Bowman is the last Democrat in the House of Representatives to face a primary position on Israel
After months of public deliberation and urging from donors aligned with Israel, Westchester County Executive George Latimer said Wednesday he would mount a Democratic primary challenge against Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York.
The decision set the stage for a potentially explosive battle next year that will test not only growing Democratic divisions over the war in the Middle East but also the sustainability of the party’s progressive wing.
In an interview, Mr. Latimer drew sharp contrasts between himself and Mr. Bowman, one of Israel’s most outspoken left-wing critics. He dismissed the incumbent’s calls for a ceasefire as premature, citing a recent protest outside the White House where the congressman accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, a political stunt.
“It’s about results, not rhetoric,” said Latimer, who has deep ties to the Democratic establishment. “So much of politics has turned into that kind of showmanship – how you look in front of the cameras.”
He was expected to officially kick off his campaign with a video announcement later on Wednesday, just days after returning from a war visit to the region.
The unfolding battle mirrors primary battles that have erupted from Pittsburgh to Detroit since Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attack, as pro-Israel Democrats seek to oust House “Squad” members pushing for a cease-fire fire. Like the other challengers, Mr. Latimer is expected to benefit from millions of dollars in outside spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and other special interest groups.
However, the race in the New York City suburbs can be uniquely complex. It pits a charismatic black progressive with a rising national profile against an old-fashioned white liberal with deep local support. And it’s set in a district that is both home to one of the country’s most influential Jewish communities and nearly half of them black or Latino.
Mr. Latimer carefully sidestepped many of these fault lines as he laid out his candidacy this week, emphasizing that he was preparing for a campaign that would go far beyond the Israel issue.
Mr. Latimer, in his second term as county executive, insisted that voters not judge him by his age, 70, or the color of his skin. Citing his four decades in elected office, he said he would continue many of the progressive priorities on housing, climate change and transportation that Mr. Bowman has championed. And he avoided outright attacks on the incumbent, aside from charging that Mr. Bowman was more interested in making his name than taking care of his district.
“If you ignore that area because you are a national figure and you are more interested in being on the national stage, you are ignoring the needs of that community,” Mr Latimer said.
The challenge comes at a time of great political vulnerability for the 47-year-old Bowman, and not just because of his position on the war. The congressman is still dealing with the fallout from his guilty plea in October for setting off a false fire alarm in a House office building. And according to recent filings, he has just $185,000 in his campaign account.
AIPAC, which privately offered its support to Mr. Latimer months ago, could easily overwhelm that amount on its own. Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for the group, declined this week to discuss the group’s spending plans but denounced Mr. Bowman as a representative of “the anti-Israel extremist fringe.”
Mr. Bowman’s advisers and allies say defeating him could be much harder than his enemies expect. Some of the left’s most influential figures were already lining up to fight back, determined to demonstrate the staying power of their movement three years after they first helped Mr. Bowman, a former high school principal, powerful incumbent, Eliot L. Engel.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Mr. Bowman’s best-known ally, circulated a fundraising appeal on his behalf. Left-wing groups, including New York’s Working Families Party and Justice Democrats, have pledged resources. For now, everyone seems to see value in framing the primaries as a conflict with special pro-Israel interests, and not with the district administration.
“It’s no surprise that a super PAC that routinely targets black members of Congress facing primary challenges and is funded by the same Republican megadonors who give millions to election-denying Republicans, including Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz, has a candidate recruited for this race,” said Emma Simon, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bowman’s campaign.
The main battle is one that Democrats would have wanted to avoid. The party hopes to flip six Republican seats in New York next year, which is crucial for regaining the majority in the House of Representatives. Some Democrats have expressed concern that a pro-Israel advertising campaign against Mr. Bowman would inadvertently tarnish the party’s candidates in competitive races in neighboring districts to the north and west.
Now that the match is underway, however, it poses a dilemma for Democratic leaders, especially Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Mr. Jeffries, the House of Representatives’ top Democrat, has said he would continue the party’s longstanding policy of supporting establishment parties like Mr. Bowman, even though his own views on Israel are more conservative. But Mr. Latimer said he had not received a call from Mr. Jeffries asking him not to run, and that the House leader must soon decide how hard to fight to protect Mr. Bowman.
Mr. Bowman has refused to soften his plea despite mounting pressure from Jewish voters and fellow Democrats.
His allies argue that there are good reasons to believe that many voters agree with his positions, but that Israel will not be a decisive issue for many when they cast their votes in June next year.
About half of voters in the district, which stretches from the northern Bronx to many of Westchester’s liberal suburbs, are black and Latino, according to census data. This figure is even higher among Democratic primaries. By comparison, about 10 percent of all voters and about 20 to 25 percent of Democratic primary voters are Jewish.
Mr. Bowman has said repeatedly that he stands by his position on Israel for a simpler reason: He believes in it.
He summarized his views last week outside the White House, where he joined protesters calling on President Biden to support a bilateral ceasefire. He used terms that most Democrats have objected to, including “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing,” in describing Israel’s deadly bombardment of Gaza, which local health authorities say killed some 15,000 civilians. He accused the United States of being “complicit” in these deaths. But he also condemned those who targeted Israelis or Jews and reiterated his previous charges against Hamas.
“Calling for a ceasefire does not mean we support Hamas, it does not mean we support the murder of Israelis or Jews, it does not mean we support anti-Semitism,” he said. “We are calling for a ceasefire because we don’t want anyone else to die.”
In the interview, Mr. Latimer said he also wanted the bloodshed in Gaza to end, but only after Hamas returned the remaining Israeli hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7 and agreed to “put aside the violence.” Anything less than that would amount to unilateral disarmament by Israel, he argued.
Mr Latimer said he “didn’t know enough” to assess whether Israel’s counter-offensive had violated international law. “I am not a foreign minister,” he said.
He also rejected Mr. Bowman’s proposal for the United States to impose conditions on the billions in military aid it provides to Israel. “That is a matter that I think is best left to the presidential administration,” Mr. Latimer said.
He has been more outspoken about efforts by Mr. Bowman and his allies to build public pressure on Mr. Biden through protests and media appearances. Mr. Latimer called Mr. Bowman’s appearance outside the White House “the classic response from someone who has been in government for a few years.”
“If you want to influence the president’s policies, you start with the dialogue you have with your other Democratic Caucus members,” he said. “If you have a consensus movement, that becomes more impressive to an executive.”