I have had the unique opportunity to take part in a few political upsets in my time in politics. First in 2018 when I helped Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez topple a powerful incumbent. Then in 2025, in Zohran Mamdani’s race for mayor - where he beat a former Governor and became the first Muslim mayor of New York City. And now, Analilia Mejia, who is on the precipice of beating two centrist Dems who were for a long time, more favored to win. I thought I’d start to share some of my insights from my time volunteering for campaigns (not all have been successful - I’ll save those for another day).
I will note, for all of these campaigns, I was not part of the “brain trust”. I was not the architect or the strategist, or laid out the path to victory. Across all these races, I did what I know best: organize my neighbors and Muslim community members.
NJ11 over the years
Soon after helping Rep. Ocasio-Cortez win the general election, I moved to New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, to be closer to my in-laws. It had just flipped from red to blue: represented by Frelinghuysen for 25 years, Mike Sherrill flipped it in the 2018 midterms.
I did not expect my Representative to share a lot of my political views. She was a member of the Moderate Squad - a freshmen group of 4 members from National Security backgrounds who had flipped districts in the midterms (Slotkin, Spanberger, Sherill and Houlahan). However, after the 2020 census and redistricting, NJ11 became a bit more blue - now encompassing solidly blue towns of Maplewood, Bloomfield and more of Montclair. Not to mention how many Brooklyn families relocated to Montclair and other towns during the pandemic.
A crowded field and Analilia’s launch
In 2025, Mikie Sherrill ran for Governor and won. With her seat opening up, candidates jumped in droves: local county commissioners, town councilmembers from various parts of the district, a mayor, non politicos like a late night comedian. But with this district redrawn, progressives had a potential opening. Enter, Analilia Mejia. A progressive organizer who had served as National Political Director on Bernie’s 2020 Presidential Campaign and head of the NJ Working Families Party, securing wins like a $15 minimum wage and paid sick leave for NJ workers.
Before she announced, I heard rumors from some progressive activists I had met over the course of my time in Jersey that a progressive “superstar” was about to jump into the race. Once Analilia announced, my friend Lavi Raghavan, a Glen Ridge resident who I met at a pro-Palestine rally, jumped in to help: securing in kind donations and a videographer, engaging in deep relational organizing. Megan Giulianelli, a Democratic Committee member who stepped down in protest of the party’s silence on genocide, became her impromptu photographer and one of her most consistent organizers. Ritu Pancholy, an activist and District Leader in South Orange, took a courageous stance in opposing the local party’s endorsement of County Commissioner Gill, began organizing her neighbors in the southeastern part of the district.
Early on, Mejia had secured endorsements from Make the Road NJ, Bernie, 32BJ, 1199 and CWA. Make the Road and the labor endorsements proved to mobilize many necessary canvassers. Analilia was at train stops during very early mornings, in some of the coldest temperatures NJ had seen in years, doing visibility and talking to voters. Despite all of this, this was suburban NJ. Many of us had tempered expectations. But we still threw down, knowing that it was right.
In December 2025, along with Aly Azhar, Faisal Shah, Marc Chaaban, Abdul-Basit Haqq and Megan, I helped put together a fundraiser in Livingston of all places (given the large pro-Israel community here, any positions that affirm Palestinian human and political rights are hugely unpopular). Analilia came and met with members of the small Muslim community, joined by Keith Ellison virtually. She came across as a pragmatic progressive, talking about ways she strategized to pass $15 minimum wage and paid sick leave in NJ. She affirmed her positions on foreign policy, and commitment to human rights for all. Over the course of the next few weeks, I would help where I could - phone banking, lawn sign distribution, educating my neighbors on her positions. In January, I offered to co-moderate a candidate forum organized by CAIR-NJ at the Islamic Center of Morris County.
The CAIR forum
At this point in the race, everyone understood it to be a 3 person race - between Tom Malinowski (a former Congressman who represented nearby NJ07 until he lost it to Tom Kean Jr.), Mejia, and Brendan Gill (Essex County Commissioner). Given the make up of the district, spanning Essex, Morris and Passaic Counties, the lion’s share of votes were expected to come from Essex. Given that, many thought it would be a coronation for Gill. But Malinowski had emerged as the front runner in the last few weeks of the election, with an established donor network and the backing of Senator Andy Kim. An anonymous poll conducted a few weeks before election day had Malinowski first, Mejia a distant second, and Gill third.
This despite attack ads AIPAC and United for Democracy Project began running, targeting Malinowski. Many Jewish voters in the district were confused why AIPAC was targeting Malinowski - he was a friend of Israel after all. But apparently, even being open to conditioning aid was a threat to AIPAC. They felt he, as a moderate, had more potential to sway the Democratic caucus than a progressive. Their candidate of choice was not Gill either - it was Tahesha Way, the former Lieutenant Governor. She remained 4th throughout the race. She didn’t bother showing up to the CAIR forum.
At the forum, we asked a series of questions, from reducing military spending, support for abolishing ICE, and Medicare for All. But of course we also asked about conditioning military aid to Israel, recognizing the genocide, refusing hasbara trips to Israel, and their support for the IHRA definition of anti-semitism (a definition that’s been used to curb civil rights of pro-Palestinian protestors). Mejia was the lone candidate to raise her hand to recognize the genocide and refused paid trips to Israel. The image of that was circulated throughout large Muslim Whatsapp groups in Morris County. These communities showed up in big numbers for her, also due to Wassim Kanaan’s (of American Muslims for Palestine) deep organizing.
Election Day
Fast forward to Election Day. I volunteered to do some poll site visibility and was assigned, of all places, the Livingston poll site. One other brave volunteer stood with me in the cold, speaking to voters as they exited their cars. Multiple residents, upset at our support for Meijia, called the police, the town clerk, the mayor and the police on us, though we were at the required 100ft away from the poll site entrance. Livingston went hard for Malinowski/Way.
Election night was somber when my friend Jafreen and I entered Porta. Maybe it was due to my experiences in Livingston but we didn’t expect the night to go our way. When the first votes dropped, with 23.9% reporting, Mejia was trailing by a good 13 points. That continued to hold for some time. But something started happening as the early vote and same day votes began to come in: Malinowski would drop by a fraction of a percentage point, and Mejia would gain a fraction of a percentage point. With every change in the numbers, the room, which had begun to fill up, would scream with joy.
As I constantly refreshed Twitter, I was shocked at how some news outlets, like NJ Globe and Decision Desk HQ, called it for Malinowski with only 30% of votes reported. At some point, between 9:45 and 10PM, when the delta got smaller and smaller, we had hope that she might just pull it off. Then, it happened. The names flipped. She was in the lead by 235 votes, less than .3% margin. That lead began to grow, and we felt it in the room that we had won. They stopped counting votes at 91% reporting, 6,000 votes left. Things could go either way in the coming days as they counted the remaining ballots, but Analilia came and gave her victory speech.
We cheered, we danced to Bad Bunny, we reveled at the power of the grassroots, an electorate that gave a resounding rejection of ICE, abuse of power, genocide and extreme wealth concentration. We know we’re not done. At the time of publication, Mejia has increased her lead to 1.4% and Gill has conceded. We have a general election in April to finish out this term, and yet another primary in June for the 120th Congress. But we are ready and we will prevail.