Last week I wondered whether Representative Jamaal Bowman was amping up the antisemitism in the closing weeks of his campaign because he felt confident, or because he knew he was going to lose and decided to tee up his next career.
Bowman’s decision to make the campaign a referendum on his hatred for Israel and resentment for close-knit Jewish communities never made much sense as an electoral strategy, as he alienated Jewish voters without gaining much in other parts of his congressional district. Even though NY-16 is left-wing and encompasses parts of the Bronx, it is not Dearborn, Mich. — i.e., an area in which Gaza is at the top of the list of voter concerns. It’s hard to imagine a more narrowly cast closing message than “We’re all going to show f***ing AIPAC the power of the motherf***ing South Bronx.” Putting aside that the South Bronx isn’t in his district, is fighting AIPAC really at the top of most voters’ minds?
So a better explanation for Bowman’s behavior during the campaign is that he saw the writing on the wall months ago and decided that he needed to lean into his antisemitism so that he could play the role of martyr — a man of integrity who risked his political career to tell the truth about Israel and the Jews, and paid the price.
This sets him up as a big draw on the pro-Hamas speaking circuit — or whatever post-congressional career he is planning as a celebrity Jew hater. My guess is that now that he’s freed of the burden of running for reelection, and soon, of serving in Congress, we’ll be hearing a lot more crazy antisemitism from him — all of which should be hung around the necks of his Democratic boosters, including AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.