The fatal shooting of two protesters during President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis has roiled a special congressional election in New Jersey, thrusting immigration into the campaign as a top issue in one of the first major races of the midterm election year.
While Democrats will almost certainly retain the seat, Thursday's primary election is more a barometer of which messages and priorities best resonate with voters ahead of the November elections, when control of the Republican-led House of Representatives and Senate will be up for grabs.
A handful of prominent Democrats lead the crowded field of 11 candidates for the chance to replace moderate Mikie Sherrill, who became governor.
Establishment figures include Tahesha Way, the state's former lieutenant governor and secretary of state; Brendan Gill, an Essex County Commissioner with the backing of the party machine; and Tom Malinowski, a human rights-focused former U.S. representative.
They are squaring off against Analilia Mejia, an organizer and former national political director for Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign, who is running as a progressive outsider.
Immigration policy proposals in the race range from mainstream calls for prohibiting federal immigration agents from wearing masks and requiring them to show identification to impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and abolishing ICE.
"ICE is dominating the conversation," said Gill, whose campaign is backed by former Governor Phil Murphy. "I'm hearing a lot about that issue every single day."
Mejia, who has been endorsed by Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has called for the outright abolition of ICE, which she described as "an unchecked police force that is sadly too corrupted to remain."
Way is also advocating for abolishing ICE.
"I don't believe another dollar should be appropriated for this militia-style operation," Way said. "We must defund and dismantle the tactics that have led to death and chaos in the streets. We need to eliminate it and build a system of immigration enforcement that protects and does not harm our communities."
The high stakes are reflected in fundraising and outside spending. While most leading candidates have raised over $400,000, Malinowski tops the field with nearly $1.2 million.
But he is also the target of a pro-Israel super PAC that has spent $2.3 million to sink his candidacy, including by pumping money into an ad accusing him of voting "with Trump to increase funding" for ICE.
"I'm talking to a lot of voters who are pissed off by just the intensity, volume and outrageousness of these attack ads, and they're angry at the people who are doing it," Malinowski said. "If what they're doing works here, they're going to run the same play in multiple Democratic primaries across the country, so we've got to stop it here."
Other candidates include former Obama administration White House aide Cammie Croft, Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, Morris Township Deputy Mayor Jeff Grayzel and Army veteran Zach Beecher.
While affordability messaging carried Democrats to big wins in last year's elections, immigration has quickly emerged as a key issue in political campaigns and on Capitol Hill, where Democratic lawmakers briefly shut down the government to negotiate ICE reforms with Republicans.
In the vacant New Jersey district, a 17-year-old high school student was detained by ICE last month while doing laundry. He was released days later.
"That's just an example of the type of fear that we are living under right now," Gill said.
In Illinois, Representative Robin Kelly filed a resolution last month to impeach Noem. Kelly is in a three-way Senate primary. In Michigan, former public health official Abdul El-Sayed has called out his two Democratic opponents for not backing his push to abolish ICE. And in Maine, Governor Janet Mills and oysterman Graham Platner have sparred over ICE's in-state presence.
Mejia said this moment calls for a different kind of leadership than the status quo.
"I think my opponents are all incredibly talented politicians, but I think about how John Lewis or Barack Obama as organizers came in with a different skill set and were able to engage people in a more substantive and impactful way," she said. "And I think that's what we need. I think that's what this moment calls for."
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