- Rep. Carolyn Maloney is facing a primary challenge from Suraj Patel in New York's 12th congressional district, which includes parts of Manhattan and Queens.
- Maloney, who defeated Patel with 60% of the vote in 2018 primary elections, is facing a much closer race this time around.
- Because of the significant volume of absentee ballots left to be counted, the tight margin may shift and the race likely will not be called until next week.
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The stakes:
Long-time Rep. Carolyn Maloney faces a tight race for re-election against primary challenger Suraj Patel in New York's 12th congressional district.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the current vote count based on the in-person early vote shows Maloney leading Patel by under 650 votes with thousands of absentee ballots outstanding.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York allowed all voters to cast an absentee ballot if they desired. Voters' ballots will be accepted if they are postmarked by election day and arrive at election offices by June 30. Under current New York law, all in-person votes must be counted and crossed-checked against those who voted absentee before any absentee ballots can be processed, meaning that this race may not be called until next week.
Maloney, the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has represented New York City in Congress since 1993. The 12th district includes most of the East Side of Manhattan and some parts of Midtown, Roosevelt Island, and parts of Western Queens and Brooklyn, including the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City, and Greenpoint.
New York's 12th district is also one of the wealthiest in the nation with a median household income of over $110,000, according to the US Census Bureau and had relatively high levels of residents temporarily relocating away from the city due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a New York Times analysis of smartphone data.
Patel, an attorney and activist who worked for former President Barack Obama's campaign and administration and now teaches at New York University, also challenged Maloney in 2018, winning 40% of the vote to Maloney's 60%.
He's running a grassroots campaign on a platform of enacting progressive policy priorities and expanding economic mobility and the social safety net for New Yorkers and on a broader message of bringing new voices and a change to the status-quo to Congress.
With thousands of votes outstanding, both candidates are projecting optimism about their chances.
"Tonight, the voters of New York's 12th District clearly rejected the era of institutional racism, and the divisive politics of the past," Patel said in a Tuesday night statement. "New Yorkers are not done with hope and change. That is what tonight's results show. We are confident in our path to victory after a very strong performance on Election Day, which traditionally favors establishment voters."
Maloney seemingly declared victory herself in a Wednesday fundraising email, stating, "the results are clear: we have won this race and can expect to significantly expand our margins once every vote is counted — which could be as many as half of the total votes cast."
If Patel defeated Maloney, she would be the second New York House representative and the second committee chair to be unseated in a Democratic primary this election cycle.
In New York's 16th congressional district, which includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, former middle-school principal Jamaal Bowman defeated long-time Rep. Eliot Engel in a major upset, Decision Desk HQ projected on Wednesday.
Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations, is the fourth member of the House so far to be defeated and not re-nominated by his own party.
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