Latimer defeats Bowman with $15 million worth of help from AIPAC

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) lost his primary to Westchester County Executive and pro-Israel centrist George Latimer in New York’s 16th district.

Latimer is currently up by almost 17 points with about 90% of the vote in.

It was the most expensive House race in U.S. history, with some $23 million spent in support of Latimer. $14.5 million of that came from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) super PAC. Dozens of Latimer’s donors were Republicans.

“We should be outraged when a super PAC of dark money can spend $20 million to brainwash people into believing something that isn’t true,” said Bowman during his concession speech.

“I would like to make a public apology for sometimes using foul language,” he added. “But we should not be well adjusted to a sick society.”

Bowman had been a target of AIPAC since he ousted Eliot Engel from the seat in 2020, but he’s faced increased scrutiny from the lobbying group over his growing criticisms of Israel. In addition to calling for a permanent ceasefire, Bowman has referred to Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide and even questioned the official narrative around the Hamas attack of October 7th before walking most of those statements back.

“Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics!,” declared AIPAC after the race was called.

However, the group only mentioned the country in one of the many ads it bankrolled, and poll after poll shows that Democratic voters are increasingly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

In actuality, AIPAC stays out of many primaries involving lawmakers who have defended Palestine. For instance, it refrained from spending on Summer Lee’s primary in Pennsylvania earlier this year despite the fact that her positions on the issue are very similar to Bowman’s.

AIPAC did not see a path to victory in Lee’s contest, but they have been eyeing Bowman as a potentially assailable candidate for years.

“With Bowman I think they just see vulnerability. Frankly, Bowman won his last race, but he was running against divided opposition and he scored 54.4%,” political consultant Peter Feld told Mondoweiss earlier this month. That’s a pretty good warning sign for an incumbent if you’re that close to 50. It wouldn’t take that many negatives to drive you under 50, which means that you’re losing a two-way race.”

Last September Bowman made headlines for pulling a fire alarm in a congressional office building while lawmakers were preparing for a vote. Bowman insisted it was an accident, but Republicans said he was trying to stop the vote from happening and ultimately censured him over the incident.

Latimer declared his candidacy a few months later. AIPAC had recruited Latimer to run and ran a series of attack ads against Bowman leading to the announcement.

Bowman also received little help from his own party. As Akela Lacy pointed out at The Intercept, Democratic leadership has historically taken serious measures to protect incumbents but did not show up for Bowman in the same way.

“Another difference from the time when Democrats would rally aggressively around incumbents is that this time, the group funding the primary challenge is also funding and endorsing Democratic leaders who have endorsed Bowman,” wrote Lacy. “Democrats, especially the party’s heavy hitters, have long had close relationships with AIPAC, speaking at its annual conferences and leading its sponsored junkets to Israel. Since AIPAC started giving directly to candidates last cycle, Jeffries has received more than $1.5 million from its PAC and been endorsed by the group.”

In recent days Latimer was endorsed by former presidential candidate Hilary Clinton and disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The campaign was also marked by a number of inflammatory racial statements. In a televised debate Latimer claimed that Bowman’s “constituency is Dearborn, Michigan,” a majority Arab-American city with a large Muslim population. In a recent interview with Punchbowl News, Latimer said Bowman, who is the first black man to represent the 16th district, enjoyed “an obvious ethnic benefit” in the race.

Progressive organizations and leaders criticized AIPAC’s tactics Tuesday night.

“Support for Palestinian rights is so popular among Democratic voters that it took AIPAC more than $17 million to unseat Congressman Bowman,” said Jewish Voice for Peace Action Political Director Beth Miller. “Extremist, far-right groups like AIPAC are spending at historic levels to scare members of Congress into ongoing support for military funding and weapons to the Israeli government. Congressman Bowman’s positions are popular among voters, and we will continue organizing to overcome anti-democratic dark money and to build a government that is governed that actually serves our communities.”

“This should provoke a crisis in the Democratic Party,” said said IfNotNow National Spokesperson Eva Borgwardt. “AIPAC’s MAGA billionaires just spent nearly $20 million trashing the reputation of a courageous, beloved Black educator to replace him with a mediocre white candidate with a history of racist remarks and governance. This is a wake up call to anyone who believes in democracy, equal rights, and an end to the slaughter in Gaza. AIPAC is going to keep going back to the same playbook against anyone who believes in the humanity of Palestinians. Democrats wouldn’t tolerate this from the NRA, and it should be equally unacceptable from AIPAC.”

Latimer is expected to easily win November’s general election in the solidly blue district.