Ryan Grim, The Intercept’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief, said establishment Democrats are on the defense as progressive lawmakers rally behind Jamaal Bowman, the Bronx principal seeking to unseat veteran Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel (N.Y.) in the upcoming primary.
The Intercept reported this week that Engel is receiving funds from the GOP super PAC “Americans for Tomorrow’s Future.” Hillary Clinton also endorsed the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman on Monday.
“The establishment has really ridden to the rescue,” Grim said.
Bowman has received endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Grim said on Hill TV’s “Rising” Tuesday that before Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 upset election against former Rep. Joe Crowly, endorsing against an incumbent was rare.
“You have this situation where the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] has an explicit, written-down policy that if anybody in the Democratic consulting universe helps a primary challenger, they are dead to DCCC,” Grim said. “They are blacklisted for good.”
“It’s not only a slap in the face to the incumbent but to the policy that you can’t have primaries,” he added.
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