As he aims to win a vacant U.S. House seat in a predominantly Democratic district in northern New Jersey, Republican Joe Hathaway openly expresses his disagreements with President Donald Trump, while also criticizing his Democratic opponent for being too far to the left.
“I’m going to call balls and strikes in this race. I’m not going to be a rubber stamp for anybody,” Hathaway said in a Fox News Digital interview this week, when asked about the president.
Hathaway is competing against Democrat Analilia Mejia in a special election for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. Mejia is supported by left-wing leaders, including Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from neighboring New York.
The election, taking place on Thursday, will determine who will succeed Gov. Mikie Sherrill; she was the Democratic representative who stepped down from Congress in November after winning the New Jersey gubernatorial election.
Thursday’s special election arrives as the GOP holds onto a tenuous majority in the House. They would welcome the chance to flip a suburban district that Sherrill won by 15 points in her 2024 re-election campaign, a margin she also carried in last year’s gubernatorial election.
However, given the challenging political climate and the typical difficulties faced by the party in power, it will be a tough task for a candidate with an R next to his name, Fox noted. Nevertheless, Hathaway remained confident: “I think we are going to have a broad coalition come together to choose common sense over socialism in this race.”
Mejia, a left-wing agitator who previously served as national political director for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, won a crowded February Democratic primary, narrowly defeating former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a field of 11 candidates.
Mejia was backed by the party’s far-left wing, while the more moderate and center-left vote was split among multiple candidates, contributing to her narrow victory.
Her win follows other recent gains for like-minded candidates, including the 2025 Democratic primary victory of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, which drew national attention.
Hathaway, who served as mayor of Randolph Township and is a current council member, ran uncontested for the GOP congressional nomination, Fox noted. He pointed out that the special election is a choice for voters to pick “between a common sense, practical independent leader who’s gotten things done at the local level in New Jersey and knows the issues, contrasted with someone who’s running on pure ideology, far left-wing ideology, Squad-backed ideology.”
Mejia recently participated in a town hall with Malinowski and this past weekend joined Sherrill on the campaign trail, as she aims to unite Democrats, who hold a significant registration advantage in the district. Hathaway argued that Mejia is now attempting “to hide from that a little bit in some of her rhetoric, because she knows that those policies are completely out of touch, but it’s not fooling voters. It’s certainly not fooling us.”
Jewish voters are a significant part of the district’s electorate. In the only debate of the special election, Hathaway claimed Mejia harbored antisemitic views, citing her statement that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
“She blamed Israel for the attacks by Hamas on October 7,” Hathaway said. “I think Jewish individuals across this district, Republican or Democrat are very afraid of this kind of rhetoric.”
He added: “I’ve spoken to more members of the Jewish community who have told me they’ve never voted for a Republican in their life, who are going to vote for me in this race. I mean, that shows you where the Jewish community is on the importance of this race and how they are not aligned with Mejia… and her platform.”