Jamaal Bowman, "squad" member and anti-Israel progressive Democrat, loses primary race.

 

File photo of Representative Jamaal Bowman. NBC/Getty.

Jamaal Bowman, "squad" member and anti-Israel progressive Democrat loses primary race. NBC News. The race was for New York's 16th district and Bowman lost the race to centrist Democrat George Latimer. The race drew an absurd amount of spending for a primary race with $25 million spent by both sides, $15 million of which came from a pro-Israel super PAC. Bowman is a member of the "squad" of congressional Democrats that are known for both being anti-Israel and extremely progressives. The other members of the squad have survived primary challenges, but Bowman did not. Latimer is expected to win the seat in 2024's November election as it is a deep blue area. 

My Comment:

The glaring omission in the NBC article is the fact that Bowman was the one that pulled the fire alarm back in September of last year and plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge because of it. Bowman claimed it was an accident but many believe that he was doing it to disrupt a vote on a funding bill. I personally think he did it on purpose. 

Was that why he lost? I doubt it. I don't think that most of his voters would have cared about that regardless. Despite the cynicism of the crime, nobody got hurt and I doubt many people cared enough to not vote for him for that reason. Plus it was old news by the time this primary cycle came up. I doubt many people were even thinking of it at this point. 

I am guessing what killed Bowman was his anger with Israel, which bordered on antisemitism. Not only did that turn off voters it caused a huge amount of money to poor in against him. Pro-Israel groups like APIAC spent $15 million to get rid of him and that's a money advantage that is hard to beat. I am guessing if October 7th had never happened or if he just kept his mouth shut he would not have been defeated. 

Does this have wider implications to the rest of the country? Are other far left progressive at risk? Probably not. I am guessing the situations in NY-16 are a bit different than the rest of the country. Bowman was scandal ridden and anti-Israel in New York, which has a large Jewish population. He was also one of the lesser known members of the squad and was not actually that popular. 

I do think that people are getting sick of the progressive narrative about Israel. I don't think being pro-Hamas is that popular outside of the far left and radical Muslim fringe. Many people are critical of Israel's conduct during the war but that doesn't extend to actually hating Jewish people, which I do think Bowman did. 

Regardless, I am not expecting George Latimer to be any better when he presumably wins the election this November. He will be better on Israel and won't be a far left progressive but I do expect him to go along with the majority of nonsense that the Democrats come up with. I am not expecting a Joe Machin or John Fetterman style of Blue Dog Democrat that is almost non-existent these days, I'm expecting a "centrist" Democrat that is nothing of the sort, and only better than Bowman in comparison. 

Finally I think this was a good night for primaries. Not only is Bowman gone, Lauren Boebert won her primary as well. Boebert is a pretty bog standard Republican that got attacked for being single and going on dates, so it's good justice that she won. She's not my favorite representative by a long shot but the attacks against her were ridiculous. And getting rid of Bowman is a good thing, he had no business being in congress in the first place.