Westchester County Executive George Latimer sent Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) packing from Congress Tuesday night, easily winning the 16th District’s Democratic primary over the far-left „Squad“ member.
Head for the (fire) exit, Jamaal!
Westchester County Executive George Latimer sent Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) packing from Congress Tuesday night, defeating the far-left “Squad” member in the 16th District’s Democratic primary.
Latimer, 70, will be heavily favored to defeat Republican Madeline Brame in the Nov. 5 election to represent the deep-blue Bronx and Westchester constituency.
“Tonight, we turn the page and we say that we believe in the inclusion of everybody,” Latimer told cheering supporters in White Plains.
“It doesn’t matter your age, religion, sexual identity, whether you’re a right-hander or left-hander, whether you’re a Met fan or a Yankee fan — our inclusiveness in Westchester County is how we govern the people,” he added. “You can’t destroy this country with your rhetoric and your arguments. We have to have unity.”
Bowman’s four-year House tenure will come to an end following the most expensive congressional primary ever in terms of ad spending – a race which pitted pro-Bowman groups like Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party against an alliance of moderates turned off by the incumbent’s stances, mainly on Israel.
The incumbent took an early lead Tuesday night after the first results came in from the Bronx portion of the district, where Bowman racked up 83% of the vote.
But the picture changed as the Westchester precincts reported an overwhelming vote for Latimer. With two-thirds of the estimated vote tabulated as of 10:05 p.m., Latimer led Bowman by 11.6 percentage points.
Latimer’s coalition of well-funded backers included the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that spent a staggering $14 million in the race, and a cryptocurrency group called Fair Shake that bankrolled another $2 million worth of spots.
The race quickly developed into a referendum on the Israel-Hamas war and Bowman’s public comments about the Jewish state and followers of that religion.
Last week, in an interview with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, Bowman accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
