Political newcomer Jamaal Bowman has unseated 16-term incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel in the Bronx and Westchester County, the progressive former middle-school principal toppling the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Bowman declared victory the day after a primary that nearly one month ago saw him with a 23 percentage point lead over Engel in early and Election Day votes. 

But Engel clung on, citing the 40,000 absentee ballots still outstanding in his 16th Congressional district.

On Friday, Engel conceded, just hours after the Associated Press declared Bowman the Democratic nominee.

“Serving the people of the Bronx and Westchester in Congress has been the greatest privilege of my life, and what a remarkable 32 years it has been,” the congressman said in a statement.

“I wish Mr. Bowman well as he begins this new chapter in his life. Here in New York's 16th District, where I have lived since I was a young boy in Eastchester Gardens, we desperately need Washington's resources at this critical time, and we must continue to fight for them,” Engel added.

Bowman in his own statement cited his own life journey.

“I’m a Black man who was raised by a single mother in a housing project. That story doesn’t usually end in Congress,” he said. “But today, that 11-year old boy who was beaten by police is about to be your next Representative.”

A progressive challenger backed by the Justice Democrats who defeated an entrenched member of the House Democratic leadership, Bowman’s road to election has echoes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s two years ago in a neighboring Bronx and Queens district.

Bowman in the primary enjoyed a campaign nationalized in part by endorsements from Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Engel saw 11th-hour endorsements from Governor Cuomo, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. But they could not save his seat.

During the course of the campaign, a hot-mic moment became political ammo. Engel was heard asking for a turn to speak at a Bronx event and repeating, “If I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care." A fundraising surge for Bowman followed.

After Primary Day, Engel trailed Bowman by 10,183 votes or 23 percentage points. He could not make up for the deficit in absentee ballots, which were widely used in the state and which slowed the vote count considerably.

A absentee ballot tally from the Westchester County portion of the district obtained by NY1 showed Engel earned about 1,000 more mail-in votes than Bowman.

And with the partial absentee ballot tally in the Bronx portion of the district reflecting gains for Bowman, Engel had no route to victory.