NJ-12: Working Families Party endorses Altman (D), its former state director

Could there be two different ex-leaders of the New Jersey Working Families Party serving in Congress by this time next year? The organization, a stalwart of New Jersey progressive politics, sure hopes so.

Earlier this cycle, the WFP supported now-Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-Glen Ridge), who was its New Jersey state director from 2014 through 2019, in her successful special election campaign for the 11th congressional district. Mejia’s successor at the New Jersey WFP was Sue Altman, who is running to be the Democratic nominee in the 12th district – and who now also has the party’s endorsement.

“We need to send a fighter to D.C., and in her years managing the New Jersey Working Families Party, Sue proved herself as that person,” WFP national director Maurice Mitchell said in a statement. “She stood up to the Jersey machine’s corruption more than anyone else and helped deliver fair primary elections for people across the state. In Washington, Sue will support progressive priorities like Medicare-for-All and abolishing ICE.”

Altman was the New Jersey WFP’s executive director from 2019 until 2023, a tenure during which she helped kick off the ultimately victorious fight to end the county line ballot design system and found herself getting forcibly ejected from a State Senate committee hearing after protesting a tax incentive bill. She left the post to run for Congress in the 7th congressional district, a race she lost to Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), and later became Senator Andy Kim’s state director.



https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/working-families-party-endorses-altman-its-former-state-director/