- NEW: Rangel says Bronx wants him on team in newly drawn district
- The 21-term congressman faced changing demographics and a redrawn district
- Rangel was censured in 2010 after he was found guilty of ethics violations
- Pundits had predicted an end to his political career
(CNN) -- Rep. Charles Rangel offered relieved thanks to supporters at his campaign headquarters in New York late Tuesday night after clinching the five-way race for the nomination in his Harlem-area district.
Rangel declared victory Tuesday in the Democratic primary to represent a redrawn, largely Latino New York district, capping a tale of political survival for the iconic lawmaker.
Rangel netted about 45% of the vote compared to his toughest rival, state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, who got about 40% in the latest counts.
"They've had enough trust in me, they say, 'Rangel, we think you can do it. We want you on our team in the Bronx,'" he said. "And so I can tell everybody who don't know this district or the Bronx, when I'm walking the streets of the Bronx, I feel my district and the blood and the minds and the ambitions and the things that people want for their children."
Espaillat, 57, who would have been the first Dominican-American to serve in the House, used his background to court Latino votes and take aim at the 82-year-old Rangel over his long tenure in Washington and his ethics abuses.
On Tuesday, Espaillat sent a note to supporters, thanking them and conceding the race.
"Though we didn't make it to the finish line tonight, the values we fought for and the communities we seek to improve will continue to light a fire in us," he said. "The truth is, even in coming a bit short, we made history."
Rangel's career has come a long way since he was censured by the House in 2010 over ethics violations, a setback that nearly ended his political career.
Political experts say Rangel is a symbol of the resiliency of the area he represents.
"One of the great things about Charlie Rangel is his longevity. And there are lots of people who see his ability to stay on the game as representative of Harlem," said Mark Anthony Neal, an African-American studies professor at Duke University and author of "New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity." "The idea of Harlem always being on the ropes and being able to bounce back, that's been the story of Rangel's political career."
Rangel grew up in poverty, was abandoned by his Puerto Rican father and lived with an aunt and uncle in the Bronx. The high school dropout enlisted in the Army and was awarded the Bronze Star for valor in the Korean War after he helped rescue 40 men trapped behind Chinese lines.
After the war, he used the G.I. Bill to earn a degree from New York University and a law degree from St. John's. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney, then was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1966.
Rangel began his long run in the U.S. House in 1970 when he defeated another flamboyant and beloved longtime Harlem politician, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., in the Democratic primary.
Years later, he defeated Powell's son in the 2010 Democratic primary.
But in his most recent contest, the 21-term congressman faced changing demographics and a redrawn district with more Latino-Americans than African-Americans, a shift that helped Espaillat.
Rangel, the one-time chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was censured by the lower chamber in 2010 after he was found guilty of ethics violations. He failed to pay income taxes for a rental unit in the Dominican Republic, filed misleading financial disclosure reports, and set up his campaign office in a building where he lives, among other breaches.
Pundits predicted an end to his political career at the time, pointing to previous ethics problems and the potential of redistricting after the 2010 census.
But the always dapper lawmaker has a core of ardent supporters.
Rangel was among the leading voices in the fight against drug trafficking, pushed for low-income housing tax credits and authored legislation to support urban communities.
He became the first African-American chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee after Democrats won control of the House in 2006.
Despite the new district lines and some recent health problems, Rangel fought hard to keep his seat, squaring off with his opponents in debates and taking them on during campaign stops.
"One of my opponents said that I got the idea that I'm the only person that can do the job, that I'm the smartest person in the world and no one is smart enough to do it. I said, 'That's not so. I'm just smarter than you,'" Rangel said last week, according to CNN affiliate WCBS.
Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic strategist in New York, said ahead of Tuesday's vote that Rangel could potentially be helped by an "atrocious" voter turnout track record of the large Dominican-American population. He pushed back against suggestions that Rangel's age or ethics history would hurt him at the ballot box.
If those issues mattered to voters, "they would have toppled him last time," Sheinkopf said. Rangel won re-election in 2010 with 80% of the vote, the lowest support level he received since his first election.
Rangel and Espaillat faced fellow Democrats Joyce Johnson, a business executive; former Rangel intern Craig Schley; and former Bill Clinton aide Clyde Williams to win control of the new 13th District, which stretches from East Harlem to the northwest Bronx.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo endorsed Rangel on Friday, citing his decades of service and ability to "bring things back to the state of New York," in an interview with a state political program.
However, New York's three major daily newspapers each endorsed a different one of Rangel's opponents, prompting a fierce defense from the New York City native.
And on Tuesday, though a bit chastened by his tough political slog, he offered a bit of trademark spark.
"If (the newspaper editorial boards) didn't think, after 42 years, that I was the best qualified, I promise them in the next two years, they'll have no question of the fact that you elected the best."
Halimah Abdullah
