(NEW YORK) — Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney is projected to win his Democratic primary on Tuesday, ABC News reports, after he moved seats in New York’s redistricting shuffle and faced progressive backlash in the process.

As the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maloney is entrusted with protecting the party’s House majority in November. On Tuesday, though, he had to fight for his own spot in Congress.

He went up against New York state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi. With more than 82% percent of the expected vote reported, Maloney was leading Biaggi 66-33. Their race, one of the last notable Democratic House primaries of the midterm season, highlighted party splinters ahead of what’s expected to be a tight November fight to retain control of Congress.

Five-term incumbent Maloney — New York’s first openly gay House member — saw his own political career come under attack by some other Democrats early in the cycle, when he upended progressive hopes for the 17th District by choosing to run there instead of his previous seat.

His decision to run where he lives, rather than staying in New York’s 18th where most of his current constituents are, pushed freshman Rep. Mondaire Jones — the progressive who currently represents most of the new district — to vie for New York’s 10th, which was possible because Rep. Jerrold Nadler left the 10th for the 12th (completing the redistricting shuffle).

Maloney apologized for the scuffle, acknowledging he could have handled the process better.

He has largely campaigned on what he’s encouraged other frontline candidates to focus on this election cycle: a slate of Democratic legislative victories despite other political headwinds — like President Joe Biden’s unpopularity — ahead of what is expected to be a difficult midterm. He’s also come after Biaggi for attempting to campaign on the liberal wins, claiming her progressive streak of “tearing down our President and other Democrats” had “nothing to do” with their success.

“Look, you’re seeing us come back in the polls. Our frontliners are battle tested and strong. They have a huge advantage, by the way, over their Republican opponents in terms of their campaigns, their cash on hand. They’re getting their votes right. They have historic deliverables that they’ve brought home to their districts,” Maloney said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, days before his own primary.

Biaggi, a leader in the state legislature’s progressive movement who rose to prominence when she defeated a notable incumbent in 2018, was long seen as something of an underdog to Maloney, who also handily outraised her, $4 million to $807,000.

Still, the race attracted a cast of high-profile Democrats backing both candidates. Maloney had the endorsements of former President Bill Clinton — for whom he served as senior adviser while Clinton was in the White House — as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and The New York Times’ editorial board.

Biaggi, meanwhile, had the support of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and The Working Families Party. (Hillary Clinton, who was involved in Biaggi’s wedding ceremony, stayed out of the race.)

In a related dynamic, Maloney’s decision-making as head of the DCCC drew fire from some in his party after news that the organization spent almost half a million dollars on a primary advertisement that spotlighted Donald Trump-endorsed John Gibbs over incumbent Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the few pro-impeachment Republicans in the House. (Meijer later lost his race, though observers noted the DCCC’s involvement was relatively marginal.)

On Meet the Press, Maloney defended Democrats’ decision to boost pro-Trump candidates over more moderate Republicans.

“Absolutely not did we put party over country,” Maloney said. “The moral imperative right now … is to keep the dangerous MAGA Republicans who voted to overturn our election out of power.”

He added, “This danger didn’t start with Mr. Gibbs. By every measure, he’s the weaker candidate. Don’t take my word for it: The Cook Political Report says it’s far more likely the Democrats are going to win that seat now. That’s doing our job.”

In November, Maloney will face Republican state Assemblyman Mike Lawler in a district that has a slight Democratic lean, making it more of a tossup.

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(NEW YORK) — New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler is projected to defeat Rep. Carolyn Maloney, ABC News reports, after a bitter incumbent-on-incumbent primary on Tuesday that forced Manhattan Democratic voters to pick between two senior House lawmakers.

With about 81% of the expected vote reported, Nadler won with 56% over Maloney, who trailed with 25%. Suraj Patel, a 38-year-old attorney and former Obama staffer who ran on a generational argument against the two septuagenarians, came in third place with 18% of the vote so far.

Nadler will be the heavy favorite in the general election in the deep-blue district.

He and Maloney, erstwhile legislative allies both elected in 1992, helm the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, respectively. They were forced into the same district after a heavily gerrymandered map drawn by Democrats during redistricting was thrown out in court, leading an outside third-party mapmaker to redo the decennial lines.

Nadler played a prominent role in former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment and touted the need for New York City to have at least one Jewish lawmaker in its House delegation. Maloney, meanwhile, boasted that Democrats should prioritize keeping a woman in Congress,

The primary became increasingly nasty as Election Day neared.

Nadler highlighted Maloney’s votes on high-profile issues, including her past support for the Iraq War and Bush-era Patriot Act and opposition to the Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration.

Maloney, meanwhile, appeared to knock Nadler over his stamina, even though he, at 75 years old, is just one year her junior.

She seemingly seized on his age after he sat at a primary debate while Maloney and Patel stood. She also expressed worries about “if for some reason someone will not serve their term,” citing “tons of rumors out there.” She later reportedly said she thinks Nadler would finish another term.

Patel, who came within 4% of unseating Maloney in a 2020 primary, sought to cast himself as a fresh face against the two longtime lawmakers, boasting in a press conference on Monday that “this is not 1992 anymore.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of another deadline on the restart of payments for America’s $1.7 trillion in federal student loans, President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a plan to cancel debt for a subset of Americans and continue to keep a pandemic-era pause on the repayments — a sweeping move he has openly weighed in some form or another since his time as a candidate.

“In keeping with my campaign promise, my Administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room as they prepare to resume federal student loan payments in January 2023,” Biden wrote in a Twitter post.

Pell Grant recipients can qualify for up to $20,000 in debt forgiveness as part of Wednesday’s broader announcement on student loan forgiveness. Other student loan borrowers who don’t have Pell Grants will still have loans forgiven up to $10,000, as has been previously reported.

Both forgiveness options are for people who earn less than $125,000 per year, or $250,000 as a household.

According to the White House, Biden will give remarks Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room.

Biden’s social media post also announced an extension of the pause on student loan payments through Dec. 31, 2022 — the final extension — a move that’s intended to give time for the transition back to repayment. Multiple people familiar with White House policy discussions previously told ABC News that the loan pause, first put in place under President Donald Trump during the disruptions of COVID-19’s onset, was expected to be extended. Millions of borrowers were due to restart payments on Sept. 1.

In an interview on Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told ABC News that the much-anticipated decision on loan forgiveness would come “soon” but was vague on details.

“We recognize it’s an important issue for many families. And we want to make sure that they get the information directly from the president,” Cardona said.

One-third of federal loan borrowers have less than $10,000, meaning they could see their debts completely wiped out should this policy come to fruition. Another 20% of borrowers, around nine million people, would have their debt at least slashed in half.

Including a broader debt forgiveness plan for Pell Grant recipients would wipe out the debt for up to 20 million borrowers, the White House estimated, and reach 43 million people in total.

Such a major cancelation may seem like a big step for Biden to take without Congress, but legal and policy experts say it’s clearer: The move would be well within the president’s authority — it just hasn’t been wielded before because of the political implications.

“The president has some pretty broad authority under the Higher Education Act,” said John Brooks, a law professor at Fordham University who focuses on federal fiscal policy.

“A lot depends on the size of the cancellation. The smaller the amount of cancellation, the easier the question is,” Brooks said. “Wiping out all student debt with a single stroke might be tougher, but the president through the secretary of education does have the power to adjust the amount of loan principle that any borrower has.”

Still, Biden could get taken to court — possibly by loan servicing agencies who would lose revenue or by members of Congress who may believe Biden is spending money in a way that hasn’t been appropriated by legislators.

Outside experts also wonder how long the processes would take to cancel student loans once a policy is announced — and how complicated it would be for borrowers to work their way through it, which are details that have yet to be released.

Some fear that people might fall through the cracks if applications to cancel debt become too labor-intensive because of the prospective income cap.

“The White House is about to ask the Education Department to do something that is extraordinarily difficult, and that is going to have the effect of denying debt relief to low-income folks, economically vulnerable folks, who have the hardest time navigating these complicated paperwork processes,” Mike Pierce, executive director and co-founder of the Student Borrower Protection Center, a think-tank that advocates for universal debt cancellation, told ABC News in an interview.

Pierce and other supporters for more progressive debt cancellation, including the NAACP, said the smoothest path would include full and universal cancellation for everyone.

“If the rumors are true, we’ve got a problem. And tragically, we’ve experienced this so many times before,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement Tuesday, reacting to the details of the potential policy announcement.

“President Biden’s decision on student debt cannot become the latest example of a policy that has left Black people – especially Black women – behind. This is not how you treat Black voters who turned out in record numbers and provided 90% of their vote to once again save democracy in 2020,” Johnson said.

But for many borrowers and advocates for canceling student debt — particularly the nearly half of people with federal student loans who would see their debt extinguished or cut significantly — Biden’s policy would still be cause for major celebration and be seen as a start to reforming the college and university system, where rising costs have become a major area of focus.

For Michigan teacher Nick Fuller, a possible Biden announcement on student loans could come just before the financial crunch of winter, when his heating bills skyrocket.

Though Fuller worked hard his first few years out of school to pay down his school debt, and then had his loan frozen for much of the pandemic, he’s concerned that restarting payments on top of monthly living costs could put him over the edge.

“I think things will get really tight in the winter because my utility bills are higher,” Fuller told ABC News. “I mean for January and February — the highs are zero and the lows are -20 [degrees] for almost two months.”

The frozen temperatures might sting a little bit less if Biden forgives $10,000 of Fuller’s remaining student loan bills, he said.

“It’s about two-thirds of the debt that I have left,” he said.

That would make payments “a lot more affordable and a lot more manageable in my situation,” he said.

Easing the student debt crisis — which is also how Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos described the issue in 2018 — could also aid a crippling teacher shortage that has caused thousands of staff vacancies at the start of the latest school year, something Fuller has seen himself.

Pinched salaries and rising inflation have had many teachers on edge with the loan forgiveness deadline approaching.

And because Black students are among the fastest growing group of people taking on debt, advocates argue that canceling some student loans could also begin to address racial inequities.

Shareefah Mason, the dean of Educator Certification at Dallas College, feels this impact firsthand as a Black woman with student debt. She leads the apprenticeship component of a program that pairs students with residency partners to ensure they earn while they learn, effectively reducing education debt for aspiring teachers.

“I bear the weight of $70,000 in student loans,” Mason told ABC News. “The data shows that student loan debt exponentially impacts and disproportionately impacts Black women.”

The average amount of student debt accrued by Black women is more than any other group at $38,800, according to Education Trust, a nonprofit focused on education reform.

But Mason’s program, the very first full-time paid teacher apprenticeship in the state of Texas, allows students to earn one of the cheapest bachelor’s degrees in the state, Mason said.

The goal, she said, is to aid future educators in breaking the generational barriers that she has faced as a Black woman.

Mason said “they will not have to worry about student loan debt,” which could open more doors for minority communities that have historically lacked the means to access higher education.

“My students will be able to earn, as a first year teacher in the city of Dallas, upwards of $60,000,” Mason said.

For the nation’s most impacted borrowers, Mason said, “there needs to be a space created for them to make enough money to pay their student loans without having to sacrifice their ability to create generational wealth for their families.”

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