Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) has recently been portrayed in the media as a target of Jewish voters for his stance on Israel. That is an incomplete picture.
Bowman is simply unfit to serve anybody for a variety of reasons.
Liar and hypocrite. Bowman voted against Biden’s infrastructure bill and then told constituents he supported it in his September/October 2021 newsletter. Bowman criticized Sen. Joe Manchin for opposing that bill when Bowman himself voted against it, making him a hypocrite as well (Dec. 26, 2021). Bowman continues to lie to his constituents, such as claiming that he brought in $100 million into “the District” when only $5.5 million went to Westchester County with the balance going to New York City (Jan. 9, 2023). Similarly, Bowman claimed that the average donation to his campaign was only $40 when it was $607, 15 times as much (Nov. 16, 2022).
Dangerous. Bowman infamously pulled the fire alarm putting hundreds of people’s lives at risk just to delay a House vote, and then lied about the episode, even while the entire event was caught on video (Sept. 30, 2023). The offense is a felony but he was able to plead it down to a misdemeanor charge.
Undermines safety. Bowman’s disregard for public safety can also be seen in his calls to “Defund the Police” (Aug. 20, 2020) and to “Abolish ICE” (Sept. 15, 2020).
Uses vile antisemitic language for theater. Bowman often uses inflammatory language, such as calling Republicans “Nazis” (March 7, 2023) and “terrorists” (May 25, 2023). He’s even taken aim at fellow Democrats including President Joe Biden and other politicians calling them “racists” and “xenophobic” for opposing the Chinese company TikTok (March 22, 2023), which has become the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis according to many.
Race baiter. Bowman relishes his own racism. After a Black man was killed by five Black police officers, he said that the victim was “killed by White supremacy” (Feb. 6, 2023). He took the floor of Congress to say Republicans are too White and racist to understand a Brown Muslim woman (Nov. 7, 2023) and even called the non-partisan filibuster rule in Congress “racist” in June 2023.
Extremist. Bowman is among the least bipartisan Democrats, ranking 396 out of all 435 members of Congress according to the Lugar Center House scorecard. His voting record is nearly identical with extremists Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). In addition to his voting record, Bowman criticized Biden for occasionally moving to the center “to acquiesce to the so-called independent voter” (May 17, 2023), as if bipartisanship and moderation is terrible.
Destroyer of education. Bowman aggressively stands against charter schools (Feb. 3, 2023), which is not surprising as he is heavily backed by teacher unions who advance public school teachers’ interests over students’ well-being. Bowman has also pushed to instill critical race theory throughout the school system (May 3, 2021).
Controlled by extremist groups. In his 2022 congressional race, Bowman was the largest recipient of money from the extremist political action group Justice Democrats. His top donors in 2022 were J Street, American Federation of Teachers and CUNY.
Against capitalism. Bowman has called for a “redistribution of wealth and power” (Sept. 7, 2020) and said “our current system of capitalism is slavery by another name” (Dec. 21, 2020) as well as a “genetic disease” (Nov. 8, 2023). As part of Bowman’s plans for a massive wealth redistribution under the banner of “decolonize wealth,” he wants to cancel all student debt (April 13, 2022), pay “reparations” to Black Americans (June 2023), and to annually tax unrealized gains by 30% (April 14, 2022). Bowman expects the government to simply print trillions of dollars to hand to Black people saying “the U.S. government, we have a fiat currency. It’s not tied to any natural resource like gold, so we can literally spend money into existence” (June 2023), a policy which would destroy the U.S. currency and economy.
Is against citizens in small states. Bowman wants to abolish the electoral college (Sept. 13, 2022) which was instituted to protect small states and communities in rural America.
Packing the Supreme Court. Bowman co-sponsored a bill to stuff several Democratically-appointed judges onto the court (May 3, 2023), which will simply create counter-movements when Republicans are in power.
None of these stances have anything to do with Israel. Bowman is a liar and hypocrite who stokes division and is dangerous for all Americans.
And yes, that includes Jews and Zionists.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman calling Republicans as being too White, stupid and cold to understand a Muslim woman on the House floor.
Co-authored resolution calling founding of Israel a “Nakba” (May 17, 2022). The resolution offered no language that Jews should have sovereignty and self-determination in their homeland at the same time, which often happens with “balanced” resolutions condemning both antisemitism and Islamophobia. Instead, Bowman adopted a solely Palestinian narrative, seemingly indicating that he does not believe Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel and should have a Jewish state.
Voted against supporting the Abraham Accords (April 25, 2023), which brought Israel into peace agreements with four Arab and Muslim countries. How could anyone oppose peace agreements unless they have targeted Israel for attack?
Boycotted Israeli President Herzog’s address to Congress (July 19, 2023), which was highly insulting to American Jews and Zionists as well as America’s key ally in the Middle East.
Favors conditioning aid to Israel. While President Biden clearly stated he will not condition aid to Israel, which is surrounded by terrorist groups and countries sworn to its destruction, Bowman co-authored a resolution to do just that (April 23, 2023).
Does not stand against antisemitism. Bowman has repeatedly shown that he does not care about antisemitism. He did not sign a bipartisan letter (Feb. 4, 2022) to the Department of Education to combat antisemitism on college campuses, and he voted against a resolution condemning antisemitism (July 18, 2023).
Would not condemn Hamas resolution after Oct. 7 massacre. Bowman was one of only a handful of members of Congress to oppose a resolution condemning Hamas (Nov. 2, 2023).
Would not attend synagogue vigils in his district after the Oct. 7 massacre. Many synagogues in Bowman’s district held vigils after the Hamas massacre with hundreds of attendees including several dozen politicians. Bowman skipped all of them. His reputation in the Jewish community is so bad that he held a sham “healing breakfast” regarding antisemitism in a windowless room in his office attended by only a dozen people (Nov. 6, 2023). Not one rabbi in the district attended.
Bowman’s track record is not just disgraceful to the district’s estimated 20% Jewish voters; his policies targeting the economy and education are very scary for Hispanic and Asian constituents.
Many Hispanics in the district come from families which left failing economies in Central America to come to the United States to build a prosperous life. The ideas championed by Bowman to bring socialism to America is appalling to many. The health of the economy is the number one issue for American Latinos and Asian Americans according to Pew Research, and Bowman’s virulently anti-capitalism stances put him at odds with many groups in the district.
Almost as important to Hispanic voters in Westchester County is the public school system. Favoring teachers and the powerful teacher unions over students is disgraceful. Public schools are the gateway for many Hispanic children to gain valuable life skills and pathways to a good career. A former principal who cannot recognize a fire alarm does not instill any confidence in Bowman’s capabilities.
Bowman is backed by the powerful American Federation of Teachers, the City University of New York and the socialist group Justice Democrats. He is also closely aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. These are major red flags for District 16’s large Hispanic community.
New York’s congressional District 16 leans heavily Democratic and the winner of the Democratic primary will almost certainly win the general election in November 2024. Should someone with name recognition like George Latimer enter the race, he should easily gather a massive turnout from the district’s Hispanic, Jewish and Asian communities, due to Bowman’s terrible policies.
The only question that remains is whether the New York Independent Redistricting Committee will artificially try to protect Bowman by redrawing his district into the Bronx and take away voters who support Rep. Ritchie Torres in congressional District 15. Doing so would be a new form of gerrymandering that would not add a Democratic seat but protect an extremist fringe of the party.
The entire Democratic party may pay a price for artificially seating someone unfit to serve in Congress.
