Corey Torpie
Progressive Democrat Jamaal Bowman is challenging longtime incumbent Congressman Eliot Engel in New York’s 16th District.
Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has represented the Bronx for a long time, serving for 31 years and counting as the representative from New York’s 16th District. It’s also been a long time since he’s been to the Bronx. The famously absentee congressman made headlines recently when it was revealed that he had gone the entirety of the coronavirus crisis holed up in his house in Maryland.
While representatives from neighboring districts, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, were going door-to-door, checking in on constituents in the hardest-hit pandemic location in the world, Engel was far from the action, having not left his D.C.-area home since late March. He refused to apologize for that decision even recently. That wasn’t an aberration: For years, Engel identified Maryland as his “primary residence” for tax purposes, until the state finally intervened to prevent him from doing so in 2013.
But if the threat of coronavirus wasn’t enough to get him to return to his district, the specter of a competitive primary challenge was. After days of protests and demonstrations by constituents in his plurality African American district over police brutality from the NYPD and the killing of George Floyd, Engel finally made an appearance Tuesday, ready to address the public at a news conference.
It didn’t go well. Engel pleaded with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. for a speaking slot, but when Diaz refused owing to time restrictions, a microphone caught Engel’s reply: “If I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care.” Just to make sure Diaz heard him, he said it a second time. To make matters worse, that now-infamous blunder, which exploded on social media, still didn’t qualify as him showing up in his district. The event was on the border of neighboring districts.
Why does the CBC often seem more interested in boosting white moderates than progressive black politicians?
Let’s take Engel at his word: It’s unlikely he would have shown up at that press conference were it not for his first real primary challenge since 2000, which got a little bit tougher Monday, when progressive challenger Andom Ghebreghiorgis bowed out of the race and endorsed fellow progressive Jamaal Bowman. A split of the progressive vote would’ve all but guaranteed Engel, a war hawk and major recipient of defense industry funding, safe passage back to his seat. Now, Bowman, a black educator running to Engel’s left, is in a strong position.
He would be in an even stronger position if not for the actions of the Congressional Black Caucus. Just a few days before the George Floyd protests broke out, the CBC endorsed Engel, who is white, over his black challenger Bowman. After Engel’s woeful indifference to the particular hardship endured by his black constituents during the coronavirus outbreak, and the exceptional economic challenges they currently endure in the aftermath, that decision was a head-scratcher, to put it mildly. Now, after a week of brutality from the NYPD, and the national outrage over police violence against the black community, the decision to oppose a progressive black candidate in a majority-minority district seems entirely indefensible. “Our membership knows that Eliot Engel will be there with his energy, his leadership and his vote, especially in these times of crisis,” said Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee Chair Congressman Gregory Meeks, in an altogether stunning statement.
There was renewed national attention paid to the CBC after Rep. James Clyburn endorsed Joe Biden ahead of the South Carolina primary, resuscitating his moribund presidential campaign. Understanding the motivations for that endorsement was the source of a wave of political commentary back in March, none of which arrived at a crucial consideration: Why does the CBC often seem more interested in boosting white moderates than progressive black politicians?
Indeed, it’s not the first time the CBC has used its political might to attempt to quash black primary challengers. In 2018, the CBC endorsed another white incumbent, Michael Capuano, in a primary race against Ayanna Pressley, who is black, in MA-07, a majority-minority district. Capuano, at least, was far more progressive than Engel. Pressley won handily, and is now seen as a rising star in the party, as well as a CBC member, adding to the caucus’s ranks and clout.
Earlier this year, the CBC threw its weight behind incumbent caucus member Joyce Beatty in Ohio’s Third District, against another black, female challenger, Morgan Harper. According to reporting in Politico in April, the CBC was seeking “to squash liberal insurgents.” That they did. Harper lost, and CBC member Hakeem Jeffries responded by tweeting, “Congrats @JoyceBeatty on a decisive 36 point victory in Ohio’s democratic congressional primary!” “They started this fight,” he continued, in reference to progressives. “We will finish it.”
One black politician besting another shouldn’t yield Michael Jordan–level trash-talking unless there are other factors at play. Indeed, the CBC has shown itself to be focused primarily on the all-important job of incumbent protection. They endorse incumbents of Nancy Pelosi’s choosing, and in turn, she endorses them. Their elevation of Engel was recompensed yesterday by the Speaker pledging to let the caucus handle the party’s response to the protests of the past two weeks: “We will be guided by the experiences & expertise of @RepKarenBass and @TheBlackCaucus as we seek to achieve progress & secure justice for Americans nationwide,” she tweeted.
The caucus’s endorsement of Engel may not be enough to save him. The sensation around his “If I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care” comment is generating newfound excitement in left-wing activist circles. Bowman raised $107,000 on Tuesday, more than twice what he had on any other day of the campaign, quickly closing what was once a wide gap: Engel had roughly $1 million in cash on hand at the end of March. Close watchers have said Engel is now in serious danger of losing his seat. The Working Families Party and Justice Democrats just announced over $500,000 in additional advertising spending on Bowman’s behalf. And Bowman got another boost late Wednesday with an endorsement from fellow New York progressive and Democratic superstar AOC.
I reached out to the Congressional Black Caucus, to ask if they stood by Engel’s comments, and if they would reconsider their endorsement in the wake of that statement and the George Floyd protests. My request for comment went unreturned.
New York votes on June 23, which means Bowman has less than three weeks to consolidate support on the left and make up the ground in a race that is only newly competitive. After a mixed election season in 2020, ousting Engel, a committee chair, in NY-16 would mark a major victory for progressive groups, including Justice Democrats and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, both of which have thrown their weight behind his candidacy. If he does win, he may be able to change the district, and the caucus, for the better.
