Bernie Sanders did not win the Democratic Party's nomination for president this year, but his brand of democratic socialism clearly resonates with New York Democrats.
In two heated U.S. House primaries, 31-year Rep. Eliot Engel was soundly defeated by Sanders-backed insurgent Jamaal Bowman, and 28-year Rep. Carolyn Maloney was trailing leftist hotelier Suraj Patel.
And in what was clearly the biggest win of all for the Sanders wing of the party, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rolled up 73% of the vote against the well-funded, Wall Street-backed challenge of former TV newscaster Michelle Caruso-Cabrera.
In securing renomination to her second term from the 14th District (Queens), Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, raised more than $10 million — the most of any Democratic House hopeful nationwide.
In the 16th District (Bronx), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Engel had the blessings of the entire Empire State Democratic Party establishment — Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Hillary Clinton. Former high school principal Bowman, who campaigned hard as a supporter of universal healthcare, was backed by Sanders and AOC. He won with nearly 60% of the vote.
The most unexpected results by far were coming from the 12th District (Manhattan). Anti-establishment hopeful Patel, who lost to Maloney in 2018, took the lead late Tuesday following a campaign in which he supported Medicare for children and a public option for child care.
He also identified closely with the Black Lives Matter movement and slammed Maloney for voting for the controversial 1994 federal crime bill which critics say resulted in mass incarceration of blacks.
Although Patel held a small but solid lead over Maloney as of midnight, it was almost a foregone conclusion that absentee and mail-in ballots would decide the outcome of the race.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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