Democratic Representative Jamaal Bowman – a member of the self-styled “Squad” of progressive lawmakers in Congress – lost to a primary challenger who received an unprecedented onslaught of money from pro-Israel groups in the most expensive House primary in history.
Bowman had become unpopular among pro-Israel Democrats because of his support for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas amid a war that has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC (AIPAC), United Democracy Project, poured $14m into trying to unseat Bowman as he faced Westchester County Executive George Latimer, considered a Democratic Party moderate.
Early returns showed that Latimer dominated Bowman in Westchester County, winning more than 60 percent of the vote in the heavily white and affluent county, which accounted for the majority of his district. Conversely, Bowman only won 82 per cent of the vote in his base of support in the Bronx, which has a large Black and Latino population, but also comprises only a sliver of the total voting population.
Most of the anti-Bowman advertisements did not focus on his policies on Israel, but rather his decision to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill, his opposition to a deal to lift the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts and his own personal antics in Congress.
The ads portrayed Bowman as antagonistic toward President Joe Biden, something Bowman strongly denies. Bowman for his part during one of his final rallies noted that he had brought Biden, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to the district.
“People try to say I'm against the Democratic Party,” he said. “No, I want the Democratic Party to do better.”
The race became intensely personal, with Latimer accusing Bowman of “representing” Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a large Arab-American population, and San Francisco.
Bowman and other members of the Squad, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, accused the Latimer campaign of engaging in race-baiting. Conversely, Latimer accused Bowman of only focusing on Black and Brown communities at the expensive the district, which is heavily white and ignoring Asian American voters.
Bowman’s last primary was an equally surprising victory in 2020 against House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel. Since then, he has rankled many in Congress, particularly when, during a vote in September, he pulled a fire alarm. That stunt led him to be charged with a misdemeanor and censured by House Republicans.
Bowman attempted a last-minute show of strength, bringing progressive leaders including Senator Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts to campaign for him.
“We are going to show f**king AIPAC the power of the motherf**king South Bronx,” he said at a rally on Saturday, despite the fact his district did not include the South Bronx.
The race also became a continuation of Sanders’s 2016 primary feud with Hillary Clinton, given that Clinton endorsed Latimer’s campaign and her political action committee contributed money to him.
Progressives accused AIPAC of allowing Republican money to flow into a Democratic primary.
The race is the first primary that a member of the Squad lost since Ocasio-Cortez’s insurgent victory that knocked off House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley in a 2018 primary. But despite the fact that many Democrats oppose Israel’s actions, most Democratic elected officials still strongly support Israel and a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate oppose a ceasefire. In April, only 37 Democrats in the House opposed providing aid to Israel.
In April, Representative Summer Lee of Pennsylvania beat back primary challenger Bhavini Patel. But Patel did not receive money from outside groups like AIPAC or Democratic Majority for Israel.
“I think that this race is about the corrupting role of money in politics, and I think there's a certain extent where it's honestly not about issues at all,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent before the contest.
Bowman’s victory offers a template for fellow embattled Squad member Representative Cori Bush of Missouri, who also faces an AIPAC-supported candidate in Wesley Bell.
And the internecine fights within the Democratic Party show no signs of abating. Next month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver a joint address to Congress, which will trigger boycotts and protests from members like Bowman.
