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Jamaal Bowman's Democratic primary challenger has run a campaign on white grievance

George Latimer has targeted NY-16's first Black representative with overt racism.

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When Punchbowl News asked George Latimer last week about polling that showed him leading against incumbent Jamaal Bowman in the NY-16 Democratic congressional primary, he told the outlet, “Is [Bowman] going to get at least 40% of the vote? Yes. Does he have an obvious ethnic benefit? Yes. Will he get the people who are furthest to the left? Yes. But once you get beyond a couple of constituencies that he has strength in, he’s weak everywhere else.”

As a reminder, Latimer is white and Bowman is the first-ever Black congressional representative of the district. Subtlety in this race to represent the southern Westchester/northern Bronx district is long gone, but this statement was a clear message to white voters from Latimer ahead of Tuesday’s primary: He’s running for them, and I’m running for you

Latimer’s racial animus has jumped out in the weeks leading up to the primary, which has now become the most expensive in history thanks to Latimer’s AIPAC-funded ambitions. The New York Times reported Friday that the pro-Israel lobbying group has funneled nearly $15 million to unseat Bowman. Donors to the organization include wealthy Trump supporters who have little interest in the health of the Democratic Party, and keen interest in ousting anyone who doesn’t show sufficient fealty to the Netanyahu government. 

In a virtual debate earlier this month, Latimer took a shot at Bowman’s support from Palestinian Americans, and more broadly, Muslim Americans, saying: “When you get as much money as you get from outside the district, your constituency is Dearborn, Michigan.” Dearborn is a majority-Muslim city represented by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress.

When he appeared on Good Day New York this past Saturday, he was asked about this comment—and managed to make it even worse. “In the effort to try to play the ethnic game, he accuses this of being a dog whistle about something, cuz it isn’t,” Latimer said. “It’s a straight fact of where money has been raised,” then pointing out that Bowman has done some fundraising with Tlaib, among many others.

And then Latimer kept going, creating a pretense for why, even if he wins the primary, he won’t perform well in the part of the district that encompasses the Bronx and is majority Black.

“When someone asks me, as you just did a second ago, ‘how’re you gonna do in the Bronx?’ I give you an honest answer,” he told the anchor. “I don’t give you the political answer…[Bowman] has an advantage where he has greater name recognition and where people identify with him more closely—and that’s the truth. So in terms of how that plays out, that’s not a sign of my being ethnically–oriented, it’s a sign of an honest answer of what the circumstances are.”

If Latimer thought bringing up race was a third rail for his campaign, he wouldn’t keep doing it. But he has. Because he understands a not insignificant number of voters in the district see Bowman—who unseated white, pro-Israel, 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel in 2020—as a threat to the racial status quo. 

When Bowman accused Latimer during a debate earlier this month of ignoring Black and brown communities in Westchester, Latimer shot back: “You talk about the needs of part of the district, and you completely ignore them. You don’t mention Asians. You don’t mention people who are not Black or brown. There’s a whole district, Jamaal, that you’ve ignored, and the district knows you’ve ignored it. That’s why you only have 31% in the last poll.” 

He was referring to the same poll that prompted the “ethnic benefit” comment last week. And the day before that debate, Latimer appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show, a popular local radio show, during which he got angry at a Black constituent for asking him how he could possibly represent Black people when he once compared then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to Emmett Till. 

“I think realistically we are only the demographic we are,” Latimer told Lehrer. “And then in theory, you only vote for the person who looks exactly like you. That might get you Clarence Thomas.” He was referring to the Black conservative Supreme Court Justice who was appointed to his seat, never elected.

But it hasn’t just been the final stretch of Latimer’s campaign that’s been punctuated by racism: the message has undergirded his entire primary challenge, plus parts of his career. He made the completely unfounded claim in February that Bowman is “taking money from Hamas” because of his support for a ceasefire in Gaza. This was at a Black History Month celebration at a high school in the district commemorating the 70th anniversary of school desegregation. 

And speaking of desegregation, a recent Jacobin report detailed how, as a local legislator starting in the ‘90s and later as Westchester County Executive, Latimer slow-walked desegregation and affordable housing efforts in the area—especially in the city of Yonkers, the city where Bowman now lives.

“Latimer fought the city’s attempt to abide by a federal desegregation order to the bitter end, even when it put him to the right of his own party leadership and much of the New York political establishment, Republicans included,” Jacobin wrote. “And his willingness to sue the city to block the affordable housing project stood in stark contrast to his refusal sixteen years later to do the same to advance the cause of desegregation.”

Farah Kathwari, a Muslim American in the district who previously served on Latimer’s transition team when he was elected County Executive in 2017 and on the Westchester County Human Rights Commission, published an op-ed last week with Black Westchester magazine about her concerns. In the piece she wrote about the uptick in anti-Muslim rhetoric and sentiment in the district since Donald Trump was elected President in 2016, and how Latimer’s “right wing tactics” are “promoting Islamophobia and tarnishing Bowman’s image by labeling him a terrorist sympathizer.”

“The way I see it,” Kathwari wrote, “you can either consider yourself a progressive Democrat who is fighting for equality for all, to keep special interest money out of Washington and to make our Congress more just, or you can vote for Latimer. You just can’t do both.”

Since the idea of “The Squad” even became a thing with the 2018 election of Progressive Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, its members have been pummeled by racism from both the public, Republicans and even colleagues on their side of the aisle. When Bowman was elected in 2020, he was soon considered a member and subject to the same attacks. 

The idea of young progressives of color taking even a little bit of control in the white hallowed halls of Congress hasn’t sat well with many white centrists who once saw Nancy Pelosi as the pinnacle of diversity. Imagining a better world is a fool’s errand, the squad’s critics have chirped, and Latimer has used that same playbook to come after Bowman. 

If Latimer wins on Tuesday, it will signal that Democrats have successfully wielded Republicans’ long-standing weaponization of open white grievance to take out political opponents. Instead of couching it in terms of “public safety” or being “tough on crime,” Latimer has said the racist part out loud. And we’ll see if that, combined with millions in special interest money, will be enough to win a primary. 

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