Engel is out — will the new foreign affairs chairman upend his Mideast policies?
Three House Democrats are vying to replace Eliot Engel as the party’s new foreign affairs leader — will they actually change his Middle East policies?
The writing has been on the wall for Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., for weeks after losing his primary to progressive insurgent Jamaal Bowman last month. Today, The Associated Press called the race against the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman.
Three lawmakers have already shown interest in becoming the next Democratic leader of the venerable committee in a race that is quickly starting to echo Bowman’s foreign policy attacks against Engel.
Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and dark horse candidate Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, are already pitching their cases to their colleagues as to why they should chair the committee should Democrat maintain control of the House in the November elections.
A coalition of progressive groups led by Demand Progress and Win Without War are pushing Democrats to nominate a foreign affairs leader who will take the committee in a more progressive direction, echoing many of the foreign policy grievances Bowman raised against Engel in the primary election.
