Why this lifelong Democrat is endorsing Joe Hathaway for Congress

I am 75 years old. I have been a registered Democrat since I was 18. I served as a democratic leader in North Caldwell for 18 years and was elected chairman twice during my tenure. But my commitment to the Democratic party didn’t start with me. My grandmother was a district leader in Newark. My father was a district leader. And my daughter has served the party in North Caldwell as well. Four generations of my family have given their time, energy, and loyalty to the Democratic party.

I say all of this not to boast, but to establish something that matters in this moment: I know what Democratic values are. I was raised on them. I have lived them. And I am watching them be abandoned by the Democratic nominee for Congress in the 11th District.

That is why, as a lifelong Democrat, I am proud to endorse Joe Hathaway for Congress.

I did not come to this decision lightly. Crossing party lines is not something I take casually, and I understand the weight of what I am saying. But the Democratic party I grew up in — the party of Truman, Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey — stood for working families and also for moral clarity on the world stage. It stood by our allies. It rejected extremism in all its forms. And it understood that American leadership in the world requires the courage to call evil by its name.

Analilia Mejia, the Democratic nominee, has failed that test.

During a candidates’ forum in the primary campaign, Mejia was the only candidate in a field of 11 Democrats to raise her hand when asked whether she agreed that Israel had committed a genocide in Gaza. That word — genocide — is not a casual political label. It is a term with profound legal and moral significance, and to deploy it against the only democracy in the Middle East, while failing to adequately acknowledge the atrocities of Hamas, is a dangerous distortion.

But this was not a one-time slip. According to reporting from Jewish Insider, as early as October 10, 2023 — just three days after one of the worst terrorist attacks against Jewish people since the Holocaust, and before Israel’s ground operation in Gaza had even begun — Mejia reportedly expressed horror at events unfolding in Gaza without acknowledging the 1,200 Israelis who had just been murdered and the more than 250 taken hostage by Hamas.

She has indicated support for an offensive weapons ban against our closest ally in the region. And she has aligned herself politically with the most vocal critics of the U.S.-Israel alliance in Congress, accepting endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — figures who have consistently sought to condition or restrict American support for Israel.

I must also address the elephant in the room: how we got here. I strongly supported Tom Malinowski in the Democratic primary. Tom told me personally that he is a Zionist and deeply pro-Israel. He served two terms in Congress with a solidly pro-Israel record, and he had the endorsement of J Street, a respected center-left pro-Israel organization. But that wasn’t enough for AIPAC. Their affiliated super PAC, the United Democracy Project, spent over $2.3 million on attack ads against Malinowski — not because he was anti-Israel, but because he had the audacity to suggest that some U.S. military aid to Israel should come with conditions. And here is the bitter irony: AIPAC’s ads didn’t even mention Israel. Instead, they attacked Malinowski from the left, accusing him of supporting ICE funding — a cynical, dishonest campaign designed to fracture the moderate Democratic vote in a crowded eleven-candidate field. It worked. Malinowski lost by fewer than 1,000 votes.

And the direct beneficiary of AIPAC’s reckless intervention was the one candidate in the race furthest from their stated mission — Analilia Mejia. As one longtime New Jersey Democratic strategist put it, AIPAC “spent millions of dollars beating back a moderate Democrat to get themselves a progressive that is totally outside the frame that they would like.” Even Tom Malinowski said the outcome could not be understood without accounting for the massive flood of outside money that distorted the race. AIPAC’s strategic blunder handed the nomination to the very candidate they should have feared most, and NJ-11 voters are now left to deal with the consequences.

To be clear: one can criticize specific policies of the Israeli government, as many thoughtful Americans and Israelis do. But Mejia’s pattern of statements and alliances goes well beyond policy criticism. It reflects a worldview in which Israel is cast as an aggressor and the complex moral realities of the Middle East are reduced to a one-sided narrative. That is not the Democratic tradition I was raised in. Democrats from Harry Truman, who recognized Israel eleven minutes after its founding, to Joe Biden, who affirmed America’s unshakable bond with the Jewish state, have understood that supporting Israel is not a partisan act — it is a moral one.

Mejia’s departure from mainstream Democratic values extends beyond foreign policy. She was the national political director for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign — a self-described democratic socialist. She led the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, a progressive organization aligned with the Working Families Party. She has been endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another self-identified democratic socialist.

Her policy platform reads like a wish list from the furthest left edge of American politics: Medicare for all with no exceptions, a $25-per-hour national minimum wage, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement entirely, free college tuition, cancellation of all student loan debt, and banning private equity firms from purchasing homes. In her social media posts, she has referred to public services as “socialism” and suggested that Jesus Christ was “likely a Democratic Socialist.”

These are not the positions of a moderate Democrat representing one of the wealthiest, most suburban congressional districts in the country. NJ-11 is home to families who work in finance, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals — families who rely on private enterprise, invest in their 401(k)s, and expect their representative to support the economic system that allows them to build a life. Yet Mejia’s platform calls for taxing investment income at the same rate as earned income — a policy that would directly impact the retirement savings of the very families she seeks to represent.

At a rally, Mejia declared that “any old blue won’t do” — a frank admission that she sees herself not as a representative of the broad Democratic electorate, but as an ideological warrior who views even her own party’s mainstream as insufficient.

I recently sat down with Joe Hathaway for a two-hour interview. I grilled him. I wanted to know who he really is — not the campaign version, the real one. And what I found was a candidate who gave me straight answers on the issues that matter most.

On Israel, Hathaway was unequivocal. He has publicly called on every Democratic candidate in the race to sign a pro-Israel pledge — clearly, publicly, and without conditions. He has committed to strengthening security for synagogues and Jewish institutions, fully supporting law enforcement against antisemitic threats, and holding elected officials accountable when they enable or excuse antisemitism. In his words to the Jewish families of New Jersey: “You are not alone.” In our conversation, his support for Israel was not hedged, not qualified, and not conditional. It was the kind of moral clarity that is sorely missing from his opponent.

On reproductive rights, Hathaway told me directly that he supports a woman’s right to choose, particularly in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. For a Republican candidate, that takes courage — and for a Democrat like me, it provides assurance that he will not be a rubber stamp for the most extreme elements of his party on this critical issue.

On the Gateway Tunnel, Hathaway made clear he opposes the Trump administration’s decision to freeze $15 billion in federally approved funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project — a decision that shut down construction, threatened 1,000 jobs, and jeopardized the daily commute of more than 200,000 passengers who depend on that rail crossing. This is the most critical infrastructure project in the region, and Hathaway’s willingness to stand against his own party’s president on this issue speaks volumes about his independence and his commitment to the people of NJ-11 over partisan loyalty.

Joe Hathaway is not a firebrand. He is not an ideologue. He is a Yale-educated public servant who grew up in Clifton, the son of an Army veteran and a preschool teacher. As mayor of Randolph, he delivered tangible results: resurfacing roads, restoring full police staffing, negotiating an affordable housing settlement that reduced the township’s state-mandated obligation by 92 percent while protecting schools and infrastructure. He brought commonsense governance to a community that needed it.

Hathaway is running on transportation infrastructure, support for small businesses, reducing regulatory burdens, and keeping jobs in New Jersey. These are the bread-and-butter issues that actually affect the daily lives of NJ-11 families — not abolishing ICE, not fantasies about free everything, and not the demonization of our democratic allies abroad.

Joe brings integrity and a moderate, independent voice to the table, and he’s focused on delivering real results for NJ-11 families — not dangerous rhetoric.

I know that some of my fellow Democrats will be uncomfortable with what I am saying. I understand. I am uncomfortable saying it. But there are moments in political life when party loyalty must yield to conscience. This is one of them.

The Democratic party I believe in does not accuse democratic allies of genocide while staying silent about terrorist atrocities. It does not embrace a socialist economic vision that would upend the livelihoods of the families it claims to represent. It does not nominate candidates so far outside the mainstream that even AIPAC’s critics acknowledge the outcome was a worst-case scenario.

I am not leaving the Democratic party. I am asking the Democratic party to remember what it stands for. And until it does, I will support the candidate who best represents the values I have held for seventy-five years.

Joe Hathaway has my endorsement. I urge my fellow NJ-11 residents — Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike — to join me on April 16.

Denny Klein of North Caldwell is the president and CEO of Rand, Feuer & Klein LLC, a four-generation independent insurance agency founded in Newark in 1922. This op-ed was developed in collaboration with AI writing tools, consistent with the author’s commitment to transparency in the use of emerging technology.

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