Yonkers Dems Endorse Engel for Re-Election
By Dan Murphy
Congressman Eliot Engel, facing the first real opposition to his re-election in decades, received the endorsement from the Yonkers Democratic Committee at its executive committee meeting last month. Because of the new dates for the political calendar in New York State, with primaries now being held in June instead of September, look for all local political committees to make their 2020 endorsements soon.
Yonkers Democratic Chairman Tom Meier informed democratic candidates Engel, State Senators Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Shelley Mayer, District Attorney Anthony Scarpino, Assemblymen Nader Sayegh and Gary Pretlow, and City Court Judge Tom Daly that they had all received the party’s endorsement.
“It is my pleasure to inform you that the Yonkers Democratic Executive Committee voted to endorse you each as incumbent public servants and loyal party members,” said Meier. “Please feel free to use this endorsement in any literature of social media. We thank you on behalf of the constituents you represent… We look forward to carrying your petitions and working to ensure you each continue to serve the resident of Yonkers. Congratulation and good luck.”
Two years ago, Engel was challenged by three other democrats, and easily defeated them with 74 percent of the vote. This year may be more challenging.
Yonkers resident Jamaal Bowman, a Bronx middle school teacher, has already received some attention from national press thanks to his backing from the Justice Democrats, a progressive political action committee aligned with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Bowman has been endorsed by actress-Gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, and Zephyr Teachout, who ran for Governor and Congress, respectively. Both have been the faces and candidates of New York’s progressive and indivisible wing of the party.
“Remember what AOC has done,” Teachout said in her endorsement of Bowman. “Remember what these incredible new congresswomen and men have done, and then look right here because I can’t wait till two years from now when we are transforming federal education policy.”
“We need a transformative leader who can engage and inspire truly transformative democracy,” said Bowman. “Eliot Engel is not and has never been that leader… While he continues to be funded by real estate corporate PACs, we have a housing crisis right here in the district. While we work and learn from college students male, female and nonbinary, he tells our young female scholars to smile more when he is asked a question he is not comfortable with.”
Bowman had raised about $190,000 as of Sept. 30. Like Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman is making the case that the district needs a younger, more progressive candidate of color.
Andom Ghebreghiorgis, a special education teacher, is also planning to run to Engel’s left, criticizing the incumbent for taking money from corporate PACs. Bowman and Ghebreghiorgis have both stated that they will not be taking any money from corporate PACs and that their campaigns will rely on small donations.
The two challengers have both come out against Engel’s foreign policy record, which includes voting for the Iraq War. The third Democratic primary opponent to Engel is Sammy Ravelo, a Gulf War veteran and retired NYPD lieutenant.
