AOC, Sanders and other progressives rally for Bowman. Will it be enough?
NEW YORK — Rep. Jamaal Bowman is rapping and cursing his way to Tuesday’s primary, rallying with progressive heavyweights over the weekend in an increasingly desperate bid to keep his seat.
In an effort to fire up his base, the Democrat rapped at a “youth mobilization concert” Thursday in Westchester County. At a rally in the Bronx on Saturday, he laced profanities throughout his remarks about the pro-Israel lobby spending ferociously to unseat him.
If he loses, Bowman will be the first Squad member to go down since the band of hard-left Democrats formed six years ago, as the fissure over the future of the Democratic Party widens.
Progressive Democratic standard bearers Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York flanked Bowman at the Saturday rally, their energy as high as the heat index as they framed the primary as us-versus-them, “the many, not the money.”
"This election is one of the most important in the modern history of America, it really is,” Sanders said at the rally attended by more than 1,000 supporters — one day after he headlined a different, smaller get-out-the-vote event with Bowman. “This election is about whether or not the billionaire class and the oligarchs will control the United States government, and our view is no, they won’t.”
The race is the highest-profile battle this year over the direction of the Democratic Party as the progressive movement is tested by the party’s fracture over the Israel-Hamas war.
A win for Bowman would mean he withstood an unprecedented outside spend by the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose super PAC has shelled out $14 million to make an example out of him for his vocal criticism of the Israeli offensive on Gaza. Already, the race has been labeled the “most expensive House primary ever” by the ad tracking service AdImpact, with the vast majority of the spending going against the incumbent to boost his challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
A Bowman loss would be one of the biggest progressive defeats yet. He was to be joined by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) — Bowman’s fellow Squad member — on Sunday as he stumped at churches in his district.
Bowman’s struggle comes as some Democrats have sought to redefine what it means to be left-leaning while defending Israel.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman — who pointedly rejects the “progressive” label — has staked out a position as unyieldingly pro-Israel and New York Rep. Ritchie Torres and former Rep. Mondaire Jones have castigated Bowman and the Squad for assailing Israel. The three have found themselves on the outs with left-flank leaders as a result.
And in Missouri, Rep. Cori Bush — another member of the Squad — has her own brutal fight against AIPAC-backed Wesley Bell.
“Voters want work horses, not show horses. They want leaders, not performance artists,” said Democratic strategist Lis Smith, who has worked with candidates like Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Adam Schiff. “When Democratic voters are presented with a choice, they go with Democrats who care more about getting things done than about being social media famous.”
In Bowman’s New York district, where the war in Gaza features prominently, he is struggling to fend off not just AIPAC but the formidable challenger it champions in Latimer, a local official.
The last hope for the firebrand and former middle school principal may be rallying his base. Bowman summed up his strategy at his Friday rally with Sanders, this one in a tony riverfront village in Westchester County.
“This is a turnout race, y’all. This is not about persuasion,” he said. “We got our people; they got their people.”
The left, after all, coalesced behind and turned out for freshman Squad member Rep. Summer Lee, who won her Pennsylvania primary — with an expected high-dollar assault against the incumbent never really coming together. And in California, state Sen. Dave Min clinched the Democratic nomination for outgoing Rep. Katie Porter’s House seat despite millions in spending from AIPAC’s super PAC against him, a notable defeat for the organization.
“We know that our issues are popular, and even at a spending disadvantage, we can win,” Working Families Party national director Maurice Mitchell said in a statement.
“However, the unprecedented levels of spending we're seeing from GOP-funded Super PACs — like AIPAC — are a danger to our democracy,” Mitchell added. “As Congressional seats grow more expensive, some candidates see an easier path to power by aligning with billionaire mega-donors over working people."
Bowman has been vastly outspent and was down in the lone independent public poll by 17 points, a devastating deficit for an incumbent.
The left-leaning Democrat sought nonetheless to reassure his supporters Friday that he was trailing in his 2020 election over then-Rep. Eliot Engel, who he went on to beat by nearly 15 points.
“We were able to win because of our incredible coalition, across race, across class, across background, across experiences, across ethnicities,” Bowman said. “We came together as a human family.”
Sally Goldenberg contributed to this report.
