Progressive Democrats are making a play to sweep 4 hotly contested US House seats in New York next week

• New York's Democratic congressional delegation could get a major shake-up in the June 23 primary elections.
• Two incumbent House Democrats, Rep. Eliot Engel, and Rep. Yvette Clarke, are facing primary challengers from the left.
• Engel is fighting for his political life after a series of gaffes caused his primary challenger Jamaal Bowman to get lots of last-minute momentum.
• Progressive candidates are also vying to come out on top in two crowded primaries for safe Democratic seats in New York's 15th district, in the South Bronx, and the Hudson Valley-based 17th district.

New York's Democratic congressional delegation could get a major shake-up after Tuesday's elections.

In 2018, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated a longtime representative and Queens party boss Joe Crowley, and a number of progressives successfully ousted moderate Democrats in the State Senate who were in the "Independent Democratic Caucus," a group of Democrats whose members caucused with Republicans.

Progressives are continuing to invest significant resources into winning safe Democratic seats in New York, and see next week's primaries as a big opportunity to win coveted spots in the US House of Representatives.

In New York, there are hotly contested primaries in four safely Democratic seats in located New York City and Westchester that could give progressive Democrats and some first-time political candidates a seat in Congress.

Two powerful Democratic members of Congress are facing serious primary challengers, and progressives are fighting to emerge victorious from crowded primaries in two open seats with retiring incumbents, one seat located in the Bronx, and one seat located in the Hudson Valley.

None of these races are likely to be called, however, for any candidate until a week or more after the election.

Because of the pandemic, New York is allowing voters to cast an absentee ballot without an excuse and sent absentee ballot application forms to every registered voter. Ballots postmarked by the 23rd will be accepted if they arrive at election offices by June 30, meaning that ballots will likely not be fully processed and many closer races will not be decided until after the 30th.

New York's 16th district

Rep. Eliot Engel, who has served in Congress since 1989 and chairs the powerful House Foreign Relations Committee, is fighting for his political life.

The current 16th district includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, including the suburbs of Yonkers, Scarsdale, and New Rochelle.

He's now facing a serious challenge from Jamaal Bowman, a former middle school principal in the Bronx and first-time political candidate running as a progressive reformer.

—Jamaal Bowman (@JamaalBowmanNY) May 26, 2020

Engel's troubles started mounting this spring after The Atlantic caught him and his aides contradicting each other about where, exactly, Engel had been during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Engel told the outlet he had quarantined "in both places," his spokeswoman told The Atlantic that he had entirely ridden out the pandemic at his residence in Maryland and hadn't set foot in his district — which was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic — at all.

Then, at a news conference dedicated to racism and police brutality in the Bronx, Engel pleaded with Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. to speak when he hadn't previously been scheduled to do so, and loudly proclaimed into the microphone twice in a row that he wouldn't care about being there at all if he didn't have a primary challenger.

After Engel's major gaffe, Bowman saw his campaign surge and his fortunes rise. He began raking in campaign donations and earned the endorsements of The New York Times editorial board and several high-profile progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and a number of state legislators.

With his reelection in jeopardy, Engel has secured last-minute messages of support and endorsements from powerful New York politicians like Hillary Clinton, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo as his campaign claims their internal polling shows the congressman up by 8 points.

A poll of the race conducted by Data for Progress conducted June 11-15, however, showed Engel in a precarious position behind by 10 percentage points, with 41% of registered voters indicating they would vote for Bowman, 31% saying they will vote for Engel, and 27% undecided.

"This result proves what we've known all along — this district is ready for fundamental change and new leadership," Bowman's campaign manager Luke Hayes said about the poll in a statement.

New York's 15th district

A crowded 15-candidate field, including many prominent local elected Democrats, are vying to replace retiring Rep. Jose Serrano in the 15th district, which includes most of the South Bronx and is heavily Hispanic.

Bronx City Council member Rubén Díaz Sr., a fixture of New York and Bronx politics since the late 1980s, is one of the most formidable candidates for the seat. A Pentecostal Minister, Diaz also has a years-long long history of opposing gay marriage and abortion, making homophobic remarks, and speaking positively about Trump and other Republicans.

Díaz Sr.'s opponents vying to come out in front in the progressive lane include former city council president Melissa Mark-Viverito, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, Assemblyman Michael Blake, affordable housing advocate and organizer Samelys Lopez, and Councilman Ritchie Torres, the youngest member of the New York City Council and first openly gay legislator to represent the Bronx.

And as Gothamist and The Wall Street Journal have reported, many Democrats are fretting that a splintered progressive vote could allow Diaz Sr., propelled by high name recognition and decades of being actively involved in the community, to narrowly win the primary.

"There's a real risk that a Trump Republican could represent the bluest congressional district in America, which would represent a profound embarrassment for the Democratic Party and progressive politics nationwide," Torres told the Washington Post.

A poll of the race conducted by Data for Progress in late May found no candidate with a clear majority. Diaz Sr. narrowly led with 22% support compared to 20% for Torres and the other candidates trailing behind in the single digits and 34% still unsure.

New York's 17th district

On Tuesday, voters will select a Democratic nominee to replace long-time Rep. Nita Lowey, the chairwoman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, in the Hudson Valley-based 17th congressional district, which includes parts of Westchester County and all of Rockland County.

The Democratic field includes State Senator David Carlucci, State Assemblyman David Buchwald, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Evelyn Farkas, former prosecutor Adam Schleifer, and attorney and activist Mondarie Jones, who, like Torres, would be the first Black member of the LGBTQ community to serve in the US Congress if elected.

Progressives are rallying behind Jones, who has raised $1.1 million this year and has been endorsed by Sanders, Warren, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and many of its high-profile members including Ocasio-Cortez.

A poll of the race commissioned by the Greenburgh Democrats and conducted by Public Policy Polling on June 15 found Jones leading the field with 25% of likely voters indicating they will vote for him, Farkas and Schliefer tied for second place with 14% each, and Carlucci at 11%.

New York's 9th district

Yvette Clarke, a longtime congresswoman from Brooklyn, is facing multiple Democratic primary challengers this year, both from the left and the right.

Clarke's district, located in Central Brooklyn, includes part of the neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Brownsville, Midwood, and Sheepshead Bay. The district is half African-American and also includes a substantial Orthodox Jewish community.

In the 2018 Democratic primary, Clarke narrowly won re-election with 53% of the vote against progressive primary challenger Adem Bunkeddeko, a community organizer and son of Ugandan refugees.

Bunkeddeko is running for the Democratic nomination again this year in his second attempt to defeat Clarke, styling himself as a reformer and an "anti-machine progressive."

Clarke, who has served in the House since 2006, also faces challenges from Isiah James, endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and New York City Councilman Chaim Deutsch, who is running to her right as more moderate Democrat.

"I believe we need more moderate and centrist members of Congress, to balance out the far-left agenda," Deutsch told Jewish Insider. "Now more than ever, it's critical that NY-9 has a leader who is interested in building bridges, not tearing them down in pursuit of a progressive agenda."

As City & State New York recently reported, Clarke has a very progressive voting record and has supported both Medicare for All and the Green New Deal resolution on climate changed championed by Ocasio-Cortez.

Her opponents have zeroed in, however, on her history of accepting donations from big corporations and law enforcement unions as defying her progressive bonafide.