Part of the north Bronx played host to the country’s most-watched — and most expensive — Democratic primary congressional race that gave Westchester County Executive George Latimer a hard-fought victory over progressive two-term incumbent Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the 16th Congressional District.
While progressives lost Bowman Tuesday night, they put Bronx and Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez back in her post in the 14th Congressional District.
Unofficial state Board of Elections results showed that Latimer received 58.1% of the vote, while Bowman received 41.3% of the 76,360 total votes cast. As the Democratic nominee, Latimer will almost certainly win election to the two-year term in November.
Polling ahead of the election showed a strong lead for Latimer, leaving Bowman to “fight for his political life” as he competed for a third term in Congress.
Latimer, who has served as Westchester County Executive since 2018, has never lost an election in his three-decade political career, according to his county bio. He held a Tuesday night event in White Plains with a crowd of several hundred that turned into a victory party within an hour of the polls closing.
As 9 p.m. drew close, a crowd gathered by the stage, glued to TV coverage of the results. The Associated Press called Latimer’s victory at 9:38 p.m., and the crowd cheered and seemed to lose attention on the program in progress.
A few minutes later, Latimer himself took the podium, walking in to the Motown hit “I’ll Be There” by the Four Tops.
Although Bowman came out with an early lead as election results began to pour in from the Bronx just after polls closed at 9 p.m., Latimer — a veteran in Westchester County politics who has never lost an election — saw his lead grow as Westchester County results were tallied, and it quickly became insurmountable.
While the NY-16 is home to nearly 777,000 residents, the vast majority of them are in Westchester, including Yonkers, White Plains and Rye — with only about 10% of the district population in the Bronx.
‘You’ve seen who I am’
Latimer took the stage just before 10 p.m., surrounded by signs reading “Results Not Rhetoric” and accompanied by family members, colleagues and union representatives.
Latimer did not mention his opponent by name and spoke of the need for unity in the Democratic party and country as a whole.
“The only way this country rises is if we all rise — all of us together,” he said, even calling on Mets and Yankees fans to unite. “Our inclusiveness in Westchester County is how we have governed.”
The 70-year-old reminisced about his election to the Rye City Council at age 34 and his years of service in state-level government.
“You don’t need a campaign ad to show you who George Latimer is. You’ve seen who I am,” he said.
A supporter in her 50s named Lena, who lives in Rye, told the Bronx Times that she has followed Latimer’s career for years and is well-acquainted with his decision-making.
“He has good judgment,” Lena said. “I trust he’ll do what’s right.”
‘This should provoke a crisis in the Democratic party’
This year’s primary races reflected divisions within the Democratic party along race and age lines, with the Israel-Hamas war a huge factor in the outcome of NY-16.
On the Hudson River in Yonkers, the mood in Bowman’s election party crowd was somber Tuesday evening after word of his defeat spread. Many people sporting “Team Bowman” and “Jews for Jamaal” tee shirts embraced, and others even cried.
But upon his entrance, the large crowd gathered toward the stage at the front of the Grand Roosevelt Ballroom and cheered for the incumbent.
“We will never stop, we mustn’t ever stop,” Bowman said. “This race was never about me and me alone, it was never about this district and this district alone, it was always about all of us. Our opponents … may have won this round at this time in this place, but this will be a battle for our humanity and justice for the rest of our lives.”
Robert Naiman, one of many people in a “Jews for Jamaal” T-shirt, told the Bronx Times on Tuesday night that he traveled all the way from Chicago to support Bowman’s candidacy.
“I flew out here for the weekend, for the final push to knock on doors for Jamaal,” he said before officials called the race. “I hope Jamaal wins, but even if he loses, I’m damn glad I was here.”
Naiman said he is particularly passionate about dispelling what he said were untruths about Bowman’s relationship to Jewish constituents. Bowman, a member of the progressive “Squad” in the House, has been one of the most outspoken about his opposition to the war in Palestine and has repeatedly called for a permanent ceasefire. Latimer, however, has said he supports the Israeli government’s military offensive efforts to take out Hamas terrorists and believes in a peaceful two-state solution.
Naiman criticized Latimer’s campaign for likening Bowman’s opposition to Israeli military operations and his call for a permanent ceasefire to antisemitism.
“I want to be like ‘No, actually that’s not antisemitic,’ Naiman said. “Those are my Jewish views that I’ve been fighting for my whole damn life and Jamaal is being attacked for having my views and trying to represent my views in the political system. So damn right I’m going to be here to do whatever I can to try and defend Jamaal from that attack.”
The race made headlines for being the most expensive House primary in American history in large part due to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which according to Politico had contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars and spent around $16 million “attacking Bowman,” $14 million of which was used in an ad campaign.
The funding, which Bowman called “dark money” during his concession speech Tuesday night, was a huge talking point among the progressive’s supporters.
Ashik Siddique, the co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), said he did a lot of Bowman canvassing — some of which was in the north Bronx. He said some of the Bronx residents he spoke to had seen Latimer’s campaign ads.
“They were saying ‘We’re really nervous about this,’” he said. “There’s a lot of fear about what Latimer represents and what all this money represents.”
DSA is working to build a system outside of the political binary, Siddique said, which he said has still proved successful in other races where constituents have put Democratic socialists into office. Some of those include the AOC race in NY-14 last night, as well as Assembly District 37 electing Claire Valdez in western Queens. Another candidate endorsed by DSA, Jonathan Soto — who announced his third bid against longtime East Bronx Assembly Member Michael Benedetto this year — didn’t pan out. Soto lost the 82nd Assembly District with 37% of the vote as of Wednesday morning.
Siddique said the NY-16 race proves how “Palestine really is like a kind of hinge point” in United States politics right now, commending Bowman for advocating for Palestinian rights even though it put his position in jeopardy.
“Latimer represents rich which people in Westchester and that’s similar to what the state of Israel is doing in Gaza, and it’s all connected. So I think this race kind of puts that in really stark relief,” Siddique said. “That’s what AIPAC and these billionaires see, that’s why they’re so invested in crushing a Black high school principal who stood up for the people.”
Eva Borgwardt was standing in the front row while Bowman gave his remarks on primary night, just one in a larger group wearing “Jews for Jamaal” tees.
She’s a spokesperson for IfNotNow — a movement of American Jewish people organizing to end the country’s support for Israel’s “apartheid system” and reject AIPAC.
After Bowman’s remarks, Borgwardt told the Bronx Times the NY-16 race “was a question of whether our democracy works for the majority of Americans.” She said the group has organized to “combat the narrative that this is Jewish versus everyone else in the district.”
“This should provoke a crisis in the Democratic party for whether we will allow special interests, including Republican mega-donors, to pour money into Democratic districts,” Borgwardt said.
Outcome of NY-16 draws interest from top talking heads
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who joined Ocasio-Cortez to stump for Bowman in the South Bronx on June 22, took to social media to blast the big-money political organizations that he said rendered Bowman’s overwhelming support in the Bronx inconsequential.
“It is an outrage and an insult to democracy that we maintain a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaire-funded super PACs to buy elections,” he said in a June 26 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that $23 million was spent to defeat Bowman, compared to Bowman’s $3 million spent.
In a post today on X, Ocasio-Cortez praised Bowman, a former school principal and fellow member of the progressive “Squad,” as a “true public servant.”
But AIPAC celebrated Latimer’s win in a post on X, saying “the Many have spoken” — co-opting Bowman’s campaign slogan of “the many vs. the money.”
Bowman’s last-minute efforts included a march to the polls in the Edenwald neighborhood of the Bronx late Tuesday afternoon. Ocasio-Cortez was scheduled to accompany Bowman at the event but had to cancel after it got a late start.
Leading a youth drumline in a march around the Edenwald Houses and wearing a shirt reading “Showing Up for Racial Justice,” Bowman hugged and shook hands with passersby — all of whom appeared to be people of color.
Speaking to the press and passersby, Bowman deflected attention away from himself and spoke broadly of the consequences of the hotly-contested race.
“This is not just about Jamaal Bowman or one congressional seat. This is about the future of our democracy and this is about our humanity,” he said.
He also blamed big-money oligarchs and Republicans for interfering in the Democratic primary.
“The world is watching this,” Bowman said. “And if this goes down the way they want it to go down, our credibility is shot in terms of it being a democracy.”
In the end, the effort was not enough to overtake the more moderate Westchester County contingency that broke for Latimer.
Bowman “seems to be losing his mind a little,” said Latimer supporter Matthew McSpedon, an electrician and Local 3 union member who spoke to the Bronx Times at the victory party.
AOC cruises to victory
While Bowman struggled, fellow progressive Ocasio-Cortez sailed to victory with 82% of the vote in NY-14, which includes parts of several East and South Bronx neighborhoods and parts of Queens including Astoria and Jackson Heights.
“It is the honor of my life to fight for working families and everyday people,” she said in a statement issued Tuesday night. “To receive this level of support is deeply moving.”
Her opponent, Marty Dolan, ran on a moderate platform that attacked his opponent’s policies as “radical” — and in doing so gained support from conservative groups looking to take down Ocasio-Cortez.
Job Creators Network, a conservative nonprofit focused on business growth, reportedly backed a Democrat for the first time in taking out a giant Times Square billboard that read “Vote Democrat Marty Dolan Now!”
In a statement issued Wednesday on Instagram, Dolan congratulated Ocasio-Cortez on her victory.
“I just wasn’t a good enough candidate, quickly enough,” he said. “There are lessons to learn. It’s on me to learn them.”
But Dolan seemed to leave open the possibility of a future re-run. “I owe it to [my campaign manager] and to you to be a better candidate next time.”
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