Incumbent Congressman Eliot Engel won the Democratic primary for District 16 with a massive 72 percent of the vote and 83 percent of precincts reporting, despite facing three challengers. With no Republican adversary, tonight’s election decided who will hold the seat.

Though Engel was most notably challenged by Scarsdale businessman Jonathan Lewis, he won by a landslide. Lewis took only 19 percent of the votes. Bronx resident and activist Joyce Briscoe and Mount Vernon businessman Derickson Lawrence also opposed Engel. Briscoe and Lawrence won four percent and five percent of votes, respectively.

Engel was born and raised in the Bronx. Engel earned a bachelor’s degree from Hunter-Lehman College and a master’s degree from Lehman College of the City University of New York. He later attended New York Law School at night and earned his law degree.

Though initially a teacher and guidance counselor, Engel won a 1977 special election for the State Assembly as an independent-reform Democrat. Once again, running as an outsider candidate, Engel won his seat in Congress in 1988.

Engel serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee, is the ranking member on the House  Foreign Affairs Committee, and is the founder and Co-Chair of the House Oil and National Security Caucus. Engel is a member of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, the Animal Protection Caucus and the HIV/AIDS Caucus. He also endorses women’s reproductive rights and affordable healthcare.