But Bowman is also reckless when it comes to stepping on ideological landmines. One of his biggest self-sabotages was claiming (for which he later apologized) that a report of an Israeli woman being raped on October 7 was a “lie” used for “propaganda.” Though he says he continues to support a two-state solution, he has fallen into the left’s habit of using the word “Zionist” as an insult, such as by referring to “the Zionist regime that we call AIPAC.” In a Politico interview, he complained about the “decision” of some Jews to segregate themselves, which many saw as an affront to the Orthodox community in his district. I doubt Bowman knew that the idea of Jews as tribal is an anti-Semitic trope, but if you have a large Jewish electorate, part of the job is to understand their sensitivities.
To be clear, Bowman is not the only one to be insensitive. The campaign against Bowman has been ugly and, at times, frankly, racist. Latimer accused Bowman of only thinking about “black and brown” voters and of “ethnic” superiority. After the candidates’ first debate, the vice chair of the Westchester County Democratic Committee called Bowman an “angry, lying black man” on Latimer’s Facebook page, adding that he would be glad if Bowman had a stroke. Ahead of Sanders’ rally in the picturesque village of Hastings-on-Hudson on Friday, some residents wrote to local leaders expressing concern that “hired agitators” could endanger the community.
They had nothing to fear. The rally, held on a sweltering afternoon, was fairly small, with no more than 200 people in attendance. The small turnout was a reminder that much of Bowman’s fan base lives outside the district. “At the end of the day, the political viability of whatever you say has to come from having a base that will keep you in office,” said Micah Shifri, a writer and organizer who helped found a group called Jamaal for Jews, though he is no longer involved with the group. Shifri said Bowman’s weakness was “failing to both build relationships with his critics (a large part of the Jewish community here) and the hard work of building a base with the rest of the local community.”
Bowman is right to be outspoken about the suffering inflicted on the Gaza Strip. But his recent shift toward anti-Zionist rhetoric, calling Israel a “settler-colonial project,” for example, has me wondering sometimes whether he’s given up on trying to win and is instead positioning himself as a political martyr. Since October 7, he has revealed that he revoked his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America after the group hosted a rally at which he accused some speakers of glorifying the attacks. But as The New York Times reported, he sought the group’s support last month, promising in a private video conference to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel. This decision puzzles me. The Democratic Socialists of America will not help Sanders win many votes in the 16th District, which performed worse than New York overall in 2020. And by aligning himself with the anti-Zionist boycott movement while professing that he still believes Israel has a right to exist, Bowman confirms many of his local critics’ concerns.
