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Jamaal Bowman, a Black educator first elected to Congress in 2020, lost his Democratic primary Tuesday night. Bowman, who represents The Bronx, was targeted by the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) for supporting a ceasefire.
AIPAC, which lobbies members of Congress on behalf of Israel, spent $15 million in TV ads alone to defeat Bowman. The group’s outsized influence made the race the most expensive congressional primary in Democratic Party history.
The group backed George Latimer, a 70-year-old White politician from Westchester County.
Even as senior Democrats call for a change in leadership in Israel, Latimer, a proponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, “has been careful not to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”, Politico reports.
Bowman drew the ire of some in the Democratic Party for his vote against the 2021 Bi-partisan Infrastructure Law. Along with other progressive members, Bowman pushed for the bill to include added funding to combat climate change. Those efforts would eventually help lead to significant investment in renewable energy in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Last September, he faced backlash for pulling a fire alarm, disrupting a vote on Capitol Hill. Bowman claimed he was trying to open a door to make it in time for a vote and pulled a fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it was a lever to unlock the door.
Following the October 7th attacks, Bowman quickly condemned Hamas’s horrific terrorist actions against Israeli citizens. A few days later, he became one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Bowman never backed down from that position, even as he was targeted by groups supportive of Netanyahu’s actions, like AIPAC.
Bowman’s defeat unveils deep divides within the Democratic Party
While many progressives ultimately rallied in support of Bowman, others threw their weight behind Latimer.
Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump in 2016, endorsed Latimer on Twitter (X). Clinton said in her tweet supporting Latimer, “with Trump on the ballot, we need strong, principled Democrats in Congress more than ever.”
Others, like Will & Grace actress Debra Messing, took to Instagram to re-post false narratives smearing Bowman as “antisemitic” and “a Hamas sympathizer”.
Still, many key members of the progressive movement in Congress stood by Bowman’s side and actively campaigned for his re-election.
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, along with Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, all rallied for Bowman in the days before the election.
However, the influx of money from AIPAC and the brutal gerrymandering of Bowman’s district in 2022, which cut out a portion of The Bronx and lumped it in with Westchester County, proved insurmountable.
With roughly 85% of the vote in on Wednesday morning, Bowman was trailing Latimer by roughly 17 percentage points.
In his concession speech Tuesday night, a defiant Bowman punched back at dark money groups.
“We should be outraged when a Super PAC of dark money can spend $20 million to brainwash people into believing something that isn’t true,” he told supporters. “We should be outraged about that.”
“Let’s learn as much as we can from this race,” he continued, “and let’s keep building a coalition across our beautiful diversity.”
“Let’s keep fighting for humanity. And let’s start winning big.”
