It’s AOC’s Party Now: Bernie-Backed Far-Leftist Could Win Dem Nomination to Replace ‘Moderate’ Sherrill in NJ

If the results of a special election Thursday are any indication of where the Democratic Party is going, Republicans should be very scared indeed.

Thanks to an unusually heavy turnout by the left on primary election day, the race to replace now-New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill — a “moderate” Democrat who was the first to represent New Jersey’s historically Republican 11th Congressional District — might now involve a raging progressive with endorsements from New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont against a small-town mayor.

With 91 percent of the vote tallied as of 3 a.m. Eastern, Analilia Mejia, who led Sanders’ second presidential campaign in the Garden State, held a slim lead over the putative favorite, former U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski, according to The New York Times.

Mejia had 28.75 percent of the vote, or 17,647 votes, to 27.96 percent, or 17,161 votes, for Malinowski.

And while some mail-in ballots are still to be counted, some pollsters declared that the race was effectively done.

Stick a fork in it

Analilia Mejia — backed by AOC/Bernie/Warren — will be the Democratic nominee (and overwhelming favorite) to replace Mikie Sherrill in NJ-11

She defeated a former congressman (Malinowski), the machine-backed candidate (Gill) & the AIPAC-backed candidate (Way) pic.twitter.com/5DF4P5cSMw

— Adam Carlson (@admcrlsn) February 6, 2026

Whatever the case, Mejia’s over-performance could either be a case of radicals coalescing around anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement sentiment in swing districts, or radicals coalescing around anti-Semitism and far-left ideologies in what were heretofore swing districts. Neither outcome seemed especially promising for sanity among Democrats in the future.

Indeed, while Malinowski is further to the left than Sherrill was in terms of their legislative history, at least he’s kind of in the ballpark of normal Democrat nonsense — which would go over OK in a suburban district that has become somewhat more liberal over the years but still isn’t raging Democratic Socialists of America territory.

Decision Desk HQ — usually reliable about these things — actually called the race for Malinowski early in the night based on the returns from Essex and Morris counties, expected to be Mejia’s and Malinowski’s strongholds, respectively. (A small sliver of the district is in Passaic County, as well; that’s tilted toward Tahesha Way, New Jersey’s former lieutenant governor and secretary of state, but not by a wide margin. She remains in third with 17.43 percent of the vote, well out of contention.)

Decision desk then un-decided the decision less than two hours later.

“As the night progressed, margins in Morris County quickly tilted toward Mejia; Mejia began winning drops by 20%-30%, representing a swing of 65 points compared to the absentee vote,” Decision Desk wrote in a post on the social media platform X.

“This trend reversal prompted us to re-examine our race projection and ultimately retract it.”

Decision Desk HQ is retracting its projection in the NJ-11 Democratic primary.

We have deleted the race projection tweet.

At the time of our initial projection, all absentee and early vote had been recorded in all three counties, and we had 66/240 precincts in Essex County… pic.twitter.com/u3OjPUgUHd

— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) February 6, 2026

As of 9 a.m. Eastern on Friday, the race was still too close to call, according to NJ.com.

So, what happened? Well, the fact that Mejia is over-performing with those who showed up on Election Day itself could be indicative of one of the most unique and unusual self-owns in recent political history, the Democratic Party shifting far to the left even in what’s now being called the “wine mommy” demographic, or both.

See, the race began to get national attention beginning late last month when a group aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the United Democracy Project, began running ads critical of Malinowski. The reason behind this, ostensibly, is that Malinowski is decidedly not pro-Israel. But the ads they ran weren’t about that, according to Politico.

Instead, they attacked his cred on immigration enforcement, among other things.

“In 2019, Tom Malinowski voted with Trump and the Republicans to fund ICE — more than $200 million for Trump’s deportation force,” the ad noted.

United Democracy Project (ie AIPAC) is up with a new ad going after Tom Malinowski (running in #NJ11)

The ad goes after Malinowski for voting to increase funding for ICE and for failing to disclose stock trades.

“We just can’t trust Malinowski” pic.twitter.com/W6PeWK6lEv

— Andrew Arenge (@MrArenge) January 29, 2026

If the PAC’s intention would be to get a more pro-Israel candidate to replace Sherrill — either Way or Brendan Gill, another machine favorite — it effectively failed. As The New York Times noted, “the group is presumably no fan of Ms. Mejia’s.”

The newspaper reported:

At a forum last month, she was the only candidate to raise her hand when asked if she agreed with a United Nations report that said Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. If elected, Ms. Mejia would be likely to join Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Representative Ayanna Pressley, who also campaigned with Ms. Mejia in New Jersey, in a left-leaning wing of the House known as “the squad.”

Of course, there’s the other alternative, which is even worse to consider: This advertising didn’t matter and the wine mommies were going to vote this way anyway.

And, before you come at me for the pejorative, trust me on this one: I grew up in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. The only people coming out to a Democratic primary there — particularly in Morris County — are definitely wine mommies.

The only difference between now and my youth is the fact that these people might be wine dog mommies now. But I guarantee you this: The wine part is still there, and the self-identification as a mommy part is still there, even if it’s just of a terrier named Barkie Obama.

So, either the Democrats have gone so far left on immigration law enforcement that a would-be “squad” member can plausibly get nominated in a moderate-ish district, or the Democrats have gone so far left on everything that a would-be “squad” member can plausibly get nominated in a moderate-ish district.

Either way, the result is the same.

Neither strikes a hopeful note going into the midterms or 2028, and if this doesn’t wake conservatives up, nothing will.

On a happier note, the unopposed Republican nominee — Mayor Joe Hathaway of Randolph — may now actually have a chance once the radical Chardonnay dog-park denizens have spoken.

He has until April 16, when the special election to replace Sherrill takes place, to make his message heard.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

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