House Democrats say Jamaal Bowman is mainly to blame for his own defeat. But progressives still have to confront the reality of a shrinking Squad — and how to stem further electoral losses.
Members of the bloc said they had no plans to change their tactics — including their vocal criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza, which prompted a pro-Israel PAC to turn Bowman’s race into the most expensive primary in history — despite Bowman’s double-digit defeat to George Latimer.
The outgoing New York Democrat’s allies instead argue Bowman’s loss is attributable to his own frequent missteps as a candidate, according to interviews with two dozen of his fellow House Democrats.
“Mr. Bowman just went a little bit over the top. Some of his comments, a lot over the top. I think he just became his own worst enemy,” said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.).
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) echoed that sentiment: “I see this as a member who failed to represent the people who sent him there. And they made a decision that they wanted a different representative.”
The loss of even one member is sure to diminish the Squad’s power, since the relatively small group amassed influence in a Democratic majority by threatening to tank legislation that didn’t lean enough to the left, frustrating House leadership. But the group soon risks losing another member as well. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) has a competitive primary looming in August as she confronts personal scandals of her own, including a Justice Department investigation into her campaign spending.
Other Squad members have mostly coasted through their primaries, attracting weak challengers or none at all. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Summer Lee (D-Pa.) have also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war and called for a cease-fire, but without straying into the types of conspiracies Bowman sometimes espoused.
And while Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has sparked intra-party criticism with her anti-Israel rhetoric, the makeup of her district is vastly different from Bowman’s, which has a high Jewish population.
“Most of our progressives are winning their races and will continue to win. I tell people, pay attention to your local district, pay attention to your local contacts, make sure you’re there, make sure you’re doing the work that we all have to do,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said.
But Bush has some problems similar to Bowman’s. Her primary challenger, St. Louis prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell, boasts his own progressive bona fides as a reform-minded prosecutor.
And like Latimer, whom one Democratic lawmaker described as “spanking” Bowman on Tuesday night, Bell will have the support of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s war chest. He and Bush are in a dead heat, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Still, top progressives and Squad members say they don’t take that as a need to course correct; many of them continue criticizing Israel’s government and calling for a ceasefire. Much of AIPAC’s advertising against Bowman, they point out, didn’t focus explicitly on Israel, and instead framed Latimer as a more effective legislator.
“Ultimately, this was about $20 million in big money being spent in a historic sum, unlike any seen in American history, point blank period. And I think we need to have a real conversation about AIPAC,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
“It’s insurmountable to come out from under,” echoed Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).
That’s not a universal Democratic position, of course. Moderate Democrats, even those who acknowledge Bowman himself was a flawed candidate, said voters in the New York district had vindicated their more pragmatic approach to both politics and governing.
“The voters recognize that as a winning proposition in November,” said Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), chair of the centrist New Democratic Coalition. “They understand that they need to make a pragmatic choice in these primaries to position the right person to win back — we have got to win back the House.”
Democratic leaders are likely to endorse Bush before her primary, with Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) saying Wednesday that it would not “surprise anyone” if they endorsed an incumbent. But it’s not clear how far the support will extend.
Leaders had donated to Bowman but did not hit the campaign trail for him, prompting gripes from the caucus’ left flank. Progressive lawmakers had appealed to Democratic leaders earlier in the cycle to keep AIPAC out of incumbents’ primaries, and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries reassured them at the time that leaders would continue to support reelecting incumbents.
“I’m hoping that our leadership can talk to the AIPAC folks and say, stay out of our damn races,” Jayapal said. When asked whether Democratic leadership would actually do that, she responded: “I don’t know. We’ll see.”
Bush remained defiant after Bowman’s double-digit loss on Tuesday. She currently faces a federal investigation over her campaign’s spending on security after she hired her now-husband Cortney Merritts as a security guard, spending tens of thousands of dollars on protection. Campaign finance laws permit her to use that campaign money for private security and even allow her to pay family members as long as they provide a “bona fide service” at a fair market value.
Bush has denied fault and said she’d comply with the investigation. She’s largely declined to comment on the probe while it’s ongoing but has pointed to a congressional ethics watchdog report on her security spending that she said cleared her of wrongdoing.
“St. Louis will not be silenced or sold out. We will rise up, louder and stronger than ever to show that our voices, our votes, and our values are not for sale,” she said in a statement Wednesday.
First-term Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), when asked about Bowman’s loss, pointed to the progressive efforts to elect more liberals by challenging incumbent Democrats. Bowman was just the reverse, he argued — and both situations are a natural part of how politics works.
“When the progressives went out and primaried moderates in New York, there was no one talking about how to unify the party,” Moskowitz said. “They went out and removed incumbents and primaried them from the left. You got to fit your district. That’s what happens.”
Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
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