In 2018. it seemed a minor miracle occurred as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sole a seat in Congress out from under one of the most powerful Democrats in the House leadership. Working in Maryland on behalf of a bunch of progressive candidates who also won their nomination races that same night (including Ben Jealous, 3 very progressive County Executives, and a list of state legislators to be), I was a little jealous that AOC stole the limelight from what we’d done in Maryland.
It turned out AOC’s win wasn’t just a fluke based on a low-interest primary, though. A few months later, an exciting set of progressives defeated members of the IDC, Democrats who sold out their voters to caucus with Republicans in the Senate. Progressives favored candidates also won some Assembly seats. Now, New York progressives are running credible challenges to a number of incumbent members of Congress, and also running strong in two races for open seats. Remember these names in particular: Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman.
Things are looking promising for two very progressive African-American candidates, running in large part on the same agenda which Bernie Sanders also featured in his 2020 campaign. It should be no surprise that Bernie has endorsed both Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones this past week (Elizabeth Warren got there first, at least with Mondaire Jones, endorsing him months ago).
Daily Kos elections staffer David Nir wrote a story here about these two candidates just a couple of days ago, where he undersold them as “better Democrats.” To be sure, they are the almost mythical better Democrats this site has sought for almost 2 decades, but they can be truly transformational, because of their identity, their age, and their policy focus. More than anything they seem almost heaven sent for this moment in our history.
Most of the leading progressive policy advocacy and electorally-focused organizations have gotten behind both of these young challengers offering a huge breath of fresh air in trying to replace two of the longest-serving members of Congress. None of that is terribly surprising. What is surprising is that today, they were both endorsed by The New York Times.
Normally, we’d expect the NY Times to back more Establishment-identified and less stridently leftist candidates. The more Wall St., the better for the Times...usually. Radical change, it seems is in the air, finally.
So let me offer a little background about the two incumbents in NY-16 and NY -17, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey. In 1988, I wasn’t long out of college. I got involved in a Congressional campaign, mostly because one of the candidate’s sons was my neighbor in college for a year, and she was running in my home district, in New York’s Westchester County. I became Nita Lowey’s travel aide’ spending 14-16 hours a day with the candidate. To be honest, I didn’t have a huge level of confidence that she would win the primary, but I was hopeful that the time was ripe for Democrats to take back a seat which a fairly dim Reagan Republican had held down through 2 elections, beginning with Reagan’s landslide in ‘84.
Well, Nita won the primary, and then after a tough Election Night (she was losing by several hundred votes) and a long recount, Nita was declared the winner in the middle of December. I have always been very proud of my role in helping turn out a GOP incumbent in a year when Bush 41 won decisively. Rep. Lowey has served almost 32 years and rose to the House leadership in recent years, chairing one of the most consequential committees. Had Hillary Clinton not decided to run for Senate as the Clintons were preparing to leave the White House, Nita Lowey would’ve been the Senator from New York, and Kirsten Gillibrand would still be in the House.
On the same night Nita Lowey was elected, Eliot Engel won a race in the neighboring district, in southern end of Westchester County, but mostly in the Bronx. Engel was challenging an incumbent Democrat, but one who was undeniably corrupt and facing federal corruption charges. For all that, Engel’s victory was a bit of a surprise. He’s never been a charismatic candidate or a distinguished politician, but he somehow just keeps winning elections, and he has served as long as Rep. Lowey. Perhaps, it seems Engel lacked the wisdom Rep. Lowey showed in going out on top.
In the current campaign, Engel has made one misstep after another, and openly admits he’d rather be in his million dollar home in suburban, Potomac, MD than having to campaign in New York. Though there’s no public polling on the race, the consensus opinion is that even Engel knows he’s in deep trouble against the younger, dynamic high school principal Jamaal Bowman, who has a powerful agenda to raise struggling urban schools.
Just to the north, Mondaire Jones is up against a strong cadre of candidates, including a lead fundraiser for NARAL, a former Obama Undersecretary of State, two popular state legislators, and a federal prosecutor who is self-funding and filling the airwaves thanks to his billionaire father’s fortune. The only public poll has a very closely bunched race, but the leader is state Sen. David Carlucci, who happens to be one of only two IDC members to survive the 2018 progressive wave. That poll, though, was before Mondaire had even begun to air any of his own ads. He’s had to to do some penny-pitching, because he’s the one campaign getting by without any corporate PAC money, or a billionaire’s fortune.
For a campaign which had planned to rely on a bevy of volunteer door-to-door canvassers, the coronavirus outbreak has been a massive blow to the campaign’s plans. Mondaire has struggled to get the name recognition that the two legislators have, or the name recognition that the billionaire’s kid is buying.
I support both candidates, but I’m very partial to Mondaire Jones, both because he’s running in my old home district (where mom still lives) and because he’s really an extraordinarily gifted young man (Stanford and Harvard Law) with a limitless future, if he can get on the board with a primary win this month.
Some people have already voted in a race where the NYS Bd of Elections encouraged people to vote by mail, having mailed an absentee ballot application request to each registered Democrat (well, to each registered voter, but NY has closed primaries, and I’m just focusing on the Democrats here). However, many voters haven’t received their ballots yet, Also, many voters are sure to vote in person. For the first time New Yorkers can enjoy early voting in a statewide election. Early voting begins today, Saturday, June 13th, at 12 pm.
There are going to be a lot of voters who haven’t heard about the NY Times endorsements. In wealthy, well-educated suburban Westchester County, The NY Times’ endorsement carries a decent amount of weight. In close races, it could be decisive, but getting the word out about the endorsements will be a challenge. There won’t be anyone at the train stations handing out flyers touting the endorsements to commuters. There will be a lot less water cooler talk, too. And door-to-door canvassers won’t be dropping photocopies of the Times endorsement on the doorsteps of voters.
If you want to elect some of the transformational young, progressive African-American candidates we all claim to be waiting for, you should be going to the campaign websites — mondaireforcongress.com and bowmanforcongress.com — and sign up to do some phone-banking. Of course, donations are always welcome, but right now it’s all down to phone-banking. I’ll make a special pitch to assist Mondaire, because Jamaal has had groups like Sunrise, Brand New Congress and Justice Dems phonebanking for him). Mondaire’s had to rely on his own volunteer call team. He can really use the help to nose out his competitors.
Today. The primary ends June 23rd, but they’re starting to vote today.
The future begins today.