Representative. Jamaal Bowmanone of the most liberal members of Congress, will try to withstand a strong Democratic primary challenge on Tuesday from the moderate county executive George Latimer in a New York race that highlighted the party’s divisions over the Israel-Hamas War.
Latimer entered the race at the request of Jewish leaders upset with Bowman’s criticisms of Israel.
An exorbitant amount of money, mainly linked to the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, flooded the race to oppose Bowman after he accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, where more than 37,000 Palestinians were killed. Bowman also opposed a symbolic House resolution to support Israel after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
AIPAC’s allied super PAC spent nearly $15 million on the primary, according to Federal Election Commission records. The money paid for a torrent of ads attacking Bowman, who accused the influential pro-Israel lobby group of trying to buy the race in the largely suburban district north of New York City.
A Bowman defeat would upset what has generally been a stable primary season for congressional incumbents. Most current members of Congress have managed to fend off challenges from within their party, although Republican Rep. Bob Good is in a tight race with a Donald Trump-backed rival in a race that is too close to call.
Some major progressive figures rushed to Bowman’s defense. In the final stretch of the race, he met with liberal darlings Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, while Latimer scored an endorsement from former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The winner of the primary will be the prohibitive favorite to win the general election. The district, which includes parts of Westchester County and a small chunk of the Bronx, is a Democratic stronghold.
The primary fight emerged as a case study in where Democratic voters stand on Israel and exposed increasingly simmering tensions between the party’s liberals and centrists.
Latimer, 70, has been in politics for more than three decades. He was in the state legislature for years before becoming Westchester County executive in 2018. His campaign has largely been about his knowledge of the district and the relationships in it that would allow him to be a sitting member of Congress.
Latimer says he wants to go to the House to extract what he can for the district, not to score political points or be on cable TV. He has portrayed himself as a staunch supporter of Israel and says the country cannot negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas because Hamas is a terrorist organization.
Bowman, a former high school principal, framed the race as a contest between big donors and average voters. He vigorously defended his position on Israel and called for a ceasefire in the current conflict, while also condemning Hamas for its October 7 attack on Israel.
In an interview before the election, Bowman said he wasn’t paying attention to the noise during the race. Instead, she said she wanted to continue helping the district’s working class and try to involve young people in the political process.
Bowman is seeking his third term in a district whose boundaries have changed since he first took office in 2020, losing most of its Bronx sections and adding more suburbs to Westchester County.
Today, 21% of the voting-age population is black and 42% is non-Hispanic white, according to Census figures, compared to 30% black and 34% white in the district as it existed until 2022. Bowman is black. Latimer is white.
Nationally, Democratic Party leaders have emphasized the shift to centrist candidates who could do better in suburban elections.
New York Democrats will also decide another primary on Tuesday, this time on the eastern tip of Long Island, between former CNN analyst John Avlon and scientist Nancy Goroff.
That seat, which is represented by current Rep. Nick LaLota, is one of Democrats’ few targets in New York as the party tries to flip suburban congressional districts and regain control of the House.
Avlon has garnered several endorsements from party officials, including some current members of Congress, who argue he can run on a moderate platform to take on LaLota in an area that has tilted to the right in the most recent elections. Goroff ran for the seat in 2020, but lost by about 10 points.
Also on Tuesday, Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney faces a primary challenge from businessman Mario Fratto in a broad conservative district that includes the state’s Finger Lakes region and rural areas along Lake Ontario. Tenney defeated Fratto by 14 points in the 2022 primary.
