Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a vocal Israel critic and 'squad' member, loses primary (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 4 months ago by downpunxx@fedia.io to c/politics@lemmy.world

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NBC News projects that Westchester County executive George Latimer defeated Bowman after a bitter and expensive Democratic race in New York’s 16th District.

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[-] bobburger@fedia.io 6 points 4 months ago

Why do you think that is?

My opinion and all the evidence I've seen is that It's because AOC wasn't vulnerable.

Polls from March show Bowman was already in trouble as far back as March. Bowman's campaign (the Upswing research poll) showed Latimer and Bowman were essentially tied. That's bad for an incumbant. The AIPAC poll from the Melman group around the same time showed an overwhelming preference for Latimer over Bowman. That's when the AIPAC started pouring money in to the campaign to exploit that weakness.

The AIPAC research showed Bowman was vulnerable, similar to why the AIPAC is spending big to replace Cori Bush but they are essentially leaving Ilhan Omar (so far).

The AIPAC analysts are highly skilled at collecting and analyzing data. This allows them to know how and where to spend their money to get the maximum return on their investment. They aren't going to waste money trying to defeat a candidate like AOC who is still largely popular with their constituents.

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world -3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

We can pretend democracy is functional and do the justifying in hindsight.

Fact is AIPAC and Republicans bought Jamaal Bowman away with 15 million dollars and beat him by 10%. Bit of an elephant in the room. Bowman was one of the first to really stand up against israel.

Comparing to Cori Bush is difficult. Your article claims AIPAC spent 320K against Cori which is far less than 15 million.

[-] bobburger@fedia.io 5 points 4 months ago

Why didn't the AIPAC spend $15 million to buy AOCs seat as well if that's all there is to it?

I think something you may not be taking into account is that Bowman's district was redrawn since he first got elected, drastically changing his constituency:

The congressional district’s boundaries have shifted since Bowman first won office in 2020, losing most of its sections in the Bronx and adding more of Westchester County’s suburbs. Today, 21% of its voting-age population is Black and 42% is non-Hispanic white, according to U.S. Census figures, compared to 30% Black and 34% white in the district as it existed through 2022. Bowman is Black. Latimer is white.

This change made him particularly susceptible to a primary challenge, regardless of PAC spending.

This article shows the AIPAC has contributed almost $900 thousand to Wesley Bell's campaign as of April 30th. This isn't total spending in the race, just direct campaign contributions. Still less than they contributed to the Latimer's campaign for sure, but not insignificant. We're still almost 6 weeks until the Missouri primary election which is when the spending usually ramps up. To do an apples to apples comparison at this point in time would take more time than I care to invest but I'd love to see the results if you want to do it. Regardless of the exact figures, it's clear the AIPAC is targeting only specific progressive Democratic candidates, and it seems to me the reason they're doing so is because the candidates are already politically vulnerable.

Also Latimer beat Bowman by nearly 17% per NBC news.

[+] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world -6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

AOC is not a fierce opponent of israel. She recently invited a Zionist lobbyist on her live-stream to tell everyone that criticism of israel is anti-semitism.

Jamaal Bowman however has accused israel of committing Genocide and was one of the first to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Things we cannot say about AOC nor Bernie Sanders.

This Genocide has forced everyone to take off the mask and show what side they are truly on.

[-] bobburger@fedia.io 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I know it's hard to provide a source for a negative, but do you have any showing she is friendly to Israel and the AIPAC?

These suggest she is harshly critical of Israel, the AIPAC, and the invasion of Gaza: CNN, March 2024

NY Times, September 2021 This article shows a history of being critical of supporting Israel

Times of Israel, November 2023 This is a biased source, but it contains the tweets where AOC directly condemned the AIPAC

NY Times, November 2023 MSNBC, June 2024

The last article seems to be about the "Zionist lobbyist on her live-stream", where AOC said:

Criticism of the Israeli government is not inherently antisemitic and criticism of zionism is not automatically antisemitic. That being true does not mean that we should not recognize criticism and when that criticism crosses a line into real harms against our Jewish community.

Do you have the quote where she said "criticism is Israel is antisemitism"?

this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024

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