- Rep. Eliot Engel of New York's 16th Congressional District is facing the toughest re-election fight of his life in a primary challenge from first-time candidate Jamaal Bowman.
- Bowman gained momentum after Engel committed a series of high-profile gaffes and was largely absent from the district during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Because of the major increase in New Yorkers casting ballots by mail and election officials not being allowed to count absentee ballots until days after the election, the race won't be called until after June 30.
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Because of the substantial increase in New Yorkers voting absentee due to the COVID-19 pandemic and prevailing New York law prohibiting election officials from processing absentee ballots until eight days after election day, the race won't be called until after June 30.
The stakes:
Rep. Eliot Engel, who has served in Congress since 1989 and chairs the powerful House Foreign Relations Committee, is fighting for his political life.
The current 16th District that Engel represents includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, including the suburbs of Yonkers, Scarsdale, and New Rochelle.
He's now facing a serious challenge from Jamaal Bowman, a former middle school principal in the Bronx and first-time political candidate running as a progressive reformer on a platform of increasing investment in education, healthcare, and green energy.
Growing up my mother told me, life wouldn’t be easy for people like us.
— Jamaal Bowman (@JamaalBowmanNY) May 26, 2020
We're doing everything we can to protect our communities in this crisis.
We deserve a representative who will do the same.
Join our campaign for change in #NY16: https://t.co/ZPBT4mR3rfpic.twitter.com/ACPFCkL6q5
Engel's troubles started mounting this spring after The Atlantic caught him and his aides contradicting each other about where Engel had been during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Engel told the outlet he had quarantined "in both places," his spokeswoman told The Atlantic that he had entirely ridden out the pandemic at his residence in Maryland and hadn't set foot in his district — which was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic — at all.
Then, at a news conference dedicated to racism and police brutality in the Bronx, Engel pleaded with Bronx borough president Ruben Díaz Jr. to speak when he hadn't previously been scheduled to do so, and loudly proclaimed into the microphone twice in a row that he wouldn't care about being there at all if he didn't have a primary challenger.
After Engel's gaffe, Bowman saw his campaign surge and his fortunes rise. He began raking in campaign donations and earned the endorsements of The New York Times editorial board and several high-profile progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and a number of state legislators.
With his reelection in jeopardy, Engel has secured last-minute messages of support and endorsements from powerful New York politicians like Hillary Clinton, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo as his campaign claims their internal polling shows the congressman up by 8 points.
A poll of the race conducted by Data for Progress conducted June 11-15, however, showed Engel in a precarious position behind by 10 percentage points, with 41% of registered voters indicating they would vote for Bowman, 31% saying they will vote for Engel, and 27% undecided.
"This result proves what we've known all along — this district is ready for fundamental change and new leadership," Bowman's campaign manager Luke Hayes said about the poll in a statement.
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