It’s not even November and the “squad” is already down one member — thanks in no small part to his tacit support for Hamas in its war against Israel.
In New York’s 16th Congressional District, Westchester County Executive George Latimer defeated incumbent Rep. Jamaal Bowman in one of the most-watched primary elections of the 2024 campaign season.
Polls had shown Bowman down, particularly because of controversial and inflammatory stances on the Israel-Hamas war in a district with a heavy Jewish population. Perhaps most notably, during a debate between the candidates, Bowman refused to condemn the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as anti-Semitic hate speech.
With 88 percent of the vote counted, according to The Washington Post, Latimer held a 58.4 to 41.6 percent lead over Bowman in the district, which includes parts of both the New York City borough of the Bronx and southern Westchester County.
While Bowman had long been trailing in the polls, his campaign tried to cast those surveys as partisan and inaccurate. However, the final nail in the coffin for the embattled “squad” member likely came last Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton endorsed Latimer on the same day Bowman unleashed a tirade accusing Latimer of being a polybigot.
“He’s in the pocket of Republican billionaires … who are racist,” Bowman said at an event in Mount Vernon, New York, according to Politico.
“He is also not just anti-black racist, he’s anti-Muslim racist.”
Then, shortly after, this appeared on social media:
With Trump on the ballot, we need strong, principled Democrats in Congress more than ever.
In Congress, @LatimerforNY will protect abortion rights, stand up to the NRA, and fight for President Biden’s agenda—just like he’s always done.
Make a plan to vote by June 25th!
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 12, 2024
Are you happy with this result?
“With Trump on the ballot, we need strong, principled Democrats in Congress more than ever,” the 2016 Democratic presidential standard-bearer said in her endorsement.
“In Congress, @LatimerforNY will protect abortion rights, stand up to the NRA, and fight for President Biden’s agenda — just like he’s always done.”
While Bowman was considered on the left flank of the Democratic Party, a former presidential candidate not named Donald Trump endorsing a challenger against an incumbent is almost unheard of on either side of the aisle.
While Clinton didn’t lay out her arguments against Bowman, the general reasons to oppose him were well-known to anyone who bothered paying attention.
Bowman was an enemy of Israel who blamed pretty much any opposition to his anti-Semitic dog-whistles on money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group.
He was known to start trouble within the party, as well, unseating longtime Rep. Eliot Engel in a 2020 primary that had echoes of his own defeat this time around, just in reverse. There was also an incident where he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and faced censure for pulling a Capitol complex fire alarm last year, almost certainly as a stall tactic to delay a key vote.
Despite this, he managed to line up a murderer’s row of progressive superstars for a last-minute rally in the Bronx this past weekend, as Fox News noted, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and fellow “squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
However, Bowman again shot himself in the foot during a profanity-laced rant at the rally in which he blamed outside AIPAC money for his woes, reinforcing the caricature of him as a hard-left anti-Semite.
“We are going to show f***ing AIPAC the power of the motherf***ing South Bronx!” he declared.
It’s worth noting, atop that grandiloquent rhetoric, that Bowman does not represent the South Bronx, where the rally was held. You may perhaps begin to see why blaming AIPAC for this loss is some pretty lousy scapegoating.
In his concession speech Tuesday, Bowman made a half-apology in his concession for “sometimes using foul language,” according to Fox News.
However, Latimer told reporters Monday that the tirade was “inappropriate. Period.”
“During this campaign I’ve been called a lot of unkind things. I’ve opened up a weekly newspaper in this county and seen myself referred to as genocide George. I’ve had all sorts of claims lobbed at me,” he added.
“I think there’s been a lot of criticism lobbed at me by my opponent that’s unfair and inaccurate,” Latimer said. “But I don’t think I get it right to use my temper. I don’t think I get the right to curse in public and carry on in a certain way.”
In his victory speech Tuesday, he declared: “This race was hard-fought, and hard-won.”
However, Bowman’s loss perhaps presaged something bigger than the mere public temperament of politicians: A growing rift among Democrats on Israel and its war in Gaza on the Hamas terrorist group.
On social media, blame for Bowman’s loss was being lobbed at Clinton and AIPAC
Hillary Clinton—-stabbed black Democrat Jamaal Bowman in the back
Smiling white racist Hillary Clinton
Endorsed the white guy that Jewish lobby AIPAC financed to run against Jamaal
With the help of no good white Hillary Jamaal just lost his Congress seat pic.twitter.com/hfSrM6R6d3
— Malcolm Shabazz (@malcolmshabazz6) June 26, 2024
Jamaal Bowman loses to the Hillary endorsed and AIPAC funded puppet
— 💎 (@r8dr4lfe75) June 26, 2024
AIPAC spent more money than they’ve ever spent in their history—tens of millions of dollars—to defeat Jamaal Bowman because he dare call for a ceasefire. They’ve bought George Latimer’s seat and that’s a dangerous undermining of democracy.
— Olayemi Olurin (@msolurin) June 26, 2024
easily one of the more bleak things i’ve seen. aipac spent millions of dollars to oust bowman making it the most expensive primary in country history and it worked. everything about the system is evil and does not work https://t.co/cXrCBmfLx8
— beer person (@CantEverDie) June 26, 2024
Indeed, a small but sizable contingent that’s voted “uncommitted” in some form against President Joe Biden in some Democratic primaries has demonstrated that the far-left contingent plans to make this an issue, and Hamas sympathizers are making no secret that they plan to turn the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago into something that makes the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago look like a love-in.
And still, some of the biggest and leftiest names in the Democratic Party today backed Bowman, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, according to The New York Times, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, according to NBC News,
Given Tuesday’s result, it’s difficult to see giving in to this contingent as anything but suicidal. Bowman, as an incumbent, is losing by almost 17 points with the final votes being counted.
That’s usually the kind of result occasioned by sex scandals or embezzlement charges, say. In this case, Bowman simply echoed the same activists who brought him to power and prominence. And now those activists — supported by some of the party’s most prominent names — want Joe Biden to listen to them, or they’re going to attempt to turn the Windy City into a nightmare for an embattled president.
Whether or not they succeed in this era of increased security and surveillance, as well as “designated protest zones,” is anyone’s guess. One thing’s for sure, though: Tuesday night proved that the Democratic Party is very much at war with itself — and with Joe Biden refusing to pick a side, he could end up losing everyone.
