George Latimer beats Jamaal Bowman: 5 takeaways from their big-spending NY-16 battle

Westchester County Executive George Latimer soundly beat Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Tuesday in their tough primary for Bowman's House seat, a nationally watched race that drew record spending and highlighted the Democratic Party's split over the Israel-Hamas war.

Latimer held a giant lead of 17 points as of midday Wednesday, with 88% of the votes counted in the Associated Press' unofficial tally. He had already been declared the winner long before then, and had taken to the stage in a White Plains conference room to deliver his victory speech, less than an hour after the polls closed.

In a 10-minute address, he praised the inclusiveness that he said his county government practiced, calling it a template for work in a Congress, and fired a rebuttal to Bowman's campaign slogan about his representing "the many" against Latimer's "money" — the big spending on the race.

"What we see tonight is, in fact, 'the many.' This is the many of Westchester and the Bronx," he said to roars from a crowd of supporters gathered in the cavernous space.

The race pitted a champion of progressive causes against an unusual challenger: a political veteran who had held public office for decades and was making his first run for Congress at age 70. Bowman, a former middle school principal in the Bronx, had held the seat since 2021 after unseating longtime Rep. Eliot Engel in a successful primary of his own.

Bowman had strong support from progressive groups and icons of the left such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In losing his bid for a third term, he became the first member of the small, left-wing House group known as "the squad" to lose to a more mainstream Democratic challenger since that group formed after the 2018 elections.

"It was never just about this race, in this moment," Bowman said in a statement Tuesday night. "This movement has always been about justice. It has always been about humanity. It has always been about equality. And it always has been about our collective liberation."

In a separate Westchester primary, Susan Cacace cruised to victory in a Democratic contest to succeed Mimi Rocah as district attorney. As of 11 p.m., the former county court judge led civil rights attorney William Wagstaff III by 27 points.

Cacace gave up a county judgeship in the fall to run for the office after Rocah decided not to seek at second term. She still must face Republican John Sarcone in the general election, and Wagstaff is also on the November ballot as the Working Families candidate. 

Here are five takeaways from Latimer's victory in the 16th District race.

Live primary updates:Congressional race called in favor of George Latimer over Jamaal Bowman

Turnout was big compared to the last NY-16 primary

More than 28% of the district's roughly 250,000 Democratic voters took part in the race, a figure that will rise after remaining ballots are counted. That incomplete count already crushed the meager 16% turnout for the 2022 primary for Bowman's seat, a low-key contest in which he fended off two Westchester legislators to win a second term.

But turnout still fell short of Bowman's first primary victory in 2020, when 35% of Democrats went to the polls and Bowman trounced Engel for the nomination.

Voters in this year's race couldn't claim they didn't know about the election. For weeks, their TVs were flooded with one campaign commercial after another for the race — more for Latimer than for Bowman — and flyers for the candidates filled their mailboxes. Combined with steady local and national news coverage, the race was inescapable.

Early-voting tallies showed many had taken notice. By Monday, the day before the election, nearly 29,000 ballots already had been cast in person at polling stations during nine days of early voting or by mail, according to figures from Latimer's campaign.

Jamaal Bowman did well in the Bronx. George Latimer romped in Westchester

Bronx voters make up a little more than 10% of the district's Democratic electorate. And Bowman ran up big numbers there, holding a huge lead of 67 points in the New York City Board of Elections count as of 10:40 p.m.

But Latimer, who has been county executive since 2018 and was a county and state legislator before then, more than made up for that in Westchester, the bulk of the district. He led Bowman by 16 points in the incomplete count by the county's Board of Elections.

Latimer had motivated Jewish voters behind him

Latimer entered the race with the accumulated benefits of 35 years in elected offices in Westchester — intimate knowledge of every area, rich or poor; vast name recognition with voters; relationships with local officials and organizations throughout the county; and what he touted as a long record of effective leadership.

“You don’t need a campaign ad to tell you who George Latimer is,” he said in his victory speech Tuesday night. “You’ve seen who I am.” 

That may have been his strongest asset. But he also has strong support from Jewish voters, many of whom were disenchanted with Bowman over his criticism of the Israeli government even before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led terrorists. That anger grew with his condemnations of Israel for its military response in Gaza, which he has described as "collective punishment" of Palestinian civilians.

Latimer's take:What if he wins? Latimer talks Gaza war, taxes, SCOTUS in lohud interview. What he said

An early measure came in Latimer's first financial report after launching his campaign in December. Of the whopping $1.4 million he raised in his first weeks, $607,000 — more than 40% of his haul — was donated to him by individuals through the website of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group better known as AIPAC. And much of that money came from voters in the 16th District.

More recently, a group that registered and mobilized Jewish voters for the primary reported robust interest in mail-in ballots. Jewish voters made up only just 9% percent of Democratic voters in Westchester's portion of the 16th District but 43% of those requested mail-in ballots, according to Teach Coalition, the group that led the Westchester Unites campaign. 

Not to mention $25M in outside spending

The United Democracy Project, a Super PAC tied to AIPAC, poured an unprecedented $21.6 million into TV ads, mailers and other campaign efforts on Latimer's behalf, based on its most recent reports to the Federal Election Commission. Its motivation was obvious: Bowman had hammered Israel for the Gaza war, while Latimer defended Israel's right to go after Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack.

The race is said to have been the most expensive House primary ever waged. Thanks to the deluge of cash from the United Democracy Project, spending by all groups other than the two campaigns totaled about $28 million, according to FEC filings. Nearly $25 million of that backed Latimer; progressive groups ponied up about $3 million to defend Bowman.

Bowman's take:Bowman, facing tough primary, touts record and his progressive views in lohud interview

For Bowman and his allies, the outside spending itself became a central issue in the race, apart from any ideological differences with Latimer or comparison of their records. "This is the many versus the money," Bowman told TV viewers in an oft-repeated ad. He and his supporters heaped blame on AIPAC; Bowman dropped a string of f-bombs as he cursed its role in the race at a Bronx rally on Saturday.

As of June 6, the two Bowman and Latimer campaigns had reported a combined $6 million in expenses since the fourth quarter of 2023. Added to the sums spent by outside groups, that brought the total reported spending on the race to date to roughly $34 million.

Not much suspense about the general election

Latimer is now the Democratic nominee, not the congressman-elect. He still faces a general election on Nov. 5 against Republican Miriam Flisser, a doctor who also ran for the seat in 2022. Bowman beat her by almost 30 points in that race.

Flisser has a website but virtually no campaign funding. Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by about 3-to-1 in the 16th District, making it a fairly safe seat for Democrats.

In his victory speech, Latimer made a case for centrism in Washington to counter the extremes in both parties. 

“There are good men and women in Washington who feel the same way we do,” he said. “And we have to find each other and link with each other. We have to look at the arguments of the far right and the far left and say, ‘You cannot destroy this country with your rhetoric and your arguments.’” 

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.