Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom, sitting in for Brian today. As dysfunctional as Congress might seem, there are many, many people interested in seeking office, as evidenced by the scrum running to replace Jerry Nadler in Manhattan and the 11 Democrats vying to fill New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill's former seat in that special election.

Early voting is already underway in that primary, ending tomorrow, then shifting to regular polling sites on Thursday. To talk about the candidates hoping to represent New Jersey's 11th congressional district and what kind of support they're generating, I'm joined by my colleague Mike Hayes, WNYC and Gothamist New Jersey politics reporter. Hey, Mike.

Mike Hayes: Hey, Brigid. Thanks for having me.

Brigid Bergin: Great to have you here. This is the 11th congressional district in New Jersey. What parts of the state are we talking about?

Mike Hayes: We're talking about the northern part of the state here, Brigid. Not too, too far from NYC. To get technical, it's parts of Passaic, Morris, and Essex County. You mentioned it was Mikie Sherrill's seat. It's pretty a safe Democratic seat out there in North Jersey.

Brigid Bergin: Let's talk about, I said 11 Democrats running for the nomination here. We already know which Republican they're going to face in the April special election, right?

Mike Hayes: That's right. You stole my thunder there. I was hoping to do my big grand prediction for the election and call the Republican primary for Mayor Joe Hathaway from Randolph, New Jersey. He's the only Republican in this race, the presumptive nominee come April.

Brigid Bergin: Is that any sort of indication of how effectively the parties are organized there? Or does that mean that there are that many more Democrats than Republicans in this district?

Mike Hayes: What it means is that Democrats see this as a very safe seat, and a Democrat is going to win this seat. If I'm Joe Hathaway, I'm not spending too much time checking Amtrak schedules from North Jersey to Washington DC, come April. That's for a number of reasons, Brigid, like I mentioned, Mikie Sherrill has had success here. She's turned this safely blue. This district was also, after the census in 2020, redistricted and made more safely Democratic.

Like we've been saying, Democrats across the country see these coming midterms as an opportunity for a blue wave. Yes, lot of really impressive candidates here, and a lot of folks saying, "This might be my chance." There's not many chances to move up in New Jersey politics, so a lot of people see this as their opportunity out there; New Jersey's 11th.

Brigid Bergin: An open seat is a huge opportunity. Listeners, if you are in the 11th district and voting in the primary, tell us what's at stake for you in this contest. How are you picking a candidate? Or are you still struggling to decide? Any voter in the Garden State, if you're watching what's happening in New York 11, we want to hear from you. The number is 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692.

Mike, I know we have to go through this list of candidates and maybe talk about some of the indications of the support they have going into early voting. Maybe you could read their names and their "claims to fame." I see at least one of them is a Trump impersonator.

Mike Hayes: I feel like I want you to time me and see how quickly I can get through these. Let's just go through the list of folks who are still in this. There's 13 names on the ballot. Two have withdrawn, but here's the 11 that are active campaigns as we speak today and active throughout.

You have John Bartlett. He's a voting rights attorney from Passaic County. He's also a Passaic County commissioner there. You also have Zach Beecher. He's an entrepreneur and former Army paratrooper. You mentioned our Trump impersonator. That's J-L Clauvin, and that is his biggest claim to fame here. There's also Cammie Croft. She's a former Obama White House staffer.

Then you have Brendan Gill. He's Essex County commissioner. He's got the endorsement of former Governor Phil Murphy. Jeff Grayzel is also in this race. The mayor of Morris Township. Tom Malinowski, a former congressman who represented parts of this district, is running. Analilia Mejía. She's become the progressive darling in this race. She's got Bernie Sanders endorsement, AOC's endorsement. We got to keep going here, Brigid.

Brigid Bergin: Not done yet.

Mike Hayes: I've also got Justin Strickland, he is also a former army veteran and a city councilman in Chatham Borough. Tahesha Way, the former lieutenant governor under Phil Murphy, is running in this race. Last but not least, Anna Lee Williams. She's a grassroots activist. Her claim to fame here is, she was the first one to declare way back in July, before Mikie Sherrill had even vacated the seat, even been elected. Shortly after she won the primary in the governor's race, Ms. Williams jumped in.

Brigid Bergin: Two other people whose names are going to be in the ballot have since suspended their campaigns, right?

Mike Hayes: That is correct. You have Dean Dafis, who was in this race. He's from Maplewood. He's jumped on. He's an interesting character. He suspended his campaign, but he's been out there for Brendan Gill quite a bit.

Brigid Bergin: Listeners, if you are just joining us, this is The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin, filling in for Brian today, and I'm talking with my colleague Mike Hayes about the many Democrats running in the special election primary for an open seat in New Jersey's 11th congressional district. Of course, that was the seat formerly held by now Governor Mikie Sherrill.

We're taking calls from voters in that district and in the Garden State. The number 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. Before we get to those callers, Mike, based on endorsements, how do you and other analysts see the top contenders in this race?

Mike Hayes: There's a top tier emerging here, Brigid. It's been emerging for a while. Political experts tell me. Really, who you have here, you have Brendan Gill, Essex County Commissioner. Like I said, Governor Phil Murphy endorsed him. He's also got the backing of the powerful Essex County political machine as well as a number of other high-level endorsements. The Teamsters endorsed him.

Along with him, you have a former Congressman, Tom Malinowski. Raised the most money in this campaign, millions of dollars. High name recognition. Represented part of this district way back when, up until 2023. Then you also have former Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way. She has the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. The Lieutenant Governors' Association of America has also thrown some support behind her.

Then joining that group of three is, I mentioned, Analilia Mejia, has really come on strong here, carved out a lane to the left of those three as the most progressive candidate in the election. Her presence here and her strong performance going into this primary has really made this a classic progressive versus establishment Democrat race. Those first three I mentioned, Gil Malinowski and Way, even though they might not be super well known to voters, Brigid, they are really well known in New Jersey politics, very much mainstream Dems, members of the establishment, whereas someone like Mejia is more of an insurgent in this race. That would be the top four.

Brigid Bergin: Mike, we have a question from a listener in Montville who texted, "Who's been active in local town halls? Would love to attend one. It could make my decision." Have any of those leading candidates, in particular, but any of the candidates been doing town halls?

Mike Hayes: Yes, if our listener wants to get out there and get to something before election day on Thursday, a number of these candidates have told me they're hosting early voting events. Either meetups in the morning or during the day, meeting up with supporters, and then heading over to the polls. I was at one on Thursday in Montclair with the Mejia campaign, maybe 20, 25 folks met up with her on the first day of early voting. Then folks like Brendan Gill have been telling me that they're setting up after-parties for early voting as well.

Brigid Bergin: Sounds fun.

Mike Hayes: I would look into that. Yes, trying to reward people for coming out early. I think part of the strategy here is that these events seem to have come together quickly with candidates over the last few weeks, folks. We had the huge snowstorm, I guess about 10 days ago. The weather is making people real skittish, and that translates to a heavy push for early voting. Part of that is folks setting up events to meet the candidates. There's still time to talk to these folks.

Brigid Bergin: Mike, let's talk for a minute about big endorsements in the race. You mentioned that Mejia has the progressive backing from AOC and Senator Bernie Sanders. What about some other New Jersey elected officials? Has Governor Sherrill weighed in since this is her former district? What about Senator Andy Kim?

Mike Hayes: I'm glad you brought up Andy Kim. Nothing from Sherrill. We can get that out of the way quickly. I think she's going to let the chips fall where they may here. Andy Kim is backing Tom Malinowski. They have a personal, close political colleague history. Worked together on foreign policy stuff when they were both members of Congress. Senator Kim came out early for Tom Malinowski, and he's been doing campaign events with him throughout.

You mentioned internal in New Jersey, folks. The person who comes to mind when you bring that up, Brigid, is Brendan Gill, and that endorsement from the powerful political machine, the Essex County Democratic Committee. That's a big deal here because look, this is a election in the dead of winter. It's on a Thursday, no less. I know we talked about all the early voting, but actual election day is on a Thursday. Where I come from, elections are usually held on Tuesdays.

I think folks are still trying to get the word out about this election. What that translates to when you talk about endorsements is a lot of these folks, like, take the Essex County Democratic Committee, for instance, they get people to the polls. For someone like Brendan Gill to have their backing, that means real votes in his pockets. That's a big deal.

Brigid Bergin: I want to talk a bit about Tom Malinowski, who was in Congress but lost to Tom Kean Jr., after the district was redrawn. Did he move to the 11th, or did the district move to him, if you know what I mean?

Mike Hayes: Yes, he's moved into the district. To call him a carpetbagger would probably be a little strong here, Brigid, because, like I mentioned, he represented part of this district. He was the inverse during that redistricting that happened. The 11th district and the 7th district, where Malinowski previously held office, they're right next to each other.

What happened is his district, or the 7th district, rather, got more Republican, and Malinowski got ousted. Now he's trying things out next door, but they heavily playing up the fact that he has represented some of these towns already.

Brigid Bergin: Let's go to Paul in Millburn, New Jersey. Paul, you're on WNYC.

Paul: Hi. Long time, first time. Thanks so much for taking my call. Mike, I have a question about the mailings I've been receiving about Tom Malinowski. Some are in support, others are very much against him, citing some of his stock purchases or sales, which may amount to insider knowledge.

Then I've received information that some of these very negative things are actually funded by Trump PACs or Trump dark money. I just received another one that says, "Don't believe the lies about Tom Malinowski from Trump's allies." Can you please set the story straight about Tom Malinowski's history? Thank you so much for covering New Jersey politics.

Mike Hayes: Thanks so much, Paul. Thanks for bringing up the Malinowski mailings and the Malinowski ads. I think we were going to get to that ourselves anyway here. Interesting to hear Paul highlight insider trading. Yes, that was something that Malinowski had to deal with, struggled with during his time in Congress.

When our caller mentioned Malinowski [unintelligible 00:15:56], I thought he was going to mention the ads from a pro-Israel group, from AIPAC, that are spending big, big money to run attack ads against Malinowski, highlighting his time in Congress and his backing of DHS funding and immigration enforcement support at the time, with ICE in the news so much. These folks are taking advantage of those votes that he cast.

We should note that at the time that he did that, those bills passed with broad bipartisan support. Malinowski was far from the only Democrat to vote in favor of those bills at the time. I spoke to him a little bit a couple weeks back, as this was starting to heat up about the money being spent on attack ads and mailings against him, and he told me he sees as a badge of honor; he sees it as folks nervous about his momentum in this race. It feels like a can response. What is he going to say? That it's really upsetting him. That's been the position of the Malinowski campaign. That they're just riding the wave. He's, of all the candidates in this thing, by far the person who's getting attacked the most with ads.

Brigid Bergin: I will mention that we've gotten several callers about these anti-Malinowski flyers. Also, a caller who wanted to add that Malinowski's been endorsed by Representative Jamie Raskin and Senator Andy Kim and wanted that mentioned. We're going to get in some callers who are interested in both candidates. Let's get in a caller who is a supporter of Malinowski, and then we'll hear from some other callers. Let's go to Leba in Maplewood, New Jersey. Leba, I hope I pronounced that correctly. You're on WNYC.

Leba: You did, thank you. I just wanted to add that Malinowski is my candidate. I worked with him for years at Human Rights Watch. I think there is very little daylight on the policy views of this huge spread of candidates. For me, this is a special election, as you mentioned; on a Thursday, we're going to have struggle with turnout, et cetera.

This is a time where there will be no freshman orientation. There is no wiggle room. We're in this Trump emergency crisis, and here's someone who's already served for two terms and will already likely go into the Foreign Relations Committee with his seniority intact, and can call up and work on any foreign affairs issue, and as an immigrant himself, but when it comes to Venezuela and Ukraine and God forbid, Greenland is ready at the helm.

I also just wanted to add two other tiny things. First of all, on that bill that you mentioned that is being highlighted in these hack ads, it's a mass distortion. Not only did it have broad democratic and bipartisan support, but it was specifically emergency aid for food, shelter, and medicine for immigrants at the border at that time, with oversight making sure that it didn't go to expansion of detention.

Overall, I also just wanted to say that for New Jersey, what we really deserve here is ranked-choice voting. Because with such a huge spread, there is no doubt in my mind that Analilia would be my next candidate, and that not having a choice on rank when you have over 10 candidates is really insane.

Brigid Bergin: Yes, and the implication, of course, being that someone's going to win with 15% of the vote, potentially, or some very small fraction of the electorate. Mike, before I get you your response to Leba's comments there, I want to get in a caller supporting another candidate. Let's go to Naomi in Montclair, New Jersey. Naomi, you're on WNYC.

Naomi: Hi, good morning. I'm so glad to finally get through to your show, and I love Brian's show. Thank you for pinch-hitting, Brigid. I'm calling about Analilia Mejia because I really believe she's the only viable candidate. She's the only anti-war, anti-Israel lobby candidate running. Most of them are bought by AIPAC, and what that means, literally is dropping bombs on people. That's what AIPAC does. They arrange for bombs to be dropped on children in Gaza and elsewhere, and they arrange for all types of violence to occur in Israel and Palestine.

I support breaking the bonds, which talks about divesting from Israel bonds that all these different towns and cities hold, and she supports that. She supports working people, and she supports immigrants, and she will protect them being an immigrant and from an immigrant family herself. For all those reasons, not to mention her being progressive, I support her.

Brigid Bergin: Naomi, thanks for your call and for giving us another perspective there. Mike, listening to those two callers, I was hearing that progressive versus moderate theme that you raised earlier in our conversation. What do you make of what you heard from those callers? Are Malinowski and Mejia really the reflection of that struggle?

Mike Hayes: Yes. Well, one other takeaway here, Brigid, I feel like I need to tone it down on mentioning the weather and low turnout. Here's some real passion there. I actually just got a text from somebody who's a poll worker today. I asked him, "How's it going?" He's been working the polls since Thursday, and he said it's starting to really pick up today compared to last week. We saw record turnout during the 2025 governor's race just a few short months ago, so maybe some enthusiasm carrying over, maybe some bigger numbers, which would be great to see.

Going back to your question. I feel like Mejia has really forced this issue in this race. Progressive versus establishment Dems. In fact, you could see somebody like Malinowski, especially with the backing of Senator Andy Kim, as someone who could really fill that role, so to speak, fill that progressive lane.

Our first caller there, forgive me, I forgot her name, she talked a lot about being ready on day one, ready to go right into the Foreign Relations Committee. I hadn't heard that myself as baked and ready to go. Regardless of that, there's definitely going to be elements of folks need to be ready on day one here. If for no other reason, on the electoral front, the person who wins this seat in April, they're going to have to run again in November. Potentially, if someone feels passionate about it, they could face a primary in June.

Yes, you got to hit the ground running here, granted Democrats don't have a lot of power in Washington right now. I think we've got a really interesting Democratic civil war going on here. Progressives versus more establishment mainstream Dems.

Brigid Bergin: We have a lot of callers here who have different opinions on the race in different ways. They're interpreting some of these issues. Some pushback from several listeners about the characterization of AIPAC by our previous caller, and some other folks who want to weigh in on other candidates. Let's go to Lisa in Montclair, New Jersey, who I think will be our final caller to weigh in on this race. Lisa, who's your candidate and why?

Lisa: My candidate is actually Brendan Gill. One who has been so attacked for being the machine. What I contend is that he has been a county commissioner for, oh, like 10, 15 years. He has done so much for the community. He is CD11. He was born here, he was raised here, he stayed here. His children go to their schools.

The big thing for me is, there was a big contract for an ICE facility in Newark, and he pushed back. It was $52 million contract, and he really pushed back hard' He really alienated the leaders here, that big machine that everybody talks about, but he got that killed at the time because he said that does not belong here. He's married to a Colombian immigrant. He's got a biracial family, so this is real for him. This is something.

At this time in our history, I think it's really important to have someone who has that. He's also been in politics for a very long time. He worked for Lautenberg. He worked for Don Payne Jr. He's worked in Washington. Phil Murphy endorsed him. He's got more endorsements than anybody else of any of the candidates. There's a reason for that, because he gets things done. I always say there are a lot of fast talkers, but he's a really fast doer.

Brigid Bergin: Lisa, thanks so much for your call. We've gotten some different perspectives from voters who are weighing in on this race. Mike, before we let you go, let's just remind folks how to vote in this primary, what the deadlines are, and when they need to cast their ballots.

Mike Hayes: Sure, Brigid. It's Monday. There's two more days of early voting, folks. The early voting days. The polls are open until 6:00 PM. If you're in line at your polling place by 6:00 PM, they have to let you vote. If you're wondering where the early voting polling stations are in your area, you can go to nj.gov and find that out pretty easily.

We're also casting vote-by-mail ballots, and those have to be postmarked by the 5th, by election day. I spoke to a number of candidates who are encouraging people get those in before Thursday. Just don't run the risk of having it the post office postmark it the next day, and have it not count.

Then, of course, we've got Election Day coming up on Thursday. The polls will be open till 8:00 PM across New Jersey's 11th district. Did I hit it all? A lot of ways to vote for people.

Brigid Bergin: A lot of ways to vote and a lot of candidates that you will be covering. I know you got a busy week ahead of you, Mike, so we'll leave it there for now. Mike Hayes is my colleague in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom, covering New Jersey politics. He's also author of the book The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD and The Broken Promises of Police Reform. Mike, thanks so much.

Mike Hayes: Of course. Thanks for having me.

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