Bowman Bows Out, Boebert Remains

Yesterday was a good day for moderation. New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman was soundly defeated in a Democratic primary by moderate George Latimer.

Bowman is a proud member of “The Squad,” a group of hard-left House members that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib and others. He is the first of that group to be defeated.

It’s too early to say that this is a trend moving the Democratic Party to the center. Bowman was an especially flawed politician. He apparently didn’t attend to the political vineyards. Few local Democrats supported him because, they said, he didn’t make much of an effort to represent their communities or to just show up. He also said and did things that raised questions about his stability. For example, last fall he pulled a fire alarm at the Capitol, clearing out the building as the House was about to vote on a package to keep the government operating. He voted against that bipartisan bill as well as the popular infrastructure bill.

But what really brought Bowman down was his pro-Palestinian stance. While Bowman did condemn Hamas, he also accused Israel of genocide and he engaged in the kind of hard-edged rhetoric that has been the hallmark of the hard-left with regard to the conflict in the Middle East. That won him the opposition of many Jewish voters who had supported Bowman in the past and it stirred AIPAC, a Jewish political group, to contribute mightily to Latimer and to third party efforts to bring him down.

While AIPAC will now take aim at other members of The Squad, including Cori Bush in Missouri, it’s not clear that they’ll have the same success against a candidate less inclined to commit unforced errors. It’s too early to say that this is a movement, but it is a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Republicans. Primary voters in Colorado nominated hard-right, Trump acolyte Lauren Boebert in her new district. Boebert, fearing defeat in her current more moderate district where she barely survived in 2022, moved into a very conservative one in the eastern part of the state. She defeated several primary opponents, which may have been the problem. Whereas all the moderate opposition to Bowman could be focussed on one candidate, any opposition to Boebert was defused over several. In any event, the district is deep red so she’ll be reelected in November.

But here’s the thing. If Latimer’s win really does signal a move back to the center for Democrats and Boebert’s win means Republicans will continue on their hard-right path, that is very good news for Democrats — and democracy — in the long-run. A party defined by the likes of Latimer will fare much better overall than one defined by candidates like Boebert.

Editorial Note: For those of you who subscribe to the YSDA email, you received an earlier fragment of this blog by mistake. I hit the wrong button while writing. My apologies.