Jamaal Bowman is the first member of the left-wing “Squad” to be pushed out of the New York congressional primary by the Democratic Party leadership, which was fueled by tensions over Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
Bowman lost to George Latimer, a local county commissioner, in a campaign that became a clash between progressive and moderate Democrats and was overshadowed by accusations of racism and anti-Semitism.
It was the most expensive primary in the party’s history: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group, spent $15 million on an advertising campaign to bring down Bowman, a black former middle school principal who is an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The Associated Press declared the race in Latimer’s favor at 9:38 p.m. in New York, less than an hour after polls closed.
Moderate Democrats hope his defeat will provide a blueprint for challenging other Squad members. Progressive Democrats, for their part, are trying to portray the campaign as an example of money out of control in Democratic politics and the last gasp of a desperate pro-Israel lobby.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders campaigned alongside Bowman on Saturday, calling the election campaign “one of the most important in modern American history” and a contest between the “billionaire class” and ordinary citizens.
The 16th Congressional District, which includes a swath of the relatively affluent Westchester suburbs in northern New York City, as well as part of the northern Bronx, is overwhelmingly Democratic, meaning the winner of Tuesday’s primary was virtually guaranteed to represent the district in Washington.
Bowman, a resident of the working-class city of Yonkers and an outspoken social justice advocate, won the seat four years ago after upsetting Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent and staunch supporter of Israel, in a primary election held in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, which sparked a national reckoning over race.
But Bowman angered many Jewish voters, who make up about 9 percent of the electorate, with his criticism of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attack. He was one of the few MPs to vote against a motion condemning the terror group and pledging support for Israel. He also publicly cast doubt on claims by Israeli women that they were raped by their captors – although he later apologized for doing so.
Many Bowman opponents complained in interviews that their dissatisfaction had less to do with Israel than with his lack of attention to the district, especially its more affluent neighborhoods.
Latimer, who has served at various levels of state and local politics since 1987, said Bowman’s campaign prioritized social media rhetoric over congressional results.
He was supported by an AIPAC-funded advertising campaign that highlighted Bowman’s vote against President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill – a vote the congressman defended as a tactical move to increase pressure on the White House for higher social spending.
In a sign of the importance of this campaign, Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York representative and leading figure of the Squad, joined Bowman in a boisterous rally last weekend.
“My opponent supports genocide,” Bowman told the crowd at one point. “My opponent and AIPAC are the ones destroying our democracy, and it’s up to us, all of us, to save our democracy.”
