The race became a referendum on the Israel-Hamas war and Bowman’s public comments about the Jewish state and followers of that religion. Last week he accused Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza.
By Vaughn Golden, Carl Campanile and Aneeta Bhole | New York Post
Head for the (fire) exit, Jamaal!
Westchester County Executive George Latimer sent Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) packing from Congress Tuesday night, defeating the far-left “Squad” member in the 16th District’s Democratic primary.
Latimer, 70, will be heavily favored to defeat Republican [Miriam Levitt-Flisser, former Scarsdale Mayor], in the Nov. 5 general election to represent the deep-blue Bronx and Westchester constituency.
“Tonight, we turn the page and we say that we believe in the inclusion of everybody,” Latimer told cheering supporters in White Plains.
“It doesn’t matter your age, religion, sexual identity, whether you’re a right-hander or left-hander, whether you’re a Met fan or a Yankee fan — our inclusiveness in Westchester County is how we govern the people,” he added. “You can’t destroy this country with your rhetoric and your arguments. We have to have unity.”
Bowman’s four-year House tenure will come to an end following the most expensive congressional primary ever in terms of ad spending — a race which pitted pro-Bowman groups like Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party against an alliance of moderates turned off by the incumbent’s stances, mainly on Israel.
The incumbent took an early lead Tuesday night after the first results came in from the Bronx portion of the district, where Bowman racked up 83% of the vote.
But the picture changed as the Westchester precincts reported an overwhelming vote for Latimer. With 71% of the estimated vote tabulated as of 10:50 p.m., Latimer led Bowman 55.7% to 44.3%.
Latimer’s coalition of well-funded backers included the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that spent a staggering $14 million in the race, and a cryptocurrency group called Fair Shake that bankrolled another $2 million worth of spots.
The race quickly developed into a referendum on the Israel-Hamas war and Bowman’s public comments about the Jewish state and followers of that religion.
Last week, in an interview with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, Bowman accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
In that same interview, Bowman belatedly apologized for denying the horrific rapes of Israeli women during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed an estimated 1,200 people — including 33 Americans.
Over the weekend, Politico quoted Bowman as saying that Jews had “segregated” themselves from the rest of Westchester, and had “made a decision to do that for their own reasons,” drawing the ire of South Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
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“There’s a word for this scapegoating: antisemitism,” Torres posted to X Sunday.
But perhaps the nadir of Bowman’s campaign came the Saturday before primary day, when he vowed to “show f–king AIPAC the power of the motherf–king South Bronx” during a manic rally alongside fellow “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
In Bowman’s concession speech Tuesday night in Yonkers, he doubled down on his stance, telling supporters: “We will continue to fight for a free Palestine, and God help us that we live in a better world where when we say ‘Free Palestine,’ it is not antisemitic.”
The lawmaker also made a point of shouting out “the Muslim community from Yonkers to San Francisco to Dearborn, Michigan, to St. Louis to Chicago to Long Island to New Jersey [who] surrounded me this entire race with protection, with love, with gratitude and they helped us raise more money than we ever raised before.”
Referencing his weekend antics, Bowman said: “I’m gonna make a public apology for, you know, sometimes using foul language. But we should not be well adjusted to a sick society, we should be outraged.”
Bowman’s supporters were upset by the outcome of what they saw as a bought-and-paid-for primary.
“When the rich and the powerful, you know, sink so much money into it … it’s not unexpected that they will win the race,” said one Bowman backer, Nelson Mar. “It’s disappointing.”
“It’s just so unfair how much the money probably influenced it,” added another supporter, Susan Bonadonna.
Latimer benefited not only from financial support from AIPAC, which pounded Bowman with millions of dollars in attack ads, but by an extraordinary grassroots organizing effort from rabbis and the Jewish community in the district repulsed by the congressman’s open disdain for Israel in the face of rising antisemitism.
“George Latimer’s victory and Jamaal Bowman’s defeat proves in dramatic fashion that being pro-Israel is not just wise policy, but also smart politics,” Mark Mellman, president of Democratic Majority for Israel, wrote in a statement.
The Teach New York Coalition/Westchester United — a group affiliated with the Orthodox Jewish Union — helped mobilize congregants at three dozen synagogues in Westchester to vote in the primary. The initiative was officially “nonpartisan” but clearly the sentiment was pro-Latimer, and anti-Bowman.
“The turnout we’ve generated will be a model for Jewish communities across the country,” said Teach New York founder and CEO Maury Litwack.
Rabbi Evan Hoffman, past president of the Westchester Board of Rabbis and head of the Anshe Sholom synagogue in New Rochelle, was another key figure in the voter mobilization effort.
He voted for Latimer and said “100%” of his congregants did as well.
“Bowman is opposed to Israel and, more subtly, to the Jews in his own district,” the rabbi said. ##