The Feb. 5 special election upends familiar assumptions about which factions struggle to unify
Published
February 4, 2026 6:30AM (EST)
Analilia Mejia. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
In the upcoming special election for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, which is likely a safe seat for Democrats, progressives quickly united around a single candidate, while the party establishment has been fractured by internal divisions. It’s a reversal of sorts of the familiar pattern in which left-wing infighting inhibits unity while Democratic moderates coalesce around a party insider.
