term tax cuts, but they’re going to fade out for most Americans. But the corporate tax breaks, they’re permanent. That is radical. That is corporate welfare. That is anathema to our democracy,” she said. 

“Raising America” has reached out to the Hathaway campaign to appear on the digital show.

“Raising America” is a NewsNation podcast hosted by Elizabeth Prann.

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