DENVILLE, N.J.

(AP) — Democrat Analilia Mejía won a New Jersey special election for the U.S.

House on Thursday, defeating Republican Joe Hathaway on a message of standing up to President Donald Trump and defending progressive policies.

Mejía, 48, a former head of the Working Families Alliance who had support from Vermont U.S.

Bernie Sanders, will fill the seat previously held by Democratic Gov.

Mikie Sherrill and serve until January.

Her victory is a win for progressives and means Democrats hold on to the 11th District seat in the House, where Republicans hold a thin majority.

It also adds to a string of victories for Democrats heading into this year’s midterm elections.

The Associated Press called the race for Mejía minutes after the polls closed.

Mejía later spoke in Montclair to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters who called out in unison with her that she was an “unbought, unbossed, sassy new member of Congress.” Republicans criticized her throughout the campaign as too far to the left.

She pushed back against those arguments, calling for better health care and education and attacking billionaires for having a “stranglehold” on the economy.

“It is not radical to say that a worker who toils every day cannot make ends meet, that they deserve justice, that they deserve higher wages,” Mejía said Thursday night.

“That is not radical, that is good conscience.

That is a good economy.” Her speech echoed Sanders, who congratulated her in a social media post and said she would be a “great progressive addition” to Congress.

Mejía emerged from a crowded primary in February and cast the race as a test of Trump’s leadership.

She criticized his pardons of people convicted of Jan.

6-related crimes and faulted him for freezing funds authorized by Congress.

She campaigned on populist economic policies and pushing to abolish U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

She has criticized the Israeli government and said she stands with Palestinian communities in their “pursuit of peace and dignity.” Hathaway, 38, tried to use Mejía’s progressive credentials to his advantage, as national Republicans cast her as a socialist.

After her victory he congratulated Mejía....