Jamaal Bowman's Race is a Big Moment for Democrats

It's about more than one seat

Built from a photo by David Dee Delgado via Getty.

When telling the story of how the Republican Party went nuts, Eric Cantor’s primary defeat in 2014 should get a mention. Cantor was House Majority Leader and was probably going to become Speaker, because John Boehner was clearly either going to retire or kill himself (Boehner defied expectations and retired in 2015). But instead of becoming Speaker, Cantor was beaten by little-known Tea Party upstart Dave “Da Brat” Brat. This shocked House Republicans, who suddenly had to worry that the guy in front of their office dressed like George Washington handing out fliers about Operation Jade Helm might oust them in a primary.

Fear of right-wing primary challenges is probably one reason why the GOP drifted right. Nobody likes to lose, especially in a primary; “Surprise Primary Defeat” is one of the worst sections to have on your Wikipedia page, right up there with “Table Saw Accident” and “Friendship With Jeffrey Epstein”. After Cantor’s loss, Republicans were careful to protect their right flank. That’s especially true because most congressional districts aren’t competitive, so if you can survive the primary, then you’re usually on your way to a rewarding career as a do-nothing incumbent.

Squad member and fire safety enthusiast Jamaal Bowman has a primary election today. His opponent in New York’s 16th congressional district is George Latimer, a non-Squad Democrat. Several Squad members face serious challenges: Cori Bush and Ilhan Omar have races this summer, and Summer Lee — who should also have one this summer — confusingly had one in the spring (which she won).¹ These races are being closely watched by political types, partly because we’re obsessive nerds who don’t know how to have fun, but also because they have clear implications for the future of the Democratic Party.

Bowman’s rise was part of Democrats’ leftward shift in the late teens/early ‘20s. In 2020, Bowman successfully challenged 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel in a primary, and his win was hailed as the continuation of a political movement that started with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise primary win in 2018. But now, the Squad are the ones trying to fend off primary challenges. And no, the fact that the Squad got where they are through primary challenges doesn’t mean that they’re taking these challenges in stride. If gravity feels a little off right now, that might be from the humongous balls that it took for AOC to recently complain that primary challenges threaten “unity”.

Bowman typifies a type of progressivism that I consider to be a major barrier to progress. From what I can tell, Bowman has a cartoonishly simple view of the world; I imagine that he has the same POV as Kenneth from 30 Rock. He crams all issues into simple good guy/bad guy narratives that make National Lampoon movies look like nuanced meditations on the duality of man. He tries to tackle economic issues by authoring phenomenally dumb bills that basically say “everyone is rich now!” He’s a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, currently the only American organization more embarrassing than the Chicago White Sox. He repeatedly votes against practical, good-governance bills while touting pointless message bills that do nothing but fuel “get-a-load-of-what-Democrats-are-up-to-now!” segments on Fox News. Bowman’s one House vote probably doesn’t provide more benefit to Democrats than the damage that he does to the national brand, so if he was running against a rock with googly eyes, I’d probably throw my weight behind City Councilman Rock.

Above: One of the many inanimate objects that I would rather have in Congress than Jamaal Bowman.

Bowman is also a bit of a kook. Last year, he plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge after pulling a fire alarm in the Capitol in an apparent attempt to delay a vote. Despite video of the incident, Bowman said that he got confused while trying to exit the building. And that is an incredible excuse: The story that he wants us to believe is “I saw a door and got confused.” When Bowman was in his 30s, he published poetry online, and for what it’s worth, I consider “published poetry online in his 30s” to be a deal-breaker in any context. But it’s actually worse than it sounds, because Bowman’s poetry was 9/11 conspiracy theory poetry, the one type of poetry worse than centaur erotica. Bowman has not grown out of being a weirdo, either; just this week, he went on a profanity-laced tirade at a rally, and though everyone knows my position on profanity (strongly pro), the part of me that thinks it was unjust for Howard Dean to be undone by a scream feels that Jamaal Bowman should have to answer for whatever this was:

Of course, the main thing that Bowman is known for is being very anti-Israel. Bowman is opposed by both major Israel advocacy groups: J Street, which had previously endorsed him, and AIPAC, which has spent $14.5 million trying to defeat him. And that’s probably because Bowman:

• Called reports of rape on October 7 “propaganda” (he later apologized);

• Had kind words for an antisemitic YouTube star (he apologized for that, too);

• Said he wants to defund Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, which has saved countless lives from attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran;

• Has repeatedly called Israel’s Gaza campaign “genocide”;

• Co-sponsored a bill that called for a ceasefire but made no mention of hostages on October 16, 2023, at which point Israel’s counteroffensive had barely begun;

• Has referred to “75 years of military occupation” in the region, which means that he considers the very existence of Israel to be an “occupation”.

Yep — that stuff will lose you the endorsement of pro-Israel groups! Bowman is portraying himself as a victim of a big-money smear campaign, even though: 1) He was down in the polls before AIPAC entered the race; and 2) Endlessly railing about the powerful Zionist groups trying to destroy you with money might not be the world’s best way to refute charges of anti Semitism.

In my opinion, Bowman typifies the type of counterproductive left-wing populism that I’d like to see less of in politics. Bowman and the rest of the Squad bear unmissable similarities to the Freedom Caucus: They’re extreme, conspiratorial, and poorly informed. With time, the Squad could become a Freedom Caucus-style ungovernable sub-caucus. Probably the best thing that can be said of the Squad is that there are only nine of them; the Freedom Caucus, meanwhile, has 41 members. Which might be a comparison worth tracking — if you told me that the GOP currently contains 4.55556 times as much crazy as the Democratic Party, I would say: “That sounds exactly right.”

Democrats will notice if Bowman loses. If Bowman and Bush and Omar lose, the message will be crystal clear: If you drift too far left, you might get primaried from the right. Squad members’ primary wins represented a leftward pendulum swing, and their defeats would represent a move back towards the center. I hope that we see the first movement in that direction today.

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1. AOC also has an opponent, though that challenge is considered much less serious than the others.