Hillary Clinton delivered her first Democratic major endorsement in a 2020 Home race on Monday, throwing her help behind Consultant Eliot L. Engel
Hillary Clinton delivered her first Democratic major endorsement in a 2020 Home race on Monday, throwing her help behind Consultant Eliot L. Engel of New York, who’s making an attempt to fend off a critical problem from his left after greater than three a long time in Congress.
“I’ve labored with Eliot Engel as first girl, as senator from New York, and as secretary of state,” Mrs. Clinton mentioned in a press release supplied to The New York Occasions. “Each step of the best way, his number-one precedence has all the time remained the identical: delivering for his constituents.”
The endorsement places Mrs. Clinton on the other aspect of a wave of progressives who’re backing Mr. Engel’s main challenger, Jamaal Bowman, a center college principal, together with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont; Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York; the Working Households Get together; Justice Democrats; and MoveOn, the progressive advocacy group.
Mr. Engel, who represents the 16th District within the Bronx and Westchester County and has served in Congress since 1989, confronted criticism this spring for his absence from New York through the coronavirus pandemic. When he returned for a information convention firstly of June, Mr. Engel might be heard on digital camera angling for an opportunity to talk.
“If I didn’t have a major, I wouldn’t care,” he mentioned twice.
The recording sparked a surge of help for Mr. Bowman, who introduced on Monday that his marketing campaign had raised $750,000 within the first 15 days of June — half the entire he had raised in your complete marketing campaign.
Dave Wasserman, who handicaps congressional races because the Home editor of the nonpartisan Prepare dinner Political Report, mentioned this month that Mr. Engel was “the subsequent Home incumbent in critical hazard of shedding a major.”
Just one Democratic incumbent has misplaced a major up to now in 2020: Consultant Dan Lipinski of Illinois, who opposed abortion rights and misplaced in a rematch to Marie Newman, whom he had narrowly defeated two years earlier.
Mr. Bowman’s probabilities in New York improved this month when certainly one of Mr. Engel’s different challengers, Andom Ghebreghiorgis, dropped out and endorsed Mr. Bowman.
Mrs. Clinton, who lives in a neighboring district, is the most recent in a string of multinational Democrats to announce their help in an effort to avoid wasting Mr. Engel, who’s the chairman of the highly effective Home Overseas Affairs Committee. Different latest endorsements included Speaker Nancy Pelosi; the Home majority whip, James E. Clyburn; the Home Democratic Caucus chairman, Hakeem Jeffries; and Consultant Adam B. Schiff, a favourite foil of President Trump’s because the chairman of the Home Intelligence Committee.
However none are as huge a reputation as Mrs. Clinton, who selected to provide Mr. Engel her first endorsement of any Democratic incumbent dealing with a major in 2020 (she had backed one different Home candidate, Christy Smith, in a California particular election).
In her assertion, Mrs. Clinton hailed Mr. Engel’s file, together with his work on the Violence In opposition to Ladies Act, the Kids’s Well being Insurance coverage Program, and bringing federal assist to New York after the Sept. 11 assaults.
“As chairman of the Overseas Affairs Committee, he has helped maintain this administration accountable, together with by uncovering the unlawful firing of the Inspector Normal; safe our elections in opposition to international interference; and shield devoted Overseas Service officers from political retribution,” Mrs. Clinton mentioned. “He’s deeply dedicated to working with our allies to take care of American management on the worldwide stage.”
Exterior tremendous PACs have entered the race, as nicely.
The Working Households Get together and Justice Democrats have introduced plans for a $500,000-plus effort to oust Mr. Engel and are on the air with an advert that includes Mr. Engel’s “I wouldn’t care” comment.
On the opposite aspect, a bunch known as the Democratic Majority for Israel has reported greater than $600,000 in spending for Mr. Engel.