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Jamaal Bowman Sure Didn't Take His Primary Loss Well

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  June 26, 2024 4:00 PM

On Tuesday night, soon to be former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) lost his primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a result that was largely expected. The Squad member doesn't look to be going quietly, though, as his aggressive concession speech was filled with much of what we've already heard from Bowman. Sure enough, Bowman looks to continue to play the victim, with many others outraged about the outcome of the race all going for a similar narrative.

After facing such a loss, Bowman's concession speech employed the very same talking points he used throughout his losing campaign: blaming pro-Israel groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). 

Bowman's post of the video stream of his speech was met with mockery for all of the issues it was experiencing, but the speech itself received considerable attention. This is especially as Bowman at one point ranted about the role AIPAC played in his race. 

"Fox & Friends" coverage from Wednesday morning noted that Bowman was "opting not to congratulate his opponent during his concession speech," though that seems to be the least of why such a speech was so problematic.

"We should not be well adjusted to a sick society," Bowman said. "We should be outraged. 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. We should be outraged about that."

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That Bowman would accuse AIPAC of "brainwash[ing] people" by encouraging voters to nominate a pro-Israel candidate is definitely notable, even if it's not unexpected. Bowman has used anti-AIPAC rhetoric before, as he did last month when claiming the group has "full control of this district, just like they now have full control of Congress--as they fund everyone in Congress."

Regardless as to AIPAC's role in the race, Bowman had anti-Israel views that were of great concern to a district with a considerable amount of Jewish voters. Perhaps most concerning is that last November he claimed it was a "lie" and "propaganda" to say that Israeli women had been raped by Hamas on October 7. Bowman made such claims despite how there were already reports and testimonies of such atrocities taking place at the time. He's since apologized, including last week, though he didn't do so when initially confronted by POLITICO in March, and rather did so with a statement from his office.

The candidates' positions on the Israel-Hamas war played a role in this race. Earlier this month, a poll from The Hill/Emerson showed that 45 percent of voters said they're more so aligned with Latimer on the conflict, while 29 percent said they were aligned with Bowman, and 26 percent were unsure. 

Bowman also brought up another complaint he's had about AIPAC, which is that they dare to support pro-Israel candidates from both sides of the aisle. "We should be outraged when, unfortunately, some so-called Democrats are aligning themselves with radical, racist, right-wing Republicans." 

Bowman held views likely problematic to voters in the district that didn't even have anything to do with Israel, such as his conspiracy theories, including about 9/11, and how he pulled the fire alarm late last September when Congress was voting to avert a government shutdown, despite how here was no fire. Sure enough, "Fox & Friends" co-host Steve Doocy mentioned how "it was a fire alarm puller for the people on the progressive left, because he was beaten by a moderate!"

Many have also demanded that Bowman be held more accountable for pulling the alarm than he actually has been, which amounted to being let off easy by DC and the House Ethics Committee. 

Going for a more serious note, co-host Lawrence Jones offered "hopefully this was a lesson for the Democratic Party, if you take this position, you're going to lose, by big margins" when it comes to having "an anti-Israeli position." Lawrence and his co-hosts also made note of how this is a district in New York, which has the most Jewish-Americans in the country.

They also mocked Bowman for his rally last weekend in the Bronx, with Jones reminding how it "wasn't even in his district." Jones also added that "he was just trying to appear like he had this massive support and voters rejected him rightfully," though Bowman "didn't even have the decency to call his opponent and offer a concession."

Another part of the speech garnering attention is when Bowman yelled repeatedly at people in the room of his watch party, wanting to know, "why you messing up?!"

Bowman isn't alone in not taking his loss well. In addition to the various trends over social media to do with the race and its outcome, there's also been plenty of hysterical takes from many decrying the role that AIPAC played in the race. 

Fox News also highlighted some unhinged reactions over X. A common theme with such posts has been how AIPAC spending money in a race to support a pro-Israel candidate who aligns with their values is somehow a threat to democracy. It's a take fellow Squad member, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has gone with as she campaigned for Bowman. AOC, who won her primary race on Tuesday, has mostly focused on her own race since then, though she did tag the wrong X account when speaking about her colleague's loss. 

It wasn't merely just anti-Israel commentators weighing in, though. 

The move also looks to put Democrats in disarray, considering others weighed in, like anti-Israel Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) who has expressed giddiness at serving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant. 

Sunjay A Muralitharan, the national vice president of College Democrats also posted a claim that AIPAC was "proving once again that they are willing to buy our democracy if it means propping their far right regime abroad."

There's been some pro-Israel, pro-Latimer takes from Democrats as well, such as from Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist who reposted a particularly nasty take from the New Republic's Kate Aronoff to call out the antisemitism involved. Many of the replies still reminded Smith of how her party is in disarray over supporting Israel.

In addition to the primary process being an example of the democratic process in action, it's also worth reminding that Bowman himself received a substantial amount of money in the race, almost all of it from outside of the district, while a majority of Latimer's came from within the district. Further, Bowman himself came into office when he ousted a Democratic incumbent, then Rep. Eliot Engel, in the 2020 primary. 

Although Bowman is the first member of the Squad to lose his primary, he may not be the only one to lose a primary this cycle. There's also been chatter about Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), as Spencer covered. She too looks likely to lose her seat in an August primary against DA Wesley Bell, who has spoken at length about his pro-Israel views, which also stand in strong contrast to Bush's position against our ally in the Middle East.