Eliot Lance Engel, 73, who served in Congress since 1988 and is considered one of Israel’s greatest friends in the Democratic party, is the likely loser in Tuesday’s primary elections in the 16th Congressional District, finishing with roughly 36% of the votes, compared with his opponent, Jamaal Bowman, who received 61%, with 92% of the precincts reporting.
However, according to the Associated Press, the final vote tallies in many districts will not be known for some time, due to the large number of absentee ballots, which will be tabulated by June 30. The figures reported by the precincts do not include mailed-in ballots. Which could mean that the gap between Bowman and Engel could be significantly smaller, or even reversed.
City&State New York reported confusion at some poll sites, where poll workers handed voters incomplete or incorrect ballots to fill out. Also, many voters who requested absentee ballots never received them – more than 1.6 million mail-in ballots were requested statewide.
Rep. Engel received the endorsement of the Democratic party’s establishment: Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. Bowman was championed by the progressives in the party: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
AOC won the 14th district hands down, with 100% of the precincts reporting, and it’s unlikely that the absentee votes could change it: the firebrand, anti-Israel Congresswoman took 72.6% of the votes.
One pro-Israel Congressman, Jerry Nadler, appears to have escaped harm in the 10th District in Manhattan: he took 61.8% of the votes, with 100% of the precincts reporting. His opponents, Lindsey Boylan and Jonathan Herzog, received 25.5% and 12.7% respectively.
Joe Biden, already the presumptive Democratic candidate, took 67.4% of the votes, with Bernie Sanders, who has dropped from the race, trailing him with 19.1%.
In the 9th District, incumbent Yvette Clarke, whose Brooklyn district includes Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens, defeated her opponents resoundly with 62.3% of the votes. City Council Member Chaim Deutsch came in third, with only 9.4%.
In the 12th District, which includes the west side of Queens, including Astoria, and the posh east side of Manhattan, long-time incumbent Carolyn Maloney, is in a neck-and-neck tie with her opponent Suraj Patel, with 41.5% and 40% respectively.
Over on Long Island, in the 1st Congressional district, incumbent Lee Zeldin, a Republican and the proud son of son of Merrill Schwartz and David Zeldin, ran unopposed. He will likely be facing Democrat Perry Gershon (35.5% of the votes), Nancy Goroff (34.4%), or Bridget Fleming (27.9%).