Eight years after the 2016 election, Democrats are experiencing the infamous Clinton vs. Sanders battle again, this time in the race for New York’s 16th Congressional District.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a member of the “Squad” endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), faces an uphill road to reelection against centrist Westchester County Mayor George Latimer, who won Hillary Clinton’s endorsement this week.
The June 25 primary election has rekindled old divisions within a party facing an identity crisis over Israel in parts of the state many Jews call home.
“This primary is about the war in Gaza more than anything else,” said Doug Gordon, a Democratic consultant and co-founder of Upshift Strategies.
These fears are all too familiar. The races between Sanders’ challenge to Clinton and former President Trump’s victory in the White House have brought the divisions between progressives and moderates to the surface again. Activist Jessica Cisneros’s efforts to unseat Clinton-backed Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) exposed the divisions on the center-left, as did Sanders-backed Nina Turner’s failed challenge to Ohio Rep. Shontell Brown (D-Ohio).
The Westchester-Bronx area is in the spotlight now, and progressives are hoping for a miracle.
There’s anger on both sides: Bowman has repeatedly suggested Latimer is a racist, while Latimer has accused Bowman of aligning with far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on key votes. Each has tried to paint the other as weak and wrong for a Democratic district.
Old wounds were reopened Wednesday after Clinton gave her full endorsement of Latimer.
“With Trump running, we need strong, principled Democrats in Congress more than ever,” Clinton said in a post on social platform X. “In Congress, @LatimerforNY will protect abortion rights, stand up to the NRA, and fight for President Biden’s agenda — just like we have all along.”
Now the endorsement of the former New York senator and first lady is being tested, in what observers say is a signal to Democrats of the ideological weight of the race.
The House seats are not a threat to Republicans as Democrats seek to retake the House, but moderates and progressives are likely to use the winner as a sign of the party’s direction beyond 2024. The endorsement of Clinton signals that some Democrats are willing to see the party embrace its more moderate wing.
Bowman, who has trailed in recent polls, downplayed his decision.
“I wouldn’t call this a huge endorsement, by any means,” Bowman said on CNN, touting the support he received from Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is co-hosting a rally for Bowman with Sanders ahead of Election Day.
One progressive who Bowman cannot count on is former Rep. Mondaire Jones (Dynamo, N.Y.), who is running in a neighboring district after briefly leaving Congress and sparked an uproar among liberals who saw his surprise endorsement of Latimer as a complete betrayal.
“You’re not going to convince voters that you’ll stand up for them when you’ve given them so many examples of bending your will,” one progressive strategist who worked on New York campaigns said of Jones.
“This is coming from a guy who worked for Mondale door-to-door when he first ran for office,” the strategist said. “I just have regrets about doing that.”
Still, some Democrats believe the Sanders and Clinton frameworks are nearing their expiration date, even as both candidates celebrated the support of these numbers in the final weeks of the campaign.
“I think looking at things through the lens of 2016 is a bit of an oversimplification,” Gordon said. “The party and the world around it have changed a lot in the last eight years. Clinton and Sanders are not the vote-getters they once were.”
Gordon and other officials say the bigger test will be how voters take their stance on Israel at the ballot box. Foreign policy has dominated the campaign since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks forced a reckoning in U.S. politics in the Middle East. The attacks raised new questions about Israel and the U.S. role in its funding and frontline role.
The 16th constituency is home to a large Jewish electorate, but also Arab residents with pro-Palestinian sentiment.
Latimer visited the country last year and is considered a staunch defender of Israel, with his list of supporters including the country’s leading pro-Israel groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its super PAC, the United Democracy Project (UDP).
His strong support from Israeli allies has been a major grievance for progressives who take issue with the money AIPAC and UDP receive from Republican donors.
“Unfortunately, the real issue here appears to be the amount of campaign money that outside groups have spent to try to get Bowman out of his seat,” said Tim Black, a progressive commentator and activist who supports Sanders.
Bowman has voiced solidarity with the Palestinians and is a frequent public critic of the Israeli government, becoming increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military leaders as the war has continued.
“Bowman’s comments about Gaza put a huge target on him and his response was reprehensible and effective,” Black said.
“Attack ads work,” he added. “That’s the truth of the Latimer campaign.”
Bowman and grassroots groups such as Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party are targeting Latimer’s pro-Israel stance as a way to differentiate him from his opponents, particularly over his views on the ceasefire.
“Unfortunately, my opponent and Secretary Clinton do not support a permanent ceasefire,” Bowman said during an appearance on CNN. “They support Benjamin Netanyahu and they support billions of dollars flowing to Israel and Netanyahu for their unjust attacks on civilians in Gaza, but billions of dollars are not flowing to our district.”
He called Latimer and Clinton “unrealistic.”
With just over a week until the primary, polls suggest Bowman may be a candidate who is somewhat out of touch with voters, with Latimer leading the race with a double-digit lead over the former middle school principal in a recent Emerson College/The Hill poll.
The poll gives Latimer 48 percent of voters’ approval, while Bowman has 31 percent.
“It was a close race right until the very end,” Black said, noting the close battle at the end of the race.
Black is among a group of progressives who are sympathetic to Bowman but still express concern about his chances of winning. They see Latimer’s money as his greatest asset and worry Bowman may not be able to keep up.
“It’s disconcerting how many activists are calling for Bowman to stand up for Palestinians, but so far it doesn’t seem like all of the noise has translated into financial support, which is why Bowman may lose,” Black said.
“He fought well, but you need money to win.”
