Sanders and Warren support Elliott Engel's rival, Jamal Bowman.
Like other veteran legislators, Rep. Eliot Engel has struggled to avoid the fate of No. 4 House Democrat Joe Crowley, who lost to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the 2018 primary.
The 31-year-old House member, who supported the Green New Deal and was one of the first senior Democrats to support President Donald Trump's impeachment, stepped down on foreign policy as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
That work may not be enough to shut down former middle school principal Jamal Bowman in support of the rape. The primary is a high-level opportunity to make a statement about the direction of the Democratic Party.
"If you're a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren supporter, a lot of your expectations are going into this race because you want progressives to win this year," said Waleed Shahid, director of communications for the Justice Democrats Group. Bowman hired and supported Ocasio-Cortez, he told ABC News.
Engel defended his credibility and voting record. In an interview with ABC News on Monday, he said he was disappointed with the progressives' efforts to unite the party in November and defeat President Trump.
"Before we ever hear about the Ocasio-Cortez, before we ever hear of anyone, I always vote regularly and keep doing it," he said.
Both the coronavirus crisis and the economic collapse of the epidemic have highlighted the need for new representation in Washington, "revealing the fragmented health care and education and economies we have."
He said George Floyd's assassination in national debate and police custody stemming from racial inequality resonated with voters in the majority-minority district.
Bowman told ABC News, “I experienced police vandalism and police harassment at the age of 11.
While he was working to shut down Bowman, Engel was assigned to Washington, DC. The suburbs are also facing setbacks for spending the first few months of their life in the home of the coronavirus outbreak, not in their toughest district.
At a press conference following protests against Floyd's death, he pressed Bronx Borough President Reuben Diaz Jr. for a speaking slot.
"If I don't have the primary, I don't care," he said.
"He doesn't live here. He's not there. He's not busy. We don't see him," Bowman said of Engel.
The 73-year-old said Engel was not paying attention to the needs of his district and justified his stay in the Washington area at the beginning of the epidemic.
"If you have a doctor in Washington, D.C., you need to separate and be with him. If I do, I don't understand that I'm doing anything harmful to my district. That's how I do it," he said. Follow the directions. I'll do it again. "
He said he worked for New York those weeks, and took credit for $ 5 billion in financing for New York hospitals under the Care Act.
"The seniority system works in Washington," he said at a recent preliminary debate. "I'll bring the bacon home."
In the final phase of the campaign, Engel received state and national speaker leaders from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Newton Gov. Andrew Democratic leaders and former Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton, the state and Democratic presidential candidate who did not support another candidate from this cycle.
Several prominent African American Democratic leaders, including House Democratic Whip James Klibb, D-South Carolina, House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters, D-California, and Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakim Geoffries, D-New York, also backed Engel's re-election.
"Maxine Waters, do you think she's a pushover?" He said \ he was. "They can easily get out of the race. ... They want people to know what I stand for and how they've worked with me."
Engel also targeted Bowman, saying that his opponent was "never a Democrat" and that his voting record shows he did not vote in 2012 and compared him to Sanders, who "decided he wanted to be a Democrat." He needs to be running for office “.
“I registered as an independent, and I have always voted for a Democrat,” Bowman told ABC News, despite voting for and filing for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. "These are desperate efforts to influence district constituencies."
He rejected Engel's support from prominent MPs.
"They've worked with him before, so they're supportive, makes sense," Bowman said. "But for us, it's all about people. When I say people, I mean people who work in front of poor, disgruntled, marginalized people."
Competitive races were played on the airwaves, and outsiders spent millions in the weeks leading up to Tuesday.
The pro-Israeli majority, the pro-Israeli group, has spent more than $ 1 million against Engel and Bowman. (Both are ided by foreign policy: Israel's staunch supporter, Engel, has voted against President Obama's Iran deal.)
Two years ago, the progressive group Justice Democrats, who helped run Bowman and assisted Ocasio-Cortez Stan Crowley, spent more than $ 900,000 for the race.
Engel is not the only representative of the New York delegation to face a challenging reunification campaign.
Rep. White Clark, who represents Brooklyn, faces a number of candidates on Tuesday, including Edmund Bankadeko, son of Ugandan war refugees and a Harvard Business School graduate who is campaigning on affordable housing.
"I don't think the Anti-Incumbent Fountain [New York's Ninth Congressional District] is as strong as the state and nationwide," he told Clark News in 2000, defeating Clark by just 2,000 votes. .
Chaim Deutsch, a Democratic socialist and military veteran serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and a member of the New York City Council, is also vying to defeat Clark, who has served since 2007.
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