{"id":3643,"date":"2018-01-02T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T22:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/?page_id=3643"},"modified":"2024-07-03T17:44:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T21:44:58","slug":"jewish-insider-in-closing-arguments-bowman-leans-in-on-extreme-rhetoric-toward-israel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/jewish-insider-in-closing-arguments-bowman-leans-in-on-extreme-rhetoric-toward-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"JEWISH INSIDER: In closing arguments, Bowman leans in on extreme rhetoric toward Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 22: U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) speaks during a rally at St. Mary’s Park on June 22, 2024 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Supporters gathered three days before New York’s primary elections as incumbent Rep. Bowman (D-NY) attempts to retain his seat in a heated primary race. (Photo by David Dee Delgado\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Matthew Kassel<\/a>, Jewish Insider<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) turned up the heat in his closing arguments to supporters at a sweltering campaign rally in the South Bronx on Saturday, during which he uncorked a profanity-laden tirade against AIPAC, accused his primary challenger of supporting genocide in Gaza and reiterated his call for a cease-fire, which he has defiantly embraced as one of his top issues in Tuesday\u2019s primary election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weekend rally, joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), was held outside Bowman\u2019s district, which covers Westchester County and a small portion of the North Bronx. The location choice underscored how Bowman, an embattled two-term incumbent, appears to have cut his losses<\/a> in seeking to court key constituencies at the end of a bruising primary that polling has shown he is likely to lose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also demonstrated how Bowman, 48, is leaning into<\/a> his extreme positions and caustic rhetoric in the final days of a closely watched race against George Latimer<\/a>, the popular Westchester County executive who is leading by double digits, according to polls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latimer, a 70-year-old Democrat, has gained widespread support from the district\u2019s sizable and politically engaged Jewish community, leading members of which had urged him to mount<\/a> his challenge as Bowman grew increasingly hostile to Israel in the months following Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 terror attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The race has drawn millions in outside spending from pro-Israel political groups such as AIPAC, which also encouraged Latimer to run. Its super PAC has been hammering Bowman on the airwaves in what has now become one of the most expensive House primaries in history. The barrage of attacks has infuriated Bowman and his far-left allies, who have charged that AIPAC\u2019s efforts <\/strong>are<\/strong>subverting democracy with backing from the right-wing donor class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have already lost, because the district, the world and the American people are with us,\u201d Bowman exclaimed<\/a> on Saturday in a public park that sits outside his district. \u201cThey are in this race because we call for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, and we\u2019re going to keep calling for a permanent cease-fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading attendees in a chant for a \u201ccease-fire now,\u201d Bowman insisted that he would \u201cnot stand silent while U.S. tax dollars kill babies and women and children,\u201d accusing Latimer of supporting what the congressman has frequently called a genocide in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that Latimer is seeking to \u201cdestroy\u201d democracy in partnership with AIPAC. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna showing fucking AIPAC the motherfucking power of the South Bronx,\u201d Bowman said<\/a> at the rally, where he used a number of expletives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as Bowman and his allies have framed the primary as an existential battle to fend off what Sanders described in his speech<\/a> at the rally as \u201cthe billionaire class\u201d and \u201coligarchs\u201d seeking to \u201ccontrol the United States government,\u201d polling had strongly indicated that the congressman was at risk of losing his seat several weeks before AIPAC had entered the race in mid-May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early April, Democratic Majority for Israel\u2019s political arm, DMFI PAC, which has invested $1 million in the race to boost Latimer, released a poll of the district<\/a> that it had conducted in late March, showing Bowman losing by 17 points with only 35% of the Democratic primary vote. Later, in mid-June, a separate independent survey<\/a>all but replicated those results, indicating that Bowman would lose by the same deficit \u2014 and with just 31% of the Democratic primary vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last cycle, AIPAC and DMFI PAC chose not to invest<\/a> against Bowman as he successfully fended off two pro-Israel challengers who effectively split the Jewish vote. Still, he prevailed with only 54% of the vote \u2014 hardly a commanding total for an incumbent lawmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DMFI PAC, which has hoped to oppose Bowman since be defeated a pro-Israel incumbent<\/a> in 2020, determined that this cycle was ripe for an upset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group disclosed to Jewish Insider<\/em> on Friday that it has been tracking Bowman\u2019s standing among voters for years, citing previously undisclosed polling that suggests his approval ratings have been dwindling for some time, owing in part to a series of damaging scandals such as his decision to falsely pull a House fire alarm<\/a>last fall \u2014 which drew a GOP-led censure as well as a misdemeanor charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between July 2022 and March 2024, as the scandals continued to mount<\/a>, DMFI PAC said its polling in the district showed that Bowman\u2019s favorability rating had dropped by 19 points, while his unfavorability rating had skyrocketed by 27 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between March and June, meanwhile, DMFI PAC said it polled the district again to test if a strategy of reaching Black and Latino voters, whom Bowman has been rallying to turn out in the primary, had made a discernible impact. Its paid outreach efforts to those communities, the group claimed, resulted in some movement for Latimer \u2014 including an increase of 14 points among Black voters and 12 points among Latino voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe truth is, the paid efforts were icing on the cake,\u201d said a DMFI PAC source who agreed to discuss the group\u2019s efforts on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Bowman\u2019s rally highlighted the intensity of growing intra-party divisions over Israel that are likely to figure prominently in other House races this summer, it also suggested that the far left\u2019s coalition has recently been splintering as radical pro-Palestinian activists have turned away from some Squad members, citing their support for President Joe Biden\u2019s reelection campaign as an endorsement of his approach to the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, Bowman\u2019s event was disrupted<\/a> by protesters who held signs describing Bowman and his allies as \u201cZionists\u201d and calling on them to \u201cdump Genocide Joe and the Squad,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latimer, for his part, kept a lower profile<\/a> over the weekend, content to allow Bowman\u2019s theatrics and us-against-them rhetoric to take center stage ahead of Tuesday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a turnout race, y\u2019all,\u201d Bowman said at a separate rally in Westchester on Friday. \u201cThis is not about persuasion. We got our people. They got their people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Matthew Kassel, Jewish Insider Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) turned up the heat in his closing arguments to supporters at a sweltering campaign rally in the South Bronx on Saturday, during which he uncorked a profanity-laden tirade against AIPAC, accused his primary challenger of supporting genocide in Gaza and reiterated his call for a cease-fire,… more JEWISH INSIDER: In closing arguments, Bowman leans in on extreme rhetoric toward Israel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3644,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3643","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nJEWISH INSIDER: In closing arguments, Bowman leans in on extreme rhetoric toward Israel - Jewish Political Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/jewish-insider-in-closing-arguments-bowman-leans-in-on-extreme-rhetoric-toward-israel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JEWISH INSIDER: In closing arguments, Bowman leans in on extreme rhetoric toward Israel - Jewish Political Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Matthew Kassel, Jewish Insider Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) turned up the heat in his closing arguments to supporters at a sweltering campaign rally in the South Bronx on Saturday, during which he uncorked a profanity-laden tirade against AIPAC, accused his primary challenger of supporting genocide in Gaza and reiterated his call for a cease-fire,… more JEWISH INSIDER: In closing arguments, Bowman leans in on extreme rhetoric toward Israel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/jewish-insider-in-closing-arguments-bowman-leans-in-on-extreme-rhetoric-toward-israel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Political Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-03T21:44:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/bowman-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/\",\"name\":\"Jewish Political Guide\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/jewish-insider-in-closing-arguments-bowman-leans-in-on-extreme-rhetoric-toward-israel\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajcongress.org\/jewishpoliticalguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/bowman-1.jpeg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1365,\"caption\":\"NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 22: U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) speaks during a rally at St. Mary's Park on June 22, 2024 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Supporters gathered three days before New York's primary elections as incumbent Rep. Bowman (D-NY) attempts to retain his seat in a heated primary race. 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