What’s next for Jamaal Bowman?

Jamaal Bowman is out. The two-term congressman from New York ’s 16th Congressional District was defeated in the Democratic primary by George Latimer, a longtime Westchester County pol. But Bowman’s new career, that of a professional anti-Israel activist, could be beginning. If so, he would hardly be the first U.S. politician to blame his electoral defeat on a dark and sinister Jewish conspiracy.

Bowman’s time in Congress was as stormy as it was brief. The former educator was elected in 2020 after beating Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent, in the primary. His election was hailed as a victory for the progressive wing of the party. Bowman identified as part of the so-called Squad , the group of far-left anti-Israel lawmakers that includes Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), among others. Bowman’s decision to do so was curious.

To say that Bowman’s views on Israel did not reflect those of his constituents would be an understatement. The district has a high percentage of Jewish voters. And polls consistently show that a majority of people support the Jewish state — a fact that is true of most people, Jewish or otherwise. Indeed, Engel himself had been a strong supporter of Israel. As chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Engel worked to strengthen the U.S.-Israeli relationship. Bowman chose another path.

During his campaign, Bowman did his best to obfuscate his views on Israel. He pretended to oppose the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement that maligns Israel, only to confirm his support later. And he touted his endorsement by J Street, an organization that bills itself as “pro-Israel” and “pro-peace” but is hypercritical of the Jewish state. As Commentary magazine’s Seth Mandel observed , “J Street takes lawmakers on trips to Israel seemingly designed to increase their distrust” of the country. “Bowman entered Congress a skeptic of Israel but a supporter of the two-state solution and the legitimacy of both sides in the conflict” until a 2021 J Street-organized trip “cured him of that.”

Bowman told Politico that the trip was a “transformational moment” for him and left him believing that Israel, the world’s sole Jewish state, should no longer exist in its present form. Suffice it to say, these are views well outside the mainstream of most Americans, Jewish and otherwise.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and other Iranian-backed proxies invaded Israel, perpetrating the largest massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust. Terrorists brutally butchered Israelis, proudly filming their crimes.

Bowman, however, was undeterred. While Israel was under missile barrage, he voted against funding the Iron Dome missile defense system. He accused Israel of a “genocide” of Palestinian civilians, ignoring both the tremendous steps that the Israel Defense Forces was taking to reduce civilian casualties, including some of the largest mass evacuations of civilians ever undertaken in urban combat, as well as Hamas’s use of human shields.

Polls showed broad American support for Israel in the wake of the attack. Unsurprisingly, most people found Hamas’s crimes , which include murdering children, setting the elderly on fire in their homes, torturing family members in front of one another, and raping and mutilating women, repulsive. Bowman seemed to feel differently, however.

Speaking at an anti-Israel rally in White Plains, New York, on Nov. 17, 2023, Bowman denied that Hamas raped Israeli women, calling it Israeli “propaganda.” The congressman asserted: “There’s still no evidence of behead babies or raped women, but they still keep using the lie.” Yet the evidence of Hamas’s sexual crimes was already well documented and in the public domain.

Weeks later, after a radio listener pressed him on his rape denial, Bowman walked back his remarks. Bowman told WNYC radio that “immediately when the [United Nations] provided additional evidence, I voted to condemn the violence. I apologize for my comments.”

But Bowman couldn’t help himself. In a June interview with Zeteo media, Bowman engaged in victim blaming. Bowman told actress and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon: “I think this unequivocal support of Israel, without any critique, has gotten us to this horrible place.” Bowman said unquestioning support of Israel fuels antisemitism. Yet blaming Jews for the violence perpetrated against them is a staple of antisemitism. It is why, for example, the Nazis forced German Jews to pay for the damages wrought by Kristallnacht, a government-sponsored pogrom. And Bowman’s claim that support for Israel is “unequivocal” is absurd on its face. The Jewish state is singled out for opprobrium and attacked, be it by the U.N. or the New York Times, far more than any other nation. No other country has its very existence questioned so frequently.

Bowman’s theory that a lack of a Palestinian state fuels antisemitism, while popular on the progressive Left, is ahistorical. As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis has documented , Arab terrorist groups were attacking and murdering Jews long before Israel was re-created in 1948. Further, for more than half a century, Palestinian leaders have rejected numerous offers for statehood, several of them made by Israel, if it meant living in peace next to a Jewish state. Their reasoning, as revealed in their speeches and media , is simple: They consider all of Israel to be an “occupation.” They want every inch of it to be a Palestinian state. “From the river to the sea,” as both Hamas and the Democratic Socialists for America say.

Even if he wouldn’t admit it publicly, Bowman seemed aware that he had an image problem. In the weeks before the 2024 primary election, a leaked text exchange from 2022 showed that Bowman had solicited pictures of himself with a rabbi as part of a bid to improve his standing. “Do you have any pics of us? So, I can show the world that I’m friends with Jewish people,” he texted the rabbi.

Bowman’s problems extended beyond his positions on Israel. In January 2024, it was revealed that he had once maintained a personal blog that he used to share both bad poetry and conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bowman claimed 7 World Trade Center was destroyed in a controlled demolition and that Osama bin Laden was “blamed” as an excuse for America to wage war in Afghanistan.

In September 2023, Bowman attracted both media attention and mockery for pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building shortly before Congress was scheduled to vote on a government funding bill. The building was evacuated and the vote delayed. Bowman, a former school principal , claimed he had pulled the fire alarm “by accident.”

This is a lot of controversy for a junior member of Congress, let alone one representing a district like Bowman’s. Indeed, his predecessor, Engel, soft-spoken and diligent, was the precise opposite of a fire starter.

With polls showing an impending loss, Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez gave a last-minute get-out-the-vote rally in the Bronx in which a T-shirt-clad Bowman went into a “profanity-laced tirade more reminiscent of a DJ at a foam party than a U.S. congressman seeking reelection in a tough race,” as News Nation anchor Dan Abrams put it . In her remarks, Ocasio-Cortez framed a vote for Bowman to be a vote to “defeat AIPAC,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which works to build bipartisan support for the Jewish state. The Bronx, however, accounts for but a sliver of Bowman’s district. Rather, most of the 16th includes Westchester County. And early returns suggested a high percentage of early voting by Jewish voters.

Unsurprisingly, Bowman lost, handily defeated by the decidedly uncontroversial Latimer. A centrist, Latimer seems like a better fit for the district than Bowman. J Street, which had pulled its endorsement for Bowman, nonetheless mourned his electoral defeat.

Some of Bowman’s allies have argued that the soon-to-be former congressman should next seek to unseat Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who is pro-Israel and serves the 15th District. Should Bowman choose to do so, it would be unsurprising. After all, he had spent most of his brief congressional career fixated on attacking the Jewish state instead of representing his constituents. Targeting Torres, who has been outspoken in defending Israel and fighting antisemitism, would be a logical choice.

It remains to be seen whether Bowman will primary Torres. But his future career as a professional anti-Israel activist seems assured. Bowman’s radicalism and conspiratorial nature are undeniable. He spent an inordinate amount of time fixated on vilifying Israel. There is little reason to expect him to stop now. Further, his time on the campaign trail suggests this might be the next step.

Bowman and his allies railed against pro-Israel organizations “flooding” the race with “outside money.” Sympathetic media profiles by New York magazine, Politico, and the Washington Post echoed the charge. This, of course, conveniently overlooked the fact that Bowman himself was reliant on outside contributions. And, as Matthew Kassel of Jewish Insider noted , “the Congressman’s focus on outside spending has obscured an on-the-ground reality reflected in what Jewish voters describe as their widespread disenchantment with his lack of meaningful outreach both before and after Hamas’s attacks.”

The charge of undue Jewish political influence has been a staple of antisemitism for centuries. Ditto for the notion that Jews have “dual loyalty” and therefore are intrinsically disloyal. Both are inherent to the idea that outside pro-Israel money, be it from AIPAC or elsewhere, won the race. For some reason, it is deemed acceptable for other minority groups to lobby for their own beliefs and interests, yet only when Jews do so is it viewed by some to be problematic. The truth, of course, is less conspiratorial: Bowman did not represent the views of most of his constituents. A politician, the 18th century British parliamentarian Edmund Burke famously noted, owes the voters both his “industry” and his “judgment.” Bowman had neither.

Yet Bowman’s career as a failed politico-turned-professional anti-Israel activist could just be beginning. American history is replete with examples of politicians who have blamed Jews and the Jewish state for their failures.

Among the more recent is Cynthia McKinney, who served as part of Georgia’s congressional delegation from 1993 until 2007. Like Bowman, McKinney began her career as an educator before turning to politics. The two have other things in common, as well.

McKinney lost her reelection bid for Georgia’s 4th District in 2002, only to regain her seat briefly the following cycle. McKinney’s father, himself a Georgia state legislator, knew whom to blame for her defeat. As he told an Atlanta television reporter on Aug. 19, 2002: “The Jews have bought everybody.” After that initial loss, McKinney began to push 9/11 conspiracy theories. McKinney’s personal behavior while serving in Congress was also erratic . In 2006, she allegedly assaulted a Capitol Hill police officer. McKinney was not indicted, nor did she face disciplinary action by the House. In 2007, the congresswoman lost her seat in a primary runoff to Hank Johnson, who, like Latimer, was a former county executive and longtime pol.

Once out of office, McKinney became even more radical, attending events with Holocaust deniers and praising antisemitic books that warned of sinister Jewish financial and political influence. McKinney also displayed an affinity for antisemitic autocrats, praising the Islamic Republic of Iran, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, and others. She took part in anti-Israel propaganda trips, appeared on Iranian state media, and worked to end Israel’s blockade of Gaza — a blockade initiated to prevent the smuggling of weapons to Hamas.

McKinney was more than critical of Israel, however. In 2016, the former congresswoman blamed Israel for terrorist attacks in Germany and France that had been perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In 2020, she questioned how many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, posting, “So, the figure wasn’t six million after all? What about those punished and even imprisoned for saying so??” And on June 28, 2021, McKinney posted a meme that implied that “Zionists” were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On the 21st anniversary of those attacks, McKinney again took to social media to promote a livestream called, “Can Black People and White People Work Together to Defeat Our Common Enemy?” The graphics featured a Star of David. The two hosts of the livestream were Ayo Kimathi, the author of a book titled Jews Are the Problem, and David Duke, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and noted antisemite.

McKinney is perhaps the most infamous example of a disgraced legislator-turned-anti-Israel activist. But she is far from alone.

In 1982, Republican Rep. Paul Findley of Illinois lost his seat to current Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). A centrist Republican who had served in Congress since 1960, Findley was opposed by AIPAC, which backed Durbin. Findley blamed the “pro-Israel lobby” for his defeat, even authoring a book titled They Dared to Speak Out, which portrayed AIPAC as all-powerful and hell-bent on silencing critics. But as the New York Times wrote in its review, Findley’s book was “the typical reaction of a Congressman who is offended at being challenged seriously for ‘his’ seat, especially if that upstart should go so far as to beat him.” Indeed, as with both McKinney and Bowman, a confluence of factors led to Findley’s defeat. As the journalist Ron Kampeas observed : “Dig a little into the poor performance of most any Israel-critical candidate, and one finds a lot more going on than Middle East policy.” Nonetheless, Findley spent his subsequent years speaking out about what he portrayed as undue Jewish political influence. Findley authored columns, gave lectures, and wrote books while claiming that sinister outside forces were working to silence him.

In 1984, Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois, a Republican, lost his reelection bid to Paul Simon, a Democrat. In the error-laden book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, academics Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer portray Percy as a victim of pernicious pro-Israel forces. Yet while Simon did receive support from Jewish and pro-Israel organizations upset with Percy’s voting record, Percy, like Findley, was out of touch with both his base and his constituents. And Percy, like Findley, would spend subsequent years railing against AIPAC.

The same playbook has been repeated on multiple occasions. Adlai Stevenson III, a senator from Illinois and son of the 1952 and 1956 Democratic presidential nominee, would chalk losing his Senate seat to the “Israel lobby.” More recently, Nina Turner, a progressive Democrat from Ohio, lost a 2021 primary bid for a seat in the House. Turner and her supporters attributed her loss to AIPAC and “outside forces.” But like Bowman, McKinney, Findley, and Percy, foreign policy was just one of many factors — and often it wasn’t the preeminent reason.

Perhaps the most famous politician to blame his loss on a pro-Israel lobby is Jimmy Carter. Over the years, the 39th president has offered several reasons for his 1980 loss to Ronald Reagan. Carter received only 45% of the Jewish vote, and in his diaries and statements, the onetime Georgia governor indicated he believed this loss of support contributed to his defeat. It is possible to view portions of Carter’s post-presidency as an attempt to get even.

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The former president has libeled Israel as an “ apartheid state ” and has placed the onus for the lack of peace in the Middle East on the Jewish state. Like others, he has warned of a “Jewish lobby” that seeks to silence his views — views that have been disseminated in error-filled bestselling books, TV appearances, and New York Times op-eds.

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said that “there are no second acts in American lives.” Yet some former politicians seem to have made second careers out of warning of undue Jewish political influence. Bowman could be the latest iteration. He has the resume.

Sean Durns is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.