The most expensive House primary in history
A test of The Squad’s staying power.
Four years ago, a former middle school principal named Jamaal Bowman shocked the political world by unseating a 32-year House incumbent, Eliot Engel, in a Democratic primary. Engel, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was one of the more powerful lawmakers in Washington; amid the 2020 summer of racial justice protests, Bowman argued that Engel had lost touch with his New York district.
Bowman’s victory, at the time, was heralded as the first expansion of “The Squad,” the group of left-wing House members initiated in 2018 by fellow New York incumbent-slayer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Jamaal Bowman Proves Ocasio-Cortez Was No Fluke,” the New York Times headline about Engel’s loss declared.
Further down in the Times article, there is another intriguing note:
Unlike Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s victory, Mr. Bowman’s looks more like an indicator than an anomaly: He is one of three younger, insurgent Democrats in New York who seem poised to tilt the state’s, and the party’s, congressional delegation further to the left.
The other two, Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres, are candidates for open seats in two neighboring districts. If elected, they would be the first openly gay Black men in Congress. On Tuesday, Mr. Jones was declared the winner of the primary in a district that covers parts of Westchester and Rockland counties; Mr. Torres holds a healthy lead in his Bronx district’s race.
Fast forward four years, and Bowman is now the incumbent, threatened by a primary challenger arguing that he is out of step with New York’s 16th district, which includes parts of Westchester County and the Bronx. Instead of proving The Squad’s ascendance, Bowman could become the first member of the group to lose his seat.
Today’s primary has also placed Bowman on the opposite side of Jones and Torres, his fellow young, Black insurgents identified by the Times as his natural allies in 2020. Their split came about largely over Israel, the same issue that has been cleaving the broader Democratic coalition for months now.
However, it would be a mistake to assume that today’s primary is only about Israel.
Bowman is vulnerable for other reasons, as well. He was charged with a misdemeanor late last year for falsely pulling a fire alarm at the Capitol. (The charge was later dropped when Bowman pleaded guilty and paid a $1,000 fine.) Earlier this year, reports emerged about years-old blog posts written by the now-congressman, in which he peddled 9/11 conspiracy theories. (Bowman apologized; the posts have since been deleted.) Moderate constituents also resented his vote against President Biden’s signature infrastructure package.
Like Engel in 2020, he also faces charges that he has forgotten his district — although in pursuit of progressive fame on Twitter, not establishment clout in Washington. His rival, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, is the “Cher of suburban New York,” according to Politico; Latimer has picked up the support of most local leaders in the district, including from Bowman’s native Yonkers, by contrasting his 30+ years in New York government with what he says is Bowman’s drifting focus.
And, yet, if those vulnerabilities existed before the Israel/Hamas war began in October, there is no doubt that the Middle East conflict supercharged them — and brought a record-breaking influx of cash into the race.
At the beginning of Bowman’s congressional career, he was a fairly standard-issue Democrat on Israel. He voted for a $3.3 billion Israel aid bill and co-sponsored a bill endorsing the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and a pair of Arab countries.
As he recently recounted to Politico Magazine, it was a 2021 trip to the West Bank — sponsored by a Jewish group — that sparked his conversion on the issue. Bowman recalled meeting with Palestinian children and then visiting Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, the next day.
“And what stuck out then, but sticks out even more now,” he told Politico, “is seeing pictures of kids starving to death in Gaza, and then pictures of Jews in the Holocaust who starved to death.”
He returned to Washington, withdrew his co-sponsorship of the Abraham Accords bill, and became steadily more critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Bowman issued a statement condemning the October 7th attack, but quickly became among the first House members to call for a ceasefire, doing so on October 16. Last November, he referred to Israeli claims that Hamas used sexual violence during October 7th as “propaganda,” further angering some residents of his district. (Bowman later walked back the comment.)
With Bowman already facing criticism, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the powerful pro-Israel group, spied an opportunity to claim a victory in the roiling Democratic Party fight over Israel. The organization has since poured more than $14 million into the contest, helping make the Bowman v. Latimer race the most expensive House primary in history. It has cost about $6 million more than the second-highest primary on the list.
Although polling in the race is relatively scant, a recent Emerson College survey found Latimer boasting a 17-point lead over his incumbent opponent. In addition to support from AIPAC, New York Democratic heavyweights including Engel, Bowman’s old rival, and Hillary Clinton have endorsed Latimer; so has the aforementioned Mondaire Jones, now a former congressman. (Ritchie Torres, the other young lawmaker mentioned in the 2020 Times article, has not formally endorsed Latimer but has repeatedly clashed with Bowman throughout the primary.)
The incumbent, meanwhile, is backed by much of the progressive world: Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez headlined a rally for Bowman in the primary’s closing days. During the event, Bowman did not shy away from centering Israel or his rivals at AIPAC. “We’re going to show fucking AIPAC the power of the motherfucking South Bronx,” he declared. (The rally was held in the South Bronx, although the area is not included in his district.)
Latimer’s allies have accused Bowman of emphasizing antisemitic tropes, while Bowman has accused Latimer of being both “anti-Black racist” and “anti-Muslim racist.” The congressman points to Latimer’s claims that Bowman has an “obvious ethnic benefit” in the majority-minority district and that Bowman’s “constituency is Dearborn,” referring to the heavily Arab-American city in Michigan.
“This Islamophobic dogwhistle shows the difference between my opponent and me,” Bowman tweeted in response to the latter comment. “I love our Muslim and Arab neighbors in NY16 just like I love our Jewish, white and Black neighbors here and across the country.”
Bottom line: The result of today’s primary will only impact a single New York district, but it will be interpreted as a test of The Squad’s political future — and of Democratic opinions on Israel, almost nine months into the war in Gaza.
More news to know.
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The day ahead.
White House: President Biden is continuing his week of debate prep at Camp David. VP Harris will announce a new administration action on housing.
Congress: The Senate is off for the week. The House will consider several foreign policy bills, including measures relating to the Taliban, Korea, Pakistan, China, Mexico, and human trafficking.
Supreme Court: The justices will announce new opinions tomorrow.
Bowman is also a plagiarist like Claudine Gay and many other DIE advocates: https://christopherrufo.com/p/bowmans-folly
Great Piece.