Analilia Mejia, Democratic House candidate for New Jersey, speaks to supporters and members of the media at Paper Plane Coffee Co. in Montclair, New Jersey, on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026 (Heather Khalifa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks after announcing her run in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Dallas. (LM Otero/AP Photo)
"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.
Democratic nominee state Rep. Aftyn Behn speaks to supporters at a watch party after losing a special election for the U.S. seventh congressional district, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (George Walker IV/AP Photo)
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."
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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.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/progressives-notch-another-win-over-democratic-moderates-sanders-aoc-ally-nears-congress