Middle school principal Jamaal Bowman has announced his intention to run against Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the second liberal to challenge the congressman this year.
“I’m inspired by all of the new lifestyles injected into Congress and the new ideas,” Bowman, who helped found New York’s Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, told The New York Times.
“I’ve been in education now for 20 years, spending most of my years in the Bronx, working with families who are struggling, are in many different areas from poverty, health care, mental health issues, asthma from pollution and so on,” he added. “Many of their struggles come from policy that begins in Washington.”
Engel, who has served 16 terms in the House, also faces teacher Andom Ghebreghiorgis, who is running on a progressive platform as well, vowing to support “Medicare for all,” the Green New Deal and improvements to public education. But Bowman has the endorsement of the group Justice Democrats, which helped propel Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to victory over the fourth-ranked Democrat in the House at the time.
“As someone who has built a public school from the ground up and served his community and students for many years, we are so honored to endorse Jamaal Bowman for Congress,” said Alexandra Rojas, the Justice Democrats’ executive director. “Our grass-roots movement shocked the country last year with A.O.C.’s upset victory, and we are prepared to do it again in New York’s 16th District.”
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