Jamaal Bowman, Progressive Insurgent, Defeats Eliot Engel in House Primary
Source: New York Times
Jamaal Bowman has scored a stunning victory over Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York in a Democratic primary, defeating the 16-term incumbent and overcoming the efforts of the Democratic establishment in a profound show of progressive political power.
Mr. Bowman, a middle school principal from Yonkers, was declared the winner on Friday, after a count of absentee ballots verified what seemed clear on Primary Night, when he emerged with a commanding lead over Mr. Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The victory came with the help of an array of stars from the Democratic Party’s left wing, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
As a first-time candidate with a fiery anti-establishment message, Mr. Bowman’s victory has echoes of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s own stunning win in 2018 over another entrenched incumbent in New York, Representative Joseph Crowley, then the No. 4 Democrat in the House.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/nyregion/jamaal-bowman-eliot-engel.html
ETA to add the (late) WaPo story after doing a breaking (and I sure as hell wasn't gonna link to The Hill) -
By John Wagner
July 17, 2020 at 11:23 a.m. EDT
Jamaal Bowman, a former middle school principal, has ousted longtime Rep. Eliot L. Engel in a closely watched Democratic congressional primary in New York that shaped up as a generational and ideological challenge. Bowman’s projected win came more than three weeks after Election Day following the tabulation of an unusually high number of absentee ballots.
It was a victory for the left-wing of the party over a powerful 16-term Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee and had the endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 presidential nominee, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D). Bowman seized on the momentum of the movement for racial justice after incidents of police brutality and picked up endorsements from several leading liberal luminaries on the national stage, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Bowman issued a statement the morning after the primary declaring victory in the 16th congressional district, as same-day voting showed him with a sizable lead. “Many doubted that we could overcome the power and money of a 31-year incumbent,”he said. “But the results show that the people of NY-16 aren’t just ready for change — they’re demanding it. … I’m a Black man who was raised by a single mother in a housing project. That story doesn’t usually end in Congress. But today, that 11-year old boy who was beaten by police is about to be your next Representative. I cannot wait to get to Washington and cause problems for the people maintaining the status quo.”
During the race, Engel faced criticism that he had not spent enough time in the district, which includes the northern Bronx and the southern half of Westchester County.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/jamaal-bowman-ousts-longtime-rep-eliot-engel-in-new-york-democratic-primary/2020/07/17/c7e9a346-b603-11ea-a510-55bf26485c93_story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
We should all thank Rep. Engel for his years of service and be excited that the torch has been passed to a very capable successor in soon-to-be Rep. Bowman.
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
March 18, 2020
WASHINGTON — Representative Dan Lipinski, a conservative Democrat from Illinois whose opposition to abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act made him a pariah in his party, lost a hard-fought primary race on Tuesday night to his progressive challenger, Marie Newman.
Ms. Newman, a business consultant and founder of an anti-bullying program, edged out Mr. Lipinski by two percentage points, with 494 of 500 precincts reporting early Wednesday. She had the backing of the progressive group Justice Democrats and its standard-bearer, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, as well as EMILY’s List, the powerful group that backs Democrats who support abortion rights.
Mr. Lipinski narrowly beat Ms. Newman in 2018. Tuesday’s results were a major upset for the congressman, whose family has represented Illinois’ third district, in the Chicago suburbs, for nearly four decades. Mr. Lipinski’s father, Bill Lipinski, first won the seat in 1982 and held it until 2005, when Mr. Lipinski succeeded him.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/politics/marie-newman-dan-lipinski-illinois.html
The group's record is spotty but a few have gotten in. However what generally happens is like everyone else in elective office for a long time, they become "politicians". And unless they agree to a pledge of self-term limits (and actually go through with that), then they will become an "entrenched incumbent" that someone else will seek to unseat one day.
