Progressives peeved by Democrat George Latimer’s run against Rep. Jamaal Bowman

Progressives in New York say Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s challenge to sitting Rep. Jamaal Bowman could splinter Democrats and hinder the party’s efforts to take control of the House of Representatives next year.

But Latimer, a Democrat, isn’t having it: He notes Bowman himself challenged a longtime Democratic incumbent just three years ago.

In an interview with Gothamist, Working Families Party co-chair Ana Maria Archila questioned why Latimer was running against Bowman rather than focusing his efforts on another major race in his county: The push to topple freshman Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican who is one of the Democrats’ top targets for 2024.

“George Latimer has been a friend of the Working Families Party for years, which is why it is so disappointing that in this moment, he’s choosing to not use his resources, his time, his energy to protect working families, but rather to do sort of an opportunistic move against Bowman,” Archila said.

In past races, Latimer had the endorsement of the WFP, the third-party influential with progressive Democrats. But that’s not the case in 2024: The party has already endorsed Bowman — a member of the "Squad," the informal group of some of Congress’ most progressive members — giving him its seal of approval late last week before Latimer entered the race.

Speaking with Gothamist, Latimer, 70, said he knows how some on the left flank of his party are portraying his challenge: An older, out-of-touch white man from the Democratic establishment trying to take out Bowman, 47, a younger, Black progressive. And he doesn’t agree with it.

“It's very difficult for me to have somebody tell me, ‘Well, you know, George, you're a white guy, he's a Black guy and, you know, the demographics here …,” Latimer said. “Well, yeah, we're different. But what's the record that I have? Or as Dr. King would say, don't judge me by the color of my skin, judge me by the content of my character. What's the content of my character?”

He continued: “They're going to try to turn me into something that I'm not, and I'm going to push back on that because I think my record shows that I’m every bit as progressive as he is.”

Bowman’s campaign did not respond to a request for an interview, but a campaign spokesperson said the incumbent will remain focused on issues that are important to his district.

Latimer says Bowman is fair game for a primary challenge, in part because Bowman himself successfully challenged then-Rep. Eliot Engel in 2020, a high-ranking Democrat who had served in Congress since 1989.

“This incumbent congressman was the challenger to a prior incumbent congressman,” Latimer said. “And what does that mean? It meant that he and the people who backed him felt that there needed to be a choice. There needed to be an alternative to the incumbent at that time.”

Latimer, who previously served in the State Senate and Assembly, says his primary won’t distract from the Democratic push to regain control of the House, in large part because the 16th congressional district is a deep blue seat. He believes his campaign will largely be over after the June primary regardless of whether he wins or loses.

“Whatever happens between now and the end of Primary Day — which is what's going to decide the 16th district — doesn't have any direct bearing on the resources and the energy that goes from Primary Day until November,” he said.

Latimer was first elected to public office in 1987 as a Rye councilmember, and has won each of the 18 elections he's officially run in through his career. But he’s never waged a campaign quite like this, taking on an incumbent congressman from his own party in a race that — despite Latimer’s protests — will undoubtedly highlight the ongoing cultural divide among the left and centrist wings of the Democratic Party.

It’s a dynamic Latimer is well aware of.

In the two-minute video launching his campaign, the first words that appeared on screen: “Real progressive results. Not rhetoric.”

Speaking to Gothamist, Latimer ticked off an abridged list of what he sees as his progressive bona fides — everything from welcoming migrants to his county to supporting same-sex marriage as a state legislator, to moving Westchester County’s bus fleet away from diesel fuel.

Bowman’s campaign, meanwhile, is trying to paint Latimer as a tool of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the pro-Israel organization that is expected to be an active supporter of Latimer’s campaign.

Latimer is a supporter of Israel in its ongoing war against Hamas, having traveled to the country just last week. Bowman, meanwhile, is supporting a ceasefire, a position that has put him at odds with some Jewish organizations within the district.

“It’s not a surprise that a super PAC that routinely targets Black members of Congress with primary challenges, and is funded by the same Republican mega-donors who give millions to election-denying Republicans including Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Ted Cruz, has recruited a candidate for this race,” Bowman campaign spokesperson Emma Simon said in a statement.

“We will continue to fight and deliver what the people of New York's 16th district are demanding, like affordable housing, child care, climate action, jobs, education, healthcare, and defeating antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism,”Simon added.

The 16th district includes much of the southern half of Westchester County — including Yonkers and Mount Vernon — and a sliver of the northern Bronx, including Wakefield.

Or at least it does for now.

A Democrat-led lawsuit is currently before the state’s top court, which could choose to throw the current district lines out and send them back to the state Independent Redistricting Commission to be redrawn.

The Democratic faction of the bipartisan commission is led by Ken Jenkins, Latimer’s deputy county executive.

Latimer said redistricting is a “no man’s land” with Jenkins. But he noted that, if the courts overturn the lines, the state Legislature would have final say over anything the commission produces.

“He and I have talked about it a couple times, that’s it,” Latimer said of Jenkins. “And we haven’t gone further than that.”