OPINION:
As a Republican constituent living in New York’s 16th Congressional District, I welcomed the results from Tuesday’s Democratic primary, which confirmed that Westchester County Executive George Latimer defeated anti-Israel Squad Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Mr. Latimer is strongly favored to carry the Democratic stronghold in the Nov. 5 general election.
On Tuesday night, the Jewish Democratic Council of America released a statement congratulating Mr. Latimer, noting that “Jamaal Bowman was out of step with the Democratic Party, his constituents, and Jewish voters, and he lost his seat in Congress as a result.”
Their sentiments represent a departure from the JDCA’s message following Mr. Bowman’s 2020 primary victory over 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel. At the time, the JDCA saluted Mr. Bowman and expressed confidence that the soon-to-be-elected lawmaker would be “committed to the priorities of Jewish voters” such as “gun violence” and “combating climate change.”
The district comprises parts of the northern Bronx and Westchester County, a wealthy suburban enclave just north of Manhattan. Current numbers place the Jewish community at approximately 9% of all eligible voters in Westchester.
Unlike radical politicians like Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Democrat, and Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat, whose districts are more aligned with the congresswomen’s progressive leanings, Mr. Bowman’s district represents one of the largest orthodox and traditional Jewish constituencies in America.
Yet, in the aftermath of Mr. Engel’s loss, well-intentioned liberals failed to heed the antisemitic warning signs emanating from the Bowman camp and committed to voting for and engaging with the untested candidate who was espousing concerning positions early on in his campaign.
While it is true that Mr. Bowman’s behavior has transformed from troubling to toxic, the congressman was transparent about his anti-Israel proclivities during his first run for office.
In a published response to a prominent rabbi that ran in The Riverdale Press days before the 2020 primary, Mr. Bowman reduced Israel to a colonialist oppressor status, a framework that was popularized during America’s civil unrest in the summer of 2020 and fueling the anti-Jewish hate roiling American cities and campuses at the time.
What’s more, Mr. Bowman was already openly aligned with progressive firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and went public with his position of placing conditions on U.S. assistance to Israel during his candidacy.
Jewish Democrats believed in the malleability of Mr. Bowman’s policies, with many refusing to accept the cultural and political shifts occurring in the ideological space long revered by their communities.
Conservatives who warned neighbors against voting for Mr. Bowman were often dismissed as MAGA-aligned alarmists and were told that all that was needed for Mr. Bowman to distance himself from his concerning theories was to get educated on issues important to his Jewish constituents. In 2020, The narrative percolating within many liberal households was that Mr. Bowman is no antisemite; he is merely ill-informed.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Bowman’s rhetoric soon spiraled into a disturbing space. In a 2021 post on X, which has since been deleted, the congressman falsely alleged that Israel’s government was acting with “cruelty” by refusing to vaccinate Palestinian Arabs against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weeks after his disgraceful remarks, Mr. Bowman was invited to virtually address hundreds of impressional middle and high school students at a Modern Orthodox Jewish institution in Riverdale, a neighborhood in the Bronx, which, through redistricting, is no longer part of his district.
These actions, while not only misguided, helped elevate Mr. Bowman, who was fast becoming a dangerous presence at the core of the antisemitic orbit in Congress.
To their credit, the events of Oct. 7, coupled with the shocking scenes of antisemitism in the U.S., compelled Jewish Democrats in NY’s 16th congressional district to confront Mr. Bowman’s intensifying radicalism with a seriousness that was absent in previous elections.
An organization affiliated with the Orthodox Union, Westchesterunites, was instrumental in driving high Jewish voter turnout, which proved key to Mr. Latimer prevailing in the race.
Moreover, the election garnered significant national attention for its price tag, with combined total spending reaching over $22 million, breaking records on the most money spent for a congressional primary race.
For their part, Jewish conservatives were also met with a pressure campaign to switch their party allegiance to be eligible to vote in the June 25 closed Democratic primary. Their pleas were answered with reports earlier this year indicating that nearly 1,300 voters in the district had switched and registered as Democrats.
While strategically sound, the persistent wrangling for votes was rebuffed by some Republicans, who were discomfited by the prospect of cushioning Democrats with more Jewish votes.
America is better off with Mr. Bowman out of Congress. The effort to unseat him placed significant financial and communal strains on constituents who have grown weary of contemporaries continuing to traffic in a liberalism that helped nurse a destructive narrative in the years since Bowman took office.
The voters celebrating Mr. Bowman’s ouster should temper their cheer by acknowledging the role of some in the Jewish community in accommodating a politician whose damaging disposition was provable four years ago.
This week’s political story should center on Mr. Bowman’s loss. In the future, the larger question to ponder is how did someone like Mr. Bowman get elected in the first place.
• Irit Tratt is an independent writer residing in New York. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt.
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