Jamaal Bowman: Squadling In Trouble

Jamaal Bowman is a New York Congressman from the 16th congressional district, that includes a sliver of the Bronx along with part of Westchester Country. Bowman is now facing a primary challenge from George Latimer. Bowman has made quite a name for himself recently. He famously pulled a fire alarm at the Capitol, causing a 90-minute shutdown of Congress. He claimed he mistakenly thought that pulling the alarm would do nothing more than open a locked exit door, though the Republicans believe he deliberately intended the alarm to sound, which would temporarily halt discussion of a funding bill Bowman opposed. But Bowman is known mainly for his barrage of anti-Israel statements, which entitles him to be considered the newest member of The Squad. He has now entered into a joint fundraising pact with Rashida Tlaib (D-Khan Younis), who has been quite successful at raising money from Muslims, not just those in her home state of Michigan but from around the country, while Jamaal Bowman is being outspent by his challenger George Latimer. Bowman is hoping to profit from Tlaib’s fundraising ability. More on this sinister alliance can be found here: “Facing Primary Threat, Congressman Jamaal Bowman Doubles Down, Enters Joint Fundraising Pact With Anti-Israel ‘Squad’ Member Rashida Tlaib,” by Jordan Esrig, New York Sun, February 19, 2024:

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the embattled member of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s far-left “Squad” who’s come under fire for anti-Israel comments and for illegally pulling a fire alarm on Capitol Hill, has filed with the Federal Election Committee for a joint fundraising committee with the Michigan Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, who was recently censured by the House for what her detractors call antisemitic rhetoric….

The filing with the FEC, dated February 14, lists a progressive activist and failed Congressional candidate, Amy Vilela, as the custodian and treasurer of the funds. Ms. Vilela is a former co-chair of the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign for the state of Nevada.

Ms. Vilela has also been open about her animosity towards Israel. During her Congressional campaign, the former accountant endorsed the deeply anti-Israel “Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement” and advocated for the elimination of laws that punish businesses for boycotting Israel, the Jewish Insider reported at the time.

Mr. Bowman’s well-funded opponent in the June 25 Democratic primary for New York’s 16th Congressional District, George Latimer, the former Westchester County Executive, for his part was not silent about the joint fundraising committee and lambasted the move on X, formerly Twitter….

Rashida Tlaib has still not condemned Hamas for the atrocities it committed on October 7. And she was the only member of the House not to vote “Aye” on a resolution condemning Hamas for its sexual assaults — the gang-rapes, torture, and murder of girls and women. The vote was 418-0-1, with Tlaib’s vote recorded as “Present.”

Over the weekend, Ms. Tlaib, who represents a district with a large number of Arab-American voters, urged voters to cast their ballots for “uncommitted,” rather than support Mr. Biden, in Michigan’s Democratic primary….

The craven attempt by Biden to hold onto Muslim voters in Michigan by pandering to their demands for the administration to take a harder line on Israel will not work. Biden can cuss or curse Netanyahu all he wants, making sure that those remarks are reported in Michigan. He can even present at the UN a resolution calling for a “ceasefire” in Gaza that Israel opposes. But that’s not enough. Nothing short of holding back weapons deliveries to Israel until it pulls completely out of Gaza is likely to satisfy the Muslim voters in Michigan. But if those disaffected Muslims don’t vote for Biden, leading to his losing the key state of Michigan, and as a result the election goes to Trump or another Republican, there will be hell to pay as the other “progressives” blame the Muslims who abandoned Biden. Do the Michigan Muslims want that result? They are stuck with voting for Biden, even if they would prefer to vote for the candidates who are most anti-Israel — Cornel West, running as an independent, and the left-wing lady from Lexington running yet again on the Green Party ticket, Jill Stein.

Tlaib has a war chest of $3.7. Millions that she has no need to spend on her own campaign. She is running unopposed in the primary, and her district is overwhelmingly Democratic. She can instead fundraise for her comrade-in-arms in the anti-Israel brigade, Jamaal Bowman.

A local Westchester County outlet, Lohud, reported earlier in February that Mr. Latimer had raised nearly double what the incumbent had in the weeks following the county executive launching his campaign on December 6. Mr. Bowman has attributed this fundraising gap to “AIPAC and their Republican megadonors,” according to a fundraising link on the Democratic donor site, ActBlue. The America Israel Public Affairs Committee, a familiar bogeyman for the anti-Israel left, is expected to spend $100 million this election cycle to defeat anti-Israel Democrats. But despite Mr. Bowman’s criticism of Mr. Latimer’s backers, the incumbent has been overwhelmingly reliant on funds from outside his district. Seventy three percent of itemised donations for Mr. Latimer come from the 16th District, while only nine percent of individual donations to Mr. Bowman’s campaign came from the district, according to a report by USA Today Network.

A case of pot calling the kettle black: Bowman accuses his primary opponent of relying on funds from outside the district, even outside the Democratic party, money that comes from “AIPAC and their Republican megadonors.” AIPAC does not rely on “Republican megadonors.” It has three million members, most of them modest donors, and many of them are Democrats. George Latimer has raised 73% of his funds in the 16th Congressional district. It is Bowman who has relied on funds from outside the district, raising only 9% of his campaign funds from inside the 16th District.