First 'Squad' member falls: Jamaal Bowman loses primary in New York's 16th District

On Tuesday, progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman became the first 'Squad' member to lose an election since the far-left group was formed in 2018.

Bowman's tormentor was moderate Democrat George Latimer, a Westchester County executive who won a New York 16th District primary that became a referendum on the radical progressives' stance on Israel.

"As a working-class kid in Mt Vernon, I watched my parents strive to provide me with the best life possible. When I graduated from high school at Memorial Field, my mom cried. She never dreamed I would be here. But tonight the voters spoke and I'm proud to be your Democratic candidate for #NY16," Latimer celebrated on X, where he thanked all his voters and funders for their support, as well as calling for Democrats to unite ahead of the November election.

According to the magazine Politico, these primaries also have the particularity of being the most expensive in the history of an election for the U.S. House.

"A leading pro-Israel group spent more than $14 million on TV ads to unseat him. And as the results rolled in, it became clear that AIPAC and its super PAC United Democracy Project had succeeded in making an example of the two-term member of Congress for routinely criticizing the Israeli offensive in Gaza," Politico noted.

Last Saturday, at an event in the Bronx, socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, joined Bowman at a rally marked by expletives from the Democratic representative who repeatedly insulted pro-Israel PACs that challenged him.

"We are going to show f–king AIPAC, the power of the motherf–king South Bronx!" Bowman said at the rally, which was held outside congressional district boundaries.

In addition to the Israel-Palestine issue, many of the TV ads attacking Bowman or praising Latimer focused on infrastructure spending and other issues of local concern, which also sends a clear message to Democrats: voters are hungry for politicians who address citizens' most everyday problems.

The win by a moderate Democrat in an important New York district also shows that the party's centrists can still fight for control of the party in an era of enormous polarization.