SOUTH ORANGE - Tom Malinowski did not speak to his supporters Thursday night.

A few miles away in Montclair, Analilia Mejia spoke to the crowd at Porta Restaurant and posed for pictures with everyone and everybody.

You want to guess which candidate appears to have the upper hand in a race that was too close to call early Friday morning?

When everyone went home shortly after midnight, Mejia was leading by almost 500 votes in the special, CD-11 Democratic primary. No one else was close.

This was quite remarkable by any measure.

Malinowski was the favorite and that's precisely how the night started. The former congressman from nearby CD-7 grabbed an early lead and various media outlets projected him the winner. The national Democratic Committee even sent out a congratulatory note.

But as his supporters drank and ate at the Suite Spot, Malinowski remained with his close aides in a back room. Surely, they saw what was happening.

Slowly, Mejia was narrowing the lead. She led in Essex County and expanded the lead to almost 2,000. Brendan Gill, an Essex County Commissioner, finished third in the county.

Mejia just barely lost Passaic to Tahesha Way, a county resident (Wayne), and in what now seems key - Mejia lost Morris County, but by fewer than 2,000 votes. Malinowski represented part of the county during his four years in Congress and he was endorsed by the Morris Democratic Committee

As this was going on, supporters of "Tom" were nervously staring at their phones and asking each other, "what do you hear?"

At around the 10 p.m. hour, Mejia vaulted into the lead.

It was at around 10:40 when a Malinowski campaign aide emerged to address the crowd. The official message was simple:

The election won't be over tonight. Time to go home.

There will be mail-in ballots to count. But no, Tom will not be talking.

It is never a good sign when the candidate does not speak to his supporters on election night. Everyone got the unofficial message:

This ain't good.

Travel can be quick at night - even in Jersey - and it did not take all that long to drive north to Montclair.

The music at Porta was blaring, some were dancing and Mejia was doing what winning candidates do - receiving hugs all around.

Stopping briefly, she said that voters are "hungry for unbossed government." This was the theme of her campaign.

"I think that our ground game had an impact," she said. "We talked to as many voters as we could."

More than that, Mejia established herself as the candidate of the party's left wing, and beyond that, someone not aligned with the traditional party bosses.

Most of the party's hierarchy was with Gill. Even Andy Kim, who led the fight that toppled the county line, was with Malinowski.

To understand Mejia's success - assuming she does win - just look across the Hudson and see how Zohran Mamdani has attracted Democratic voters who want something different.

It was about two weeks ago when more than a thousand people lined up in the cold to hear Bernie Sanders speak at William Paterson University in Wayne.

On that raw Monday night, Sanders endorsed Mejia for Congress, which seemed like a mere footnote.

Maybe not.