NY-16: Group that backed AOC targeting longtime New York Rep. Eliot Engel

[RandySF]

Longtime New York Rep. Eliot L. Engel is getting a primary challenger who has support from the progressive group that backed New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her bid for office.

Jamaal Bowman, 43, a public school principal from the Bronx, announced Tuesday he is challenging Engel in the Democratic primary for New York’s 16th District, a longtime bastion for the party.

He was quickly endorsed by Justice Democrats, a group targeting incumbent Democrats it feels do not represent their districts’ liberal tendencies.

In a press release Tuesday, Bowman hammered Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for initially supporting the Iraq War, voting in favor of the 1994 crime bill and voting to deregulate investment and commercial banking in 1999.

“My opponent has been in office for over 30 years,” Bowman said in a statement. “Over those 30 years, my opponent voted for an unjust war in Iraq, deregulating Wall Street, school privatization, and building more prisons. While the very few at the top continue to build their wealth and power, the majority of us continue to struggle.”


https://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/group-backed-aoc-targeting-longtime-new-york-rep-eliot-engel

[democratisphere]

1. Last thing we need is the primarying of long standing Democrats.

[Cha]

2. Recent unrelated tweets from Eliot Engel..

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[mcar]

6. He sounds horrible, Cha

[Cha]

7. I was thinking the same, mcar..

[customerserviceguy]

3. He used to be my rep

before some redistricting several years ago. He is Jewish, and gets strong support from Jewish voters in his district, however it is bounded.

Setting up a fight between the pro-Palestinian folks and the Jewish people in NY is not a recipe for success.

[empedocles]

5. We need a 'recipe for success', - not targeting Dems stuff

[AlexSFCA]

4. looks like it's a reliably blue district

so any dem will win. In this case I support the challenge. E.g., AOC is way better than her predecessor who became a lobbyist the moment he left congress.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. Primaries are an important element of a functioning democracy

In a lop sided district incumbency can easily become an entrenched hold on power without them. A good incumbent should be able to retain their seat. Incumbents start out with the deck stacked in their favor to begin with. I have no position on this race since I'm not well enough informed on the candidates to have one. May the best Representative win.

Very few things in life are all upside with no downside. That includes primaries against incumbents. To reflexively oppose them on principle alone does more harm to democracy than the primaries themselves will ever do. Especially in essentially one party districts.