Meeks crushes opposition in 5th in primary challenge

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Ten-term incumbent Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat of St. Alban’s, Queens, decisively turned back two challengers in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the right to represent the 5th Congressional District in the 117th Congress.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Meeks trounced first-time candidates Carl Achille, of Elmont, and Mizan Choudhury, of Bellerose, with more than 81 percent of the vote. Elmont community activist Achille, who serves as an NYPD detective, garnered 9.7 percent, while Pakistan-born Choudhury, an operations manager at Northwell Health Systems, received 8.8 percent.

The district covers parts of southeastern Queens and western Nassau counties. Voters stressed immigration, infrastructure and jobs as among their main concerns. Voters in Nassau were also concerned with the development of Belmont Park, where an 18,000-seat hockey arena and 435,000-square-foot retail complex are in the early stages of development at the racetrack.

Turnout was abysmally low, with a scant 11,729 Democrats casting their ballots out of a total electorate of more than 430,000. As of last week, Meeks had outspent his two challengers by a margin of more than 55 to 1, according to Federal Election Commission records.