SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
New York Democratic House candidate Jamaal Bowman greets supporters on June 23, 2020 in Yonkers, New York. (Photo: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Vowing to Take on Corrupt System 'That's Literally Killing Us,' Jamaal Bowman Jumps Out to 25-Point Lead Over Rep. Eliot Engel
"Everything that keeps the majority of us oppressed is what we designed this campaign to fight against."
Jun 24, 2020
Facing down millions of dollars in corporate dark money and an opponent backed by some of the biggest names in the Democratic establishment, progressive educator and former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman jumped out to a formidable lead Tuesday over hawkish 16-term incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel in the closely watched Democratic primary race in New York's 16th Congressional District.
With 92% of precincts reporting as of early Wednesday morning, Bowman leads Engel--chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee--60.9% to 35.6%. It is unclear when the final results will be reported, particularly given the massive influx of absentee ballots as a record number of New Yorkers voted by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic. Absentee ballots aren't fully counted in New York until a week after the election.
"Tonight as we celebrate, we don't just celebrate me as an individual; we celebrate this movement. A movement designed to push back against a system that's literally killing us."
-- Jamaal Bowman
But Bowman, running on a platform of Medicare for All and a Green New Deal with the backing of grassroots progressives, appeared well-positioned to unseat Engel in the entrenched Democratic congressman's first competitive primary in two decades.
In a speech to supporters Tuesday, Bowman condemned a "fractured, and corrupt, and rotten" political and economic system that has left millions behind while creating enormous wealth for a very few.
" Poverty, and the impact of poverty on our children, and dealing with issues of institutional racism, and sexism, and classism, and xenophobia, and everything that keeps the majority of us oppressed is what we designed this campaign to fight against," said Bowman.
"So tonight as we celebrate, we don't just celebrate me as an individual. We celebrate this movement," Bowman continued. "A movement designed to push back against a system that's literally killing us. It's killing black and brown bodies disproportionately, but it's killing all of us."
Bowman's 25-point lead over Engel, as The Intercept's Aida Chavez reported, comes "despite a last-ditch effort to save the hawkish Democrat, including an endorsement by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."
"Pro-Israel groups also scrambled to save the 16-term incumbent," Chavez noted, "spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on his re-election."
As the results of the race trickled in late Tuesday, progressives said a Bowman victory would strike a major blow to the Democratic establishment and demonstrate once again that it is possible for candidates running unabashedly left-wing campaigns to oust seemingly untouchable incumbents.
"If Jamaal Bowman defeats Eliot Engel, it will be a shattering loss for the Democratic Party establishment," tweeted progressive organizer Max Berger. "They threw everything at him: $5 million in dark money smear ads, endorsements from Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, and Chuck Schumer. And he still won."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Facing down millions of dollars in corporate dark money and an opponent backed by some of the biggest names in the Democratic establishment, progressive educator and former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman jumped out to a formidable lead Tuesday over hawkish 16-term incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel in the closely watched Democratic primary race in New York's 16th Congressional District.
With 92% of precincts reporting as of early Wednesday morning, Bowman leads Engel--chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee--60.9% to 35.6%. It is unclear when the final results will be reported, particularly given the massive influx of absentee ballots as a record number of New Yorkers voted by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic. Absentee ballots aren't fully counted in New York until a week after the election.
"Tonight as we celebrate, we don't just celebrate me as an individual; we celebrate this movement. A movement designed to push back against a system that's literally killing us."
-- Jamaal Bowman
But Bowman, running on a platform of Medicare for All and a Green New Deal with the backing of grassroots progressives, appeared well-positioned to unseat Engel in the entrenched Democratic congressman's first competitive primary in two decades.
In a speech to supporters Tuesday, Bowman condemned a "fractured, and corrupt, and rotten" political and economic system that has left millions behind while creating enormous wealth for a very few.
" Poverty, and the impact of poverty on our children, and dealing with issues of institutional racism, and sexism, and classism, and xenophobia, and everything that keeps the majority of us oppressed is what we designed this campaign to fight against," said Bowman.
"So tonight as we celebrate, we don't just celebrate me as an individual. We celebrate this movement," Bowman continued. "A movement designed to push back against a system that's literally killing us. It's killing black and brown bodies disproportionately, but it's killing all of us."
Bowman's 25-point lead over Engel, as The Intercept's Aida Chavez reported, comes "despite a last-ditch effort to save the hawkish Democrat, including an endorsement by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."
"Pro-Israel groups also scrambled to save the 16-term incumbent," Chavez noted, "spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on his re-election."
As the results of the race trickled in late Tuesday, progressives said a Bowman victory would strike a major blow to the Democratic establishment and demonstrate once again that it is possible for candidates running unabashedly left-wing campaigns to oust seemingly untouchable incumbents.
"If Jamaal Bowman defeats Eliot Engel, it will be a shattering loss for the Democratic Party establishment," tweeted progressive organizer Max Berger. "They threw everything at him: $5 million in dark money smear ads, endorsements from Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, and Chuck Schumer. And he still won."
Facing down millions of dollars in corporate dark money and an opponent backed by some of the biggest names in the Democratic establishment, progressive educator and former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman jumped out to a formidable lead Tuesday over hawkish 16-term incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel in the closely watched Democratic primary race in New York's 16th Congressional District.
With 92% of precincts reporting as of early Wednesday morning, Bowman leads Engel--chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee--60.9% to 35.6%. It is unclear when the final results will be reported, particularly given the massive influx of absentee ballots as a record number of New Yorkers voted by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic. Absentee ballots aren't fully counted in New York until a week after the election.
"Tonight as we celebrate, we don't just celebrate me as an individual; we celebrate this movement. A movement designed to push back against a system that's literally killing us."
-- Jamaal Bowman
But Bowman, running on a platform of Medicare for All and a Green New Deal with the backing of grassroots progressives, appeared well-positioned to unseat Engel in the entrenched Democratic congressman's first competitive primary in two decades.
In a speech to supporters Tuesday, Bowman condemned a "fractured, and corrupt, and rotten" political and economic system that has left millions behind while creating enormous wealth for a very few.
" Poverty, and the impact of poverty on our children, and dealing with issues of institutional racism, and sexism, and classism, and xenophobia, and everything that keeps the majority of us oppressed is what we designed this campaign to fight against," said Bowman.
"So tonight as we celebrate, we don't just celebrate me as an individual. We celebrate this movement," Bowman continued. "A movement designed to push back against a system that's literally killing us. It's killing black and brown bodies disproportionately, but it's killing all of us."
Bowman's 25-point lead over Engel, as The Intercept's Aida Chavez reported, comes "despite a last-ditch effort to save the hawkish Democrat, including an endorsement by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."
"Pro-Israel groups also scrambled to save the 16-term incumbent," Chavez noted, "spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on his re-election."
As the results of the race trickled in late Tuesday, progressives said a Bowman victory would strike a major blow to the Democratic establishment and demonstrate once again that it is possible for candidates running unabashedly left-wing campaigns to oust seemingly untouchable incumbents.
"If Jamaal Bowman defeats Eliot Engel, it will be a shattering loss for the Democratic Party establishment," tweeted progressive organizer Max Berger. "They threw everything at him: $5 million in dark money smear ads, endorsements from Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, and Chuck Schumer. And he still won."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.