Eliot Engel, American educator and politician
Eliot Lance Engel (; born February 18, 1947) is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from New York from 1989 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented a district covering portions of the north Bronx and southern Westchester County.
In 2019, following Democratic gains in the 2018 elections, he took over as Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; he previously was its ranking member from 2013, following Howard Berman's reelection defeat in 2012.
He had won his first Congressional election in 1989 by defeating Mario Biaggi, who did not campaign though his name was on the ballot. 31 years later Biaggi’s granddaughter, now a New York State Senator, threw her support behind Engel’s opponent. In 2020, after 16 terms in office, Engel was defeated in the Democratic primary by middle school principal Jamaal Bowman.