Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
New York Gov. Kathy Hochulannounced on Tuesday that Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-NY) will serve as her lieutenant governor and will replace Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who stepped down last month after being indicted on federal bribery charges, on the ballot.
Delgado’s appointment opens up his seat representing New York’s 19th Congressional District, an expansive area covering the Hudson Valley and the Catskill Mountains. Delgado — who won a crowded primary in 2018 and went on to defeat Rep. John Faso (R-NY) during that year’s “blue wave” — was set to square off against Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who challenged then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2020.
Around the district on Tuesday, two names were consistently floated among political observers as replacements for Delgado: Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan and state Sen. Michelle Hinchey. (Read our 2020 profile of Hinchey here.)
“It’s Michelle vs. Pat,” one Ulster County politico with knowledge of local Democratic politics told JI. Ryan finished second in the 2018 primary, receiving 18% of the vote to Delgado’s 21%. Hinchey, who was elected to the state Senate in 2020, is the daughter of former Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), who represented the district for two decades until his retirement in 2013. She’s the current chair of the state Senate’s Agriculture Committee.
In April 2021, Ryan, a veteran, launched Serve NY PAC, which backs candidates with a history of government or community service. Ryan raised $1.7 million during his 2018 congressional run.
The final contours of the district are in question after the New York Court of Appeals ruled last month that the congressional map drafted by Democrats and approved by Hochul was unconstitutional. Last week, the Cook Political Report shifted the district from “Likely Democratic” to “Lean Democratic.”
In Ohio, author J.D. Vance won the contested Republican primary for Senate, beating out state Sen. Matt Dolan and former state Treasurer Josh Mandel. In the general election, Vance, who received an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, will face off against Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), who secured the Democratic nomination.
In Indiana’s Republican primary last night, state Sen. Erin Houchin, backed by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), picked up the nomination in the 9th Congressional District, and is expected to have an easy path to Congress.
In Indiana’s 1st District, the Trump-aligned Jennifer-Ruth Green, endorsed by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), will go on to challenge incumbent Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-IN).
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is testifying again today at budget hearings with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
Primary Night
Shontel Brown notches primary win: ‘This was a faith fight’

Rep. Shontel Brown, (D-OH), is seen in the U.S. Capitol’s Rayburn Room after a group photo with the Congressional Black Caucus, on Wednesday, April 6, 2022.
As a cluster of gathering storm clouds prepared to burst just after polls closed on Tuesday evening, the stage had been set for an appropriately cathartic end to the bitter primary rematch between Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) and Nina Turner in Cleveland and its surrounding suburbs. With two-thirds of the vote, Brown claimed a decisive victory over her opponent, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports from Cleveland, setting her up to win her first full House term in November and bolstering her position as the establishment heir to Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. “This was a faith fight,” Brown said last night at a post-industrial event space in downtown Cleveland. “It’s always been a faith fight for me. The first time, the odds were stacked against us.”
Who’s who: The party was attended by a number of local Democratic officials, most notably Justin Bibb, Cleveland’s newly elected mayor. While Turner endorsed Bibb when he ran for mayor last year, he did not return the favor in the primary and instead threw his support behind Brown, who has built strong ties with Cleveland’s Democratic establishment as a Cuyahoga County party chair. “I don’t care what you call it — progressive, Democrat, I want a fighter in D.C.,” Bibb said last night, drawing snickers from the audience.
Rabbi in the room: Pinchas Landis, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who lives in the suburb of University Heights and delivered remarks at Brown’s event, suggested that the Jewish voters had stood with Brown. “We saw a woman who brought this community together,” he explained. “Seriously, by a show of hands, how many of you, on a Tuesday night in May, would be listening to a rabbi speak in downtown Cleveland? Seriously now, come on! Yet here we are!… For the Jewish community especially, times are tough. As I’m sure you know, there’s been a rise in antisemitism. There’s more Jew-hatred in the world right now than ever before. So, to have a congresswoman who’s willing to stand up and cosponsor legislation supporting the State of Israel or to stand up and tweet that antisemitism has to stop — that is something that truly is remarkable.”
Read more from Brown’s watch party here.
Going national: After her second loss to Brown, Turner turned her sights to 2024, saying, “Just like King James, LeBron James, decided to take his skills to South Beach, what Sister Turner is gonna do is continue taking my skills all over this nation. And I’m gonna see some folks in 2024.”
Bonus: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who was in Cleveland to campaign for Brown, expressed an affinity for Brown as a self-identified progressive who, at the same time, has remained vocally supportive of Israel, in an interview with JI. “Shontel is a national symbol of a central truth,” Torres mused, “that you can be both progressive and pro-Israel. That the notion that you cannot be both is a vicious lie that should and must be finally put to rest.” Read the full interview here.