Washington DC – Representative Jamaal Bowman, one of the newest members of the progressive “squad” in the United States Congress, faces a fight for his political life.
On Tuesday, he defends his seat in the House of Representatives by competing in the Democratic primary for New York’s 16th congressional district. But while incumbents are rarely challenged, Bowman faces one of the most expensive races in House primary history.
Progressive and political groups say the battle is a direct result of Bowman’s vocal criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza, as groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) seek to oust him.
Bowman is part of a small but growing number of voices in Congress who question the US commitment to Israel, its “steadfast” ally. This, experts say, puts a target on their back.
“I’m not so sure there would be a primary if it weren’t for the war in Gaza and the enormous influence that AIPAC and outside forces had in this race, trying to press this issue and trying to get rid of Congressman Bowman. ,” Doug Gordon, a Democratic consultant and co-CEO of UpShift Strategies, told Al Jazeera.
Certainly, Gordon said, the challenge from George Latimer, a longtime county executive with deep political ties to the district, is a reflection of the progressive versus centrist infighting that has come to define the modern Democratic Party.
But divisions over US policy toward Israel – an issue that was exacerbated by the October 7 attack on southern Israel and the resulting war in Gaza – have been the real driving factor in the race, Gordon explained.
It is a “fission point within the Democratic Party” that is “coming to the surface in these primaries.”
‘They spent more on this race than ever before’
Divisions in the Democratic Party have become more pronounced as the war in Gaza drags on. The rising death toll in Gaza, growing reports of war crimes and evidence of possible genocide have further fueled division.
Bowman was one of the first US lawmakers to call for a ceasefire when Israel’s bombing of Gaza began in October last year. He joined other progressives like Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in proposing a resolution to pressure President Joe Biden to stop the war.
A former public high school principal, the 48-year-old Bronx native gained national attention when he unseated a staunchly pro-Israel, establishment-backed candidate, Eliot Engel, in 2020, supported by progressive groups like Justice Democrats.
But the unique makeup of Bowman’s district has persistently made him one of the most vulnerable members of the progressive “squad.”
The district is a demographic patchwork: It encompasses urban areas of the Bronx and suburban areas of Westchester County, not to mention high- and low-income communities with sizable black, Hispanic and white populations.
A bizarre incident in which Bowman set off a fire alarm at the Capitol before a vote on government spending further contributed to his alleged weaknesses in this year’s election.
AIPAC took note, launching a long-awaited media attack on Bowman in late May.
Bowman’s district was inundated with a historic $12 million worth of attack ads and messages, funded by AIPAC’s super political action committee (super PAC), the United Democracy Project (UPD).
As a result of a 2010 Supreme Court ruling known as Citizens United, super PACs can spend an unlimited amount on messaging in U.S. elections as long as they do not coordinate with the candidates or their campaigns.
In Bowman’s case, AIPAC’s spending accounted for more than half of the $22 million spent on the race so far, including $6 million from the candidate’s own campaign coffers, according to an analysis by the Journal News, based in Westchester.
AIPAC’s messaging has largely sought to portray Bowman as too radical for the district, a common tactic for the group, said Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, which has led efforts to elect left-wing and minority members to Congress. .
Andrabi told Al Jazeera that he noticed AIPAC taking a more direct role in primary elections since launching its super PAC in 2022. It spent $5 million against progressive Democrat Summer Lee when she ran for House that same year, for example .
According to Andrabi, Bowman’s race will serve as a benchmark for other primaries featuring high-profile progressives like Missouri’s Cori Bush, who faces her own challenge in August.
“I don’t think there’s any bigger story than the fact that AIPAC spent more on this race than it ever spent on an election — and that it has now become the largest source of Republican donor spending in the Democratic primary,” Andrabi told Al Jazeera.
A recent campaign finance analysis by Politico found that while AIPAC receives donations from both Republicans and Democrats, it disproportionately spends money to influence the Democratic primary.
AIPAC is the “largest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year,” according to the analysis.
“What AIPAC has done in just two cycles of creating a super PAC is incomparable to some lobbies that have spent decades and decades doing this work,” Andrabi said.
“AIPAC launched its super PAC last cycle and spent $26.5 million on nine Democratic primaries,” he added. “They already spent half of that on the Jamaal primary alone.”
Bowman directly addressed the influx of spending. On June 13, he released an ad calling out AIPAC’s support for Latimer, which Andrabi noted may be the first television commercial of its kind to do so.
Racial issues also loomed large when Bowman and Latimer faced off on the debate stage earlier this month.
In a notable example during the first debate, Latimer said that Bowman’s “constituency is Dearborn, Michigan,” a reference to a Midwestern city with an Arab-American majority. Dearborn has also been an epicenter of opposition to President Biden’s support for Israel.
Several human rights groups condemned the comment, and Bowman called it an anti-Arab and Islamophobic “dog whistle.”
For his part, Latimer took a pro-Israel stance while offering only moderate criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He publicly ignored AIPAC’s advertising spending, saying it was outside his control and did not affect his policy.
Latimer also argued that his community connections and support from local officials make him more in tune with the district’s voters. Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is among his supporters.
He, in turn, accused Bowman of relying on support from national progressive groups that he said are out of step with the district’s needs. Bowman was supported by Bernie Sanders, whose challenge to Clinton in 2016 solidified him as a standard-bearer for the party’s progressive flank.
Furthermore, during the final debate on June 18, Latimer accused Bowman of “using race as a weapon” and “corning the market with lies.”
What does all this mean?
There are signs that efforts to eliminate Bowman in the primary phase are producing results.
An Emerson College poll released on June 11 showed Latimer with a commanding lead: approximately 48% of Democratic voters supported Latimer, compared to 31% for Bowman. Another 21 percent remained undecided.
Strategists generally agree that for any chance of victory, Bowman will need to energize voters who typically don’t vote in the party’s traditionally low-turnout primaries.
But regardless of the outcome, Craig Holman — a government affairs lobbyist for the consumer rights group Public Citizen — said the race underscores the increasingly pronounced role of outside money in U.S. elections.
“This reaches a point where it is very worrying, where external spending can even exceed what candidates spend. And that means the candidates are not in charge of the campaigns,” he told Al Jazeera. “We’ve seen this happen occasionally before, but now we’re seeing it happen more regularly, and that’s problematic.”
Gordon, the Democratic consultant, added that outside influence is “putting voters in this district directly in the crosshairs of the Democratic divide. [the Gaza war] and other issues.”
Still, Jeremy Cohan, spokesman for the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which supported Bowman, saw a positive in AIPAC’s increased spending.
“I see it, to some extent, as a sign of desperation,” Cohan said. He pointed to polls that show widespread support in the U.S. for a ceasefire in Gaza, especially among Democrats.
“They are doing this because they see where the tides are moving. They see where the story is moving.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
