Left-wing media pundits and activists were enraged after “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., lost his primary election on Tuesday, blaming the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) role in the race.
“One of the House Democrats to come out for a ceasefire last year … is defeated,” former MSNBC host and Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan wrote on social media. “Replaced by a new House Democrat, backed by AIPAC, who deploys racist dogwhistles and refuses to criticize Benjamin Netanyahu.”
“Congress just got a lot worse than it already is,” Hasan added.
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Bowman lost to George Latimer in New York’s 16th congressional district Democratic Primary on Tuesday. Bowman, a member of the left-wing “Squad” Democrats in the House, accused AIPAC of brainwashing voters after he was projected to lose, and argued voters should be outraged.
The defeated candidate stated, “We should be outraged when a super PAC of dark money can spend $20 million to brainwash people into believing something that isn’t true. We should be outraged about that.”
Bowman, who has been outspoken about his support for Palestinians amid the war in Gaza and has charged that Israel has committed genocide, was targeted by roughly $14 million in spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the deep-pocketed pro-Israel group that supported Latimer.
“AIPAC bought another member of Congress,” Nina Turner, a former surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns, wrote.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., also took issue with AIPAC’s role, and suggested Bowman’s loss had nothing to do with Israel and Gaza.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York supported Bowman, and teamed up with the lawmaker at a rally Saturday in The Bronx.
“We are going to show f—— AIPAC, the power of the motherf—— South Bronx!” Bowman said at the rally, which was held outside the congressional district’s boundaries.
“Regardless of your opinion on Bowman, you shouldn’t celebrate an interest group, in this case AIPAC and its big donors, spending a historic $14.5 million in a primary race. Probably not the best thing for democracy,” a columnist for the Daily Beast, Wajahat Ali, wrote on social media.
“Congratulations to @AIPAC on their win in NY-16, proving once again that they are willing to buy our democracy if it means propping their far right regime abroad,” Sunjay A Muralitharan, the National Vice President of College Democrats of America, said.
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Cliff Albright, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, also took aim at AIPAC.
“Moderate Democrats—some claiming to be pro-Black—celebrating MAGA billionaires ability to literally BUY a congressional seat by replacing an unapologetically Black Black man with a mini Manchin with racist tendencies… is not gonna age well. But by all means, celebrate,” he said.
Ravi Mangla of the New York Working Families Party reacted to Latimer’s victory by suggesting that if AIPAC’s issues were popular, “they woudln’t have to spend $17 million to take out a public school principal.”
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The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote a column on Tuesday that called Bowman the “Democratic Trump.”
“This is the story of two New York demagogues. Both men have a history of bigotry, bullying, law breaking, promoting bogus conspiracy theories, engaging in obscene public rants and playing the martyr,” he wrote.
Milbank pointed to Bowman’s decision to pull a fire alarm while Democrats were trying to delay an important vote in the House. He also wrote that Bowman, a former school principal, “called the (accurate) reports of Hamas attackers raping Israeli women on Oct. 7 a ‘lie’ and ‘propaganda.’”
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