Leading Democrats abandoned Jamaal Bowman in attacks on AIPAC

The most expensive The Democratic primary for the House of Representatives ended in historic fashion on Tuesday, as New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman fights to keep his seat despite massive spending by the pro-Israel lobby aimed at marginalizing progressive forces in Congress.

Polls in the Bronx and Westchester close at 9 p.m., with results expected Tuesday night. Polls in the race, including one funded by consultants working against Bowman, suggested he was headed for defeat. Bowman’s internal polls showed him ahead by one percentage point.

In total, outside groups spent $23 million on the campaign to unseat Bowman. More than 60 percent of that money came from one group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which pumped more than $14 million into the campaign over the course of five weeks. In total, progressive groups supporting Bowman spent $1.75 million on the campaign.

AIPAC’s spending financed ads that clogged television spots in New York and a flood of emails, texts and phone calls attacking Bowman and supporting his opponent, Westchester County Executive George Latimer. The spending — unmatched by any other outside group’s spending on Democratic primaries this election cycle and historically unprecedented — has turned the campaign into a referendum on the pro-Israel lobby’s power to oust progressive critics of Israel’s human rights abuses from Congress.

AIPAC encouraged Latimer to run against Bowman and helped pump Republican money into his campaign. The money was part of AIPAC’s plan to spend $100 million to oust the “Squad” members who were leading calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

After AIPAC failed to recruit its preferred candidates to challenge Democratic Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and challengers to other members of the Squad also failed to gain traction, AIPAC shifted its focus to fielding challengers to Bowman and Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri.

AIPAC has so far spent just over two million dollars on the Bush campaign and is supporting her opponent, St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell.

Bowman’s race is the biggest test yet of AIPAC’s new strategy. The group shifted its priorities from lobbying Congress to direct campaign spending by launching a political action committee and a super PAC in 2021.

Other groups associated with AIPAC have joined the campaign. The Democratic Majority for Israel, a group that has the same donors and other ties as AIPAC, has spent just over $1 million on the campaign against Bowman.

AIPAC’s campaign contributions have changed the Democratic Party’s electoral prospects. In the past, Democrats have taken drastic measures to protect incumbents from challenges in the primaries, but party leadership has done little to support progressive incumbents who face a barrage of attacks from AIPAC and its allies.

What has changed? In the past, party leaders have done everything they can to protect their own people from progressive insurgents.

During the 2018 election cycle, Democrats blacklisted campaign vendors who worked with progressive challengers in the primaries. As several incumbents faced challengers from their left-wing camp in the last election cycle, Democratic leaders in the House, including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., formed a new political action committee to support their members. And a new dark money group emerged to support the cause.

Party leaders have actively resisted progressive challengers, and Jeffries has campaigned across the country alongside incumbents who have faced challengers from the left.

While leading pro-Israel lobby groups poured millions into the campaign to remove Bowman, Democratic politicians were less united in their vocal support for the incumbents than in previous election cycles.

Jeffries has not appeared with Bowman on the campaign trail, although both members represent New York districts. Jeffries endorsed Bowman in March and his leadership PAC donated $5,000 to Bowman’s campaign in December. In the days before the primary, he recorded a robocall for Bowman’s campaign. (Jeffries’ office did not respond to a request for comment.)

When asked what he and other Democratic politicians would do over the past year to protect incumbents from attacks by AIPAC and groups like Democratic Majority for Israel and Mainstream Democrats PAC, Jeffries replied succinctly: “Outside groups will do what outside groups will do. I think Democrats in the House will continue to support each other.”

Another difference from when Democrats aggressively rallied around incumbents is that this time, the group funding the primaries is also funding and supporting Democratic politicians who have supported Bowman. Democrats, particularly the party’s heavyweights, have long had close ties to AIPAC, speaking at its annual conferences and leading AIPAC-sponsored trips to Israel. Since AIPAC began giving directly to candidates in the last election cycle, Jeffries has received more than $1.5 million from his PAC and has been endorsed by the group.

That leaves figures like Jeffries, as well as the next two top Democratic leaders in the House, both of whom support Bowman and accept millions of dollars from the group funding his ouster. Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., have received more than $3 million from AIPAC’s PAC since 2021. Two other AIPAC-backed members in New York, Reps. Gregory Meeks and Yvette Clarke, have supported Bowman. Meeks has received just under $800,000 from AIPAC’s PAC since 2021, and Clarke just under $48,000. (Spokespeople for Clark, Aguilar, Meeks and Clarke did not respond to requests for comment.)

AIPAC has donated millions more to other Democratic politicians who have also built reputations protecting incumbents. When Jeffries launched a political action committee to protect members in 2021, he did so alongside Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., who has received more than $1.6 million from AIPAC’s PAC since 2021.

On Monday, Gottheimer supported Latimer.