The other main primaries are in New York, where the insurgent liberals are challenging almost all the Democratic members of the delegation in and around New York City, two years after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory against a member of the Acting Congress. No incumbent is more in danger on Tuesday than 16-term representative Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who faces educator Jamaal Bowman.
Engel is far from the only Democratic member facing a tough main challenge: Representatives Tom Suozzi, Gregory Meeks, Yvette Clarke, Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney also face opponents within the party on Tuesday.
The polls close in New York at 9 pm EST. But with at least half the votes expected to be cast by mail, some closed elections are likely to remain unresolved by the end of Tuesday night. Election officials cannot tabulate absentee ballots until one week after Tuesday’s primaries.
In Kentucky, where no final results are expected until next week, McGrath remains the favorite, but Booker has shot up since the end of May in the fast-tightening contest. Booker has built a broad coalition of support: He is backed by about two dozen colleagues in the state legislature, plus several other prominent Kentucky Democrats.
Several progressive organizations made late endorsements after it began to rise in the race, helping to boost its fundraising on the stretch. McGrath has little support among the state establishment, but she has the backing of the national party and many senators who see her as the best fit to challenge McConnell in the fall.
McGrath, who demonstrated her fundraising prowess during the loss of her 2018 House of Representatives nomination, has been one of the party’s top fundraisers in this cycle, thanks in large part to the enthusiasm of Little bucks eager to topple McConnell. She raised more than $ 41 million and has spent more than McConnell by a significant margin in the race.
But some Democrats were frustrated by the launch of his campaign last summer: He said he would have supported Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, only to revert later that day, and that has been delayed throughout the race. The lack of support from the state’s Democratic leaders left her open to potential challenge.
Internal polls by McGrath’s campaign have continued to show him his leadership by a comfortable margin in the closing days of the race. But the state smashed its previous turnout in the primary, and the large-scale use of the absentee vote, combined with Booker’s late push, has left most Democrats recognizing a sense of uncertainty about possible unrest.
The big night race at House is Engel’s race against Bowman, a high school principal.
Bowman got the backing of Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) And hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign aid from progressive groups.
Many in his own party see Bowman as the slight favorite against Engel, who was first elected in 1988 and had little presence in the district while dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
A massive field of Democrats is also vying to capture two open seats held by retired representatives José Serrano and Nita Lowey. Progressives have come together largely around attorney Mondaire Jones for Lowey’s position in the northern suburbs of New York City, though the race also includes state lawmakers, a former Obama-era defense official and a self-financed prosecutor.
In the race to replace Serrano, Democrats hope they can block the victory of Ruben Díaz Sr., a reverend who opposes gay marriage and abortion but whose family has long-standing ties to the Bronx.
Elsewhere in the state, Democrats will choose challengers for Republican representatives. John Katko and Lee Zeldin and the Republicans will nominate opponents to face the Democratic representatives. Max Rose, Anthony Brindisi and Antonio Delgado.
In Virginia, Democrats will choose a candidate to face Republican Bob Good for an expanding district where Good, a staunch social conservative, ousted Republican Representative Denver Riggleman at a party convention earlier this month. And in western North Carolina, Republican voters in former Rep. Mark Meadows’ congressional district are choosing his replacement: the Meadows woman, who is now White House chief of staff, endorsed her successor, Lynda Bennett or Madison, 24 years old. Espino
