Westchester County Executive George Latimer (left), Congressman Jamaal Bowman (right) /Journal News File Photos.

A group that spent months registering and mobilizing Jewish voters in Westchester County has ‘clearly aided’ Latimer for defending Israel while incumbent ‘squad’ member Bowman condemned its response to the Oct. 7 terror attack.

By Chris McKenna | New York State Team | lohud news

[UPDATED 3:01 a.m. June 21, 2024] — More than 14,000 Westchester County voters already have cast ballots in robust early turnout for the primary battle between Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Westchester County Executive George Latimer for Bowman’s House seat.

That included 9,904 Democrats in New York’s 16th Congressional District who voted in person over five days from last Saturday through Wednesday, with four more days of early voting to go before Tuesday’s election, according to voting records provided to the USA Today Network by Westchester’s Board of Elections.

Another 4,515 ballots had been cast by mail as of noon on Thursday, with many more likely to follow. Some 10,757 Democratic voters in all who live in the Westchester portion of the 16th District had requested and received mail-in ballots for the primary, Board of Elections records show.

Turnout figures in the slice of the northern Bronx included in the 16th District were less clear.

Voting throughout the Bronx — including areas outside Bowman’s district — has risen steadily each day since the nine-day early-voting period began on Saturday, according to daily tallies from the New York City Board of Elections.

Just 923 Bronx residents went to the polls on the first day, but that had quadrupled to 3,743 voters on Wednesday.

How many had cast ballots for the Latimer-Bowman race couldn’t be determined from those tallies.

The Bronx also has Democratic primaries for another congressional seat — Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez vs. challenger Marty Dolan — and five state Assembly seats, among other contests on June 25 ballots.

Strong turnout by Jewish voters in Westchester

A group that has spent months registering and mobilizing Jewish voters in Westchester for the Bowman-Latimer primary reported strong initial results this week.

The Jewish voters it contacted made up more than 40% of Westchester residents who had voted in person or by mail as of Monday, said Rebecca Zisholtz, a spokeswoman for the mobilization effort, known as Westchester Unites.

Her group had made it easier for its targeted voters by sending all of them mail-in ballot applications — and found great interest.

Jewish voters made up only about 9% percent of the primary’s voting population in Westchester but 43% of those requested mail-in ballots, Zisholtz said.

They had made those requests at more than five times the rate of the district’s non-Jewish Democratic voters.

Her group isn’t tied to either campaign and has made no endorsement. But its efforts clearly aid Latimer, who has strongly defended Israel while Bowman has condemned the country’s military response in Gaza to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack led by Hamas.

Their sharp differences on the Israel-Hamas war has been a defining issue in the race.

Bowman’s campaign touted this week what it said were two promising signs of its own: “record high turnout” on Saturday in Co-Op City, the giant housing complex in Bronx that is seen as favorable terrain for Bowman; and a surge of newly registered voters in “majority Black and brown areas of the district like Yonkers and Mount Vernon.” It offered no details to support either claim.

Latimer led Bowman by a wide margin 17 points in an Emerson College poll this month, though with a large share of voters — 21% — saying they were still undecided. They’re competing for a heavily Democratic district that takes in the southern half of Westchester and a piece of the north Bronx.

Turnout is critical for both campaigns in the final days of what has been a combative, big-spending primary. The 2022 primary that led to Bowman winning a second House term drew around 40,000 voters, just 16% of the Democratic electorate.

Many more voters took part in his first win in 2020, when Bowman trounced longtime Rep. Eliot Engel with 94,000 total votes cast, or 35% turnout.

Total spending on the nationally watched race has now surpassed $26 million, a gigantic sum for a House primary.

The United Democracy Project, a pro-Israel Super PAC, has spent $14.5 million on ads for Latimer and against Bowman, according to its latest expense reports to the Federal Election Commission. ##

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.