In the New York primary battle, the Gaza war took center stage.
NEW YORK CITY—Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) has lost a primary battle to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, becoming the first member of the far-left “Squad” to be unseated by a centrist Democrat.
Mr. Latimer leads Mr. Bowman 58.4 percent to 41.6 percentage points, with 88 percent reporting. The Associated Press called the race at 9:38 p.m ET.
The two-term congressman is also the first Democratic incumbent to lose their primary this year, capping off a contest that laid bare divisions within the Democratic party that have ruptured over the Israel-Hamas war.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a major pro-Israel group, emerges as another winner from the race after it poured $14 million in ads to boost Mr. Latimer, helping to make this primary the most expensive House race ever, according to ad tracker AdImpact.
Mr. Latimer said he was proud to be the Democratic nominee for the district and called on the party to unite behind him.
“While this race garnered a lot of headlines, tomorrow we turn a new page. We must come together, united to defend our Democratic values from MAGA extremism,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Mr. Bowman’s District 16, which covers the northern Bronx and Westchester County, is solidly blue, so Mr. Latimer is likely to win the seat in November.
Bowman’s Two Terms
In 2020, Mr. Bowman unseated longtime incumbent Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel in the primary and then easily crushed his Republican challenger in the fall general election. Mr. Bowman won a second term in 2022, during which he consolidated his reputation as one of the most outspokenly progressive members of the Squad, with a message of antiracism, social justice, and economic equity.
In the race that just concluded, he enjoyed the endorsement of fellow Squad members such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Rep. Cori Bush (R-Mo.), along with powerful Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.).
Mr. Bowman has courted controversy over his staunch pro-Palestinian stance, and by calling accounts of the sexual abuse of Israeli hostages “propaganda,” for which he later apologized.
