Progressives notch another win over Democratic moderates as Sanders-AOC ally nears Congress

A progressive organizer backed by left-wing champions Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one step away from winning a seat in Congress.

Analilia Mejia, who has made rebuilding the Democratic Party a central pillar of her campaign, is the front-runner in an April special congressional election for a blue-leaning district in New Jersey after pulling off a major upset in last week's Democratic primary.

The ballot box showdown, where Mejia narrowly edged out front-runner former Rep. Tom Malinowski, was the latest face-off between progressives and more mainstream Democrats. Mejia ultimately beat 10 other Democrats for the chance to fill the seat left vacant after now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who stepped down after winning last November's gubernatorial election.

While Mejia was the clear choice of the left flank of the party's base, the rest of the field appeared to divide the more moderate and center-left vote. And Malinowski was battered by a slew of attack ads put out by a group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which opposed Malinowski because he said he supports conditions on aid to Israel.

‘ABOLISH ICE’—WHERE SANDERS AND AOC-BACKED MEJIA STANDS ON THE ISSUES 

Trailing by nearly 900 votes five days after the primary, Malinowski conceded on Tuesday.

Regardless of how she won, Mejia is getting showered with praise from national progressive leaders.

"She stands for a progressive populist economic agenda," Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who also backed Mejia, emphasized Friday in a social media post. "She is the future!" 

And the victory by Mejia, who worked as national political director on Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, is the latest boost for the left against the establishment since socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent shock waves across the nation with his Democratic primary victory in June 2025.

'FULL-BLOWN BATTLE' BREWING IN DEM PARTY AS MAMDANI-STYLE CANDIDATES RISE IN KEY RACES

Mamdani's primary win, followed by his double-digit general election triumph, was far from a one-off for the left last year.

Transit advocate and progressive organizer Katie Wilson narrowly edged out incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell in Seattle's mayoral election.

Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield, who is known for her focus on housing justice, won the showdown for Detroit mayor in a landslide, succeeding longtime Mayor Mike Duggan.

DEMOCRATS HAD MAJOR ELECTION VICTORIES IN 2025, BUT WINS DON’T ERASE PARTY’S CRITICAL WEAKNESSES

It wasn't just city hall battles.

Progressive candidates over performed in state legislative battles, as well as in special congressional elections.

Adelita Grijalva, who was backed by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, cruised to election in the race to succeed her late father, former Rep. Raul Grijalva, in a left-leaning congressional seat in Arizona. And in the Democratic primary, the runner-up to Grijalva was another progressive, social influencer Deja Foxx.

And in Tennessee, progressive state lawmaker Aftyn Behn won the Democratic primary for an open congressional seat in a GOP-dominated district before falling short in the general election in a race that grabbed outsized national attention.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) a leading group on the left, told Fox News Digital that "Analilia Mejia’s momentous showing proves that voters, when given a choice, want Democrats with an inspiring vision who will boldly challenge powerful interests on behalf of working families."

PCCC co-founder Adam Green, a New Jersey native who knocked doors for Mejia and spoke at a rally with Mejia and Sanders on primary eve, added that primary voters "made clear they want Democrats who will shake up a broken political and economic system – not just be anti-Trump."

But Matt Bennett, executive vice president for the moderate Democratic-aligned group the Third Way, argued that Mejia won "because AIPAC blew up Tom Malinowski."

Bennett told Fox News Digital that the New Jersey contest was a "Thursday in February primary with very low turnout…It does not tell us anything even about the Democratic electorate, much less the general electorate."

"So trying to argue that this is a lesson for Democrats is bananas. It doesn't tell us anything about what we need to do to win in tough places," Bennett emphasized.

REPUBLICANS PUSH TO MAKE MAMDANI THE NEW FACE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Another left vs. center Democratic nomination battle is shaping up in red-leaning Texas, where Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a progressive champion and vocal Trump critic and foil, is facing off in an early March Senate primary against state Rep. James Talarico, a slightly more center-left rising star in the party.

Crockett's late entry into the high-profile race gave the GOP instant ammunition to paint Democrats as far-left extremists.

"All across the country, what we're seeing is Jasmine is being repeated, replicated all across the country," National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Sen. Tim Scott claimed in a Fox News Digital interview. "Socialism is in vogue in the Democrat Party."

Mike Marinella, national spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), told Fox News Digital the rise of progressive candidates is a "full-blown battle for the soul of the Democrat Party" as he pointed to seven Democratic congressional primaries this year from coast to coast where the candidate on the left appeared to be out hustling the more centrist or establishment pick.

Marinella argued that the "socialist stampede is winning."

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE 2025 ELECTIONS

But it's not just Republicans ringing alarms.

"The Democratic Party’s aspirations to win statewide in a red state like Texas simply don’t exist without a centrist Democrat who can build a winning coalition of ideologically diverse voters," Liam Kerr, co-founder of the Welcome PAC, a group which advocates for moderate Democratic candidates, argued in a statement to Fox News Digital as he pointed to the Crockett-Talarico race in Texas.

And the Third Way, a think tank that champions center-left ideas, in a memo following the Tennessee special election, argued, "If far-left groups want to help save American democracy, they should stop pushing their candidates in swing districts and costing us flippable seats."

But Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin sees a silver lining, as he pointed to "the great breadth of our party."

"We have conservative Democrats, we have centrist Democrats, we have progressives and we have leftists. And I've always said that you win elections through addition, not subtraction. You win by bringing people into your coalition and growing your party," Martin said in a Fox News Digital interview last autumn.