Bowman faces primary from NY county executive

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) will face a primary challenge from George Latimer, a Westchester County, N.Y., executive, Latimer’s campaign announced Wednesday.

“I decided that the next step in my career would be a run for Congress because I believe our country is currently facing an existential crisis that threatens our very democracy,” Latimer said in a statement to The Hill.

Latimer touted his more than three decades of service in New York, having first been elected to the Rye, N.Y., City Council in 1987. He later served in New York’s state Senate and is in his second term as county executive in Westchester.

Latimer’s move comes in the wake of Bowman’s critical position of Israel in its war with Hamas, and the Democrat pleading guilty to one misdemeanor in October for falsely pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building ahead of a key House vote.

The Israel-Hamas war has fueled multiple campaigns against progressive House members and exposed stark divides within the party.

Latimer discussed his run for New York’s 16th Congressional District with The New York Times on Wednesday and pointed to Bowman’s call for a cease-fire in the war shortly after it began in October. And he called Bowman’s recent accusation that Israel is committing genocide a political stunt.

“It’s about results, not rhetoric,” Latimer told The New York Times. “So much of politics has turned into that sort of showmanship — how you look in front of the cameras.”

The Times reported Latimer’s decision comes after months of pressure from Israel-aligned donors. Bowman is among a group of House liberals — many from the far-left “squad” — who have been outspoken critics of Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza following Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault.

Hamas’s attacks in southern Israel left more than 1,200 people dead, including hundreds of civilians, prompting Israel to launch a campaign to destroy the group and its military capabilities. Israel’s attacks on Gaza have since killed more than 16,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

Bowman condemned Hamas’s assault in the days that followed the Oct. 7 attacks, while emphasizing Palestinian civilians are not responsible for Hamas’s actions. He’s voted against multiple resolutions related to support of Israel and most recently, was one of 14 lawmakers who voted “no” on a GOP-led resolution Tuesday to condemn the uptick in antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world.

The New York Democrat on Tuesday noted that while he “strongly condemns antisemitism and hate in all its forms,” he chose to vote against the resolution because “it fuels division and violence, conflates criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism, and ignores one of the greatest threats to the Jewish community, white nationalism.”

Latimer told The Associated Press last month the push for him to run started long before Oct. 7, and he suggested to The Times his campaign would cover things beyond Israel.

The 70-year-old county executive told The Times he would place a priority on housing, climate change and transportation in Congress.

Bowman’s campaign team told The Hill the lawmaker’s focus “remains first and foremost on delivering for the people of his district and standing up to powerful special interests in Congress.”

The team also dug into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel campaign that was reported as having offered support to Latimer. 

“It’s not a surprise that a super PAC that routinely targets Black members of Congress with primary challenges, and is funded by the same Republican mega-donors who give millions to election-denying Republicans including Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Ted Cruz, has recruited a candidate for this race,” a spokesperson for Bowman’s campaign told The Hill. 

A spokesperson for AIPAC later told The Hill that Bowman is “attempting to shift attention from his extreme anti-Israel positions by making false and malicious claims.” The spokesperson did not directly answer if AIPAC will support Latimer, but said, “In fact, we proudly support pro-Israel Democratic progressives including the Democratic leadership, over half of the Congressional Black Caucus and almost half of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.”

Bowman is among a growing list of progressives facing blowback within the party over their positions and comments toward Israel and its war on Hamas.

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), who argued Israel committed “human rights violations,” already has at least one declared opponent, Bhavini Patel.

Patel told the AP she would’ve run against Lee regardless of her position on Israel, but stressed the criticism of Lee from the Jewish community shows how the lawmaker does not attempt to understand the people of her district.

Other challenges are likely against Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who has been censured in the House for her rhetoric toward Israel, along with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” per The AP.

Updated at 4:34 p.m. ET.