HuffPost reporter on how Bowman beat Engel

HuffPost reporter Daniel Marans said that the key to Jamaal Bowman (D) beating Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) in their primary last week was Bowman’s extensive progressive infrastructure.

“You have kind of a new crop of talented, experienced, political professionals and companies that really are more equipped to service these kind of candidates,” Marans told Hill.TV, pointing to the largely grassroots campaign of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in 2018. He said that her campaign served as a catalyst for this election cycle’s crop of progressive challengers.

“Within Bowman’s first week, he had raised more money than Ocasio-Cortez had in her first six months,” he added.

In the election, Bowman, a former middle school principal, garnered 60.7 percent of the vote, while Engel received 35.6 percent.

Engel was unseated after a more than 20-year career serving as congressman for New York’s 16th District.  

Justice Democrats, the progressive group that helped Ocasio-Cortez get elected in 2018, backed nine new challengers this election cycle, including Bowman.