Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Progressive Israel Critic, Loses Reelection Bid

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. ― Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a progressive firebrand and outspoken advocate for Palestinians’ rights, lost his Democratic primary on Tuesday, marking the first defeat of an incumbent member of the ultraliberal “Squad” and a major setback for the country’s once-ascendant activist left.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer, 70, defeated Bowman, 48, in New York’s 16th Congressional District, which encompasses the lower half of suburban Westchester County and a sliver of the northeastern Bronx. Latimer, a 35-year veteran of Westchester politics, is all but assured a seat in Congress come November since the solid Democratic seat is not competitive in the general election.

Latimer benefited from the fundraising and super PAC support of pro-Israel groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Democratic Majority for Israel. AIPAC’s super PAC alone spent nearly $15 million pummeling Bowman in TV, digital and direct-mail advertising, contributing to pro-Latimer outside groups’ nine-to-one spending advantage over Bowman-aligned independent spending programs.

That some of AIPAC’s biggest super PAC donors are Republican billionaires and multimillionaires was a source of particular frustration for Bowman and his progressive allies.

Usama Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, the left-wing group that first recruited Bowman to run in the 2020 cycle, predicted AIPAC’s spending would have a “chilling effect,” dampening congressional Democrats’ appetite for outspoken criticism of Israel.

“AIPAC is functionally giving a warning shot to the entire Democratic caucus that if you speak out against [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu or criticize the Israeli government, this is what can happen to you,” said Andrabi, whose group also erected the biggest super PAC in Bowman’s corner.

AIPAC and its allies have indeed made a major statement to any would-be crusaders against the pro-Israel establishment. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), another Squad member elected in 2020, is AIPAC’s next target. She faces a challenge from Wesley Bell, the St. Louis County prosecutor, on Aug. 6.

Framing Bowman’s loss exclusively as a tale of AIPAC’s might felling a measured skeptic of the Jewish state is a bit too convenient, however – both for Bowman allies loath to admit his errors, and for pro-Israel groups hoping to strike fear into the hearts of all progressive Democrats.

The reality of what occurred is more complex. Bowman isn’t just any critic of Israel, and New York’s 16th isn’t just any district.

Thanks to a nonpartisan voter registration and turnout drive from Westchester Unites, a group funded by the Orthodox Union’s Teach Coalition, Jewish residents — roughly 1 in 8 members of the voting-age population – made up more than one-third of the voters who cast early ballots in the primary, according to the group’s estimates.

And after the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7 and the ferocious Israeli invasion of Gaza, Bowman questioned the evidence of Hamas’ sexual assaults, routinely accused Israel of committing genocide and aligned himself with the anti-Zionist Democratic Socialists of America — steps that cost him the support of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, and progressive Jews who were once his influential backers.

In addition, Bowman gave his foes ample fodder to paint him as a thorn in President Joe Biden’s side. In ads, the super PAC affiliated with AIPAC highlighted Bowman’s 2021 vote against the bipartisan infrastructure law, and to a lesser extent, his 2023 vote against a debt ceiling deal.

Bowman also pulled the fire alarm on his way to a vote in a congressional office building in late September. It’s a decision he says was an accident and for which he has apologized, but the negative news cycle further undermined him with gettable voters just days before Oct. 7 injected new volatility into the race.

“Great candidates in primaries when they have vulnerable opponents,” said Mark Mellman, president of the Democratic Majority for Israel.

And Latimer was perhaps the dream candidate for people looking to dislodge Bowman. Burnishing his liberal credentials in 2017 when he unseated a Republican county executive, Latimer enacted a raft of socially liberal policies, such as banning gun shows on county property and welcoming immigrants, as well as some popular bread-and-butter reforms like making select buses free in the summer and creating a right to counsel for families facing eviction.

That made it harder for Bowman’s allies to credibly paint him as a Republican tool by tying him to AIPAC mega-donors who have supported former President Donald Trump.

Latimer’s supporters are “trying to portray George as a progressive. And he is. I voted for George and I’ve been a supporter of him as county executive,” Howard Horowitz, a Bowman supporter from New Rochelle, told HuffPost earlier this month. “I can’t believe he sold out to AIPAC money.”

Perhaps more importantly, Latimer was a ubiquitous presence in Westchester, showing up at public school award ceremonies, life cycle events, local party meetings, and even progressive activist get-togethers.

Bowman had contempt for Latimer’s focus on relationships and glad-handing, describing it as window dressing for his lack of progressive vision.

“He doesn’t do anything. He’s a retail politician,” Bowman told HuffPost in late May. “He has coffee with Dem leaders to make them feel good about themselves.”

But voters appreciated Latimer’s appearances. Michelle Jones, a health care worker from Yonkers who met Latimer at a Memorial Day cookout, remembered him quietly attending her local SEIU 1199 union meetings and sitting in the back. “He’s a personable person,” she said.

Jim Russo, an Irvington liquor store owner, voted for Bowman in 2022 but prefers what he sees as Latimer’s consensus-driven style of governing.

Bowman is “a good guy, and very passionate in what he believes in,” Russo said. “I’m just a longtime friend of George Latimer for 40 years and admire the way he conducts himself.”

Bowman tried to campaign on his local accomplishments as well. He touted, for example, his work securing a mass COVID-19 vaccination site in the Bronx’s Co-op City development.

“It’s someone that cares, another working family person that cares and is actually working for us and not, like, corporate stuff,” said Ebony Hollingsworth, a customer-service representative from Co-op City and volunteer for the Working Families Party, which is backing Bowman.

But Bowman emphasized national concerns more often in his remarks — rhetoric he believed creates “movements in grassroots organizing that leads to American revolutions.” And his campaign’s effort to claim credit for bringing $1 billion in federal funds to the district was easily debunked.

In the final days and weeks of his campaign, Bowman seemed to have resigned himself to defeat and instead set out to demonize AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups as much as possible on his way out.

Speaking at a mosque in June, Bowman denounced the attacks he was enduring from “the Zionist regime we call AIPAC.” And in a Saturday rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Bowman declared, “We are going to show fucking AIPAC the power of the motherfucking South Bronx” — a reference to the location of the rally, but not a part of the borough that’s in his district.

The negative advertising and personal attacks on Bowman apparently got to him, which is part of their intended impact. Mellman, of the Democratic Majority for Israel, said that when deciding whether to get involved in a race, “We’re looking at the trouble he’s already in and the trouble we can get him in. And we found a lot.”

Of course, Latimer also got himself into plenty of trouble. A white man in a district where Black, Latino and Asian voters jointly make up a majority of residents, Latimer at once boasted of his roots in majority-Black Mount Vernon and claimed that Bowman had an “ethnic advantage” in the race because he is Black.

Playing on fears of Bowman’s advocacy for the Palestinian cause, Latimer accused Bowman of being more accountable to Dearborn, Michigan — a city with a large Arab-American community — than towns in his district.

What’s more, Latimer suggested he would oppose any tax increases — a position that would put him to the right of Biden, who has called for reversing some of the Trump-era tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations.

Comments like those did little to assuage the fears of Bowman supporters who saw the influx of big money behind Latimer as a way to neuter Bowman’s coalition and progressive domestic priorities.

“They’re scared,” Hollingsworth said. “They see the power that we have when we’re a collective and working together.”

Latimer likely has some strides to make if he is to mend fences with voters like Hollingsworth and other Black voters sad to see Bowman go. Bowman was the first Black person to represent the northeast Bronx and lower Westchester County.

Horowitz, who is Jewish, is also worried about the toll the election has taken on Black-Jewish relations, given the organized Jewish community’s enthusiastic opposition to Bowman and support for Latimer.

“If Latimer wins, I don’t know if it’s reparable,” Horowitz told HuffPost earlier this month.