The progressive left celebrates some notable Democratic primary victories

“I AM A BLACK MAN in America,” said Jamaal Bowman, a former headmaster, during his victory speech on June 23rd. “At a very young age as a black man in America, you get to learn about death and homicide.” He had just claimed a primary victory over Eliot Engel, who has represented New York’s 16th congressional district for three decades and, as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is one of the most senior figures in the Democratic Party. Mr Bowman called his upstart success a defeat for a system that “is literally killing us”.

It is also part of a wider shift. In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic and racial-justice protests, self-proclaimed progressives (many of them African-American) are ousting moderate incumbents all over America. “A new generation of leaders is transforming the Democratic Party,” claims Waleed Shahid of Justice Democrats, one of several leftist groups pushing policies such as Medicare for all, a green New Deal and free public universities. The result may not affect the balance of the next Congress, but it could bedevil the job of managing a likely Democratic majority.

Mr Bowman’s message resonated in one of New York’s poorer districts, which is 60% black or Hispanic. A similar message resonated in the nearby 17th district, where Mondaire Jones, a former prosecutor, is leading a...