The New York Times, ( The New York Times), and Atlantic pundits, (The Atlantic ), report that Jamal lost because his hard ‘Left’ support for Palestinian rights and a Ceasefire alienated his constituents. Buried in their stories is the fact that his district, formerly 50% in the Bronx with a majority black and brown population and 50% mostly wealthy Westchester whites of whom many are Jewish, was redistricted in 2022. Now 15% of his district is in the Bronx and 85% is in Westchester, fertile ground for AIPAC’s 14 million dollar media campaign against Jamal.
Over 80% of Jamal’s now tiny Bronx district voted for him, not enough to outweigh the majority of those in Westchester who voted for his opponent. This was not a Democratic shift to more conservative values; this was an object lesson in the importance of district re-configuration, a skill well deployed by Republican strategists since the 2010 census.
Could Jamal Bowman have reached out more effectively to his Westchester constituents? Perhaps, but AIPAC’s $14 million bought a lot of passionate ads accusing Jamal of antiSemitism and worse.
AIPAC is explicitly targeting vulnerable progressives of color. With a track record of having successfully knocked out multiple progressive Congressional Representative candidates in the 2021 and 2022 primaries, including Nina Turner who initially led by 30-40 points, AIPAC and fellow corporate, pro-Israel lobbyists, like the Democratic Majority for Israel and The United Democracy Project, know that progressives, particularly those of color, are likely to insist that aid to Isarel be contingent on respect of international human rights Their dark money sometimes funds Republican as well as moderate Democrats and is currently funding Wesley Bell, former campaign manager of an anti-abortion Republican, Cori Bush’s opponent. To contribute to Cori’s campaign: https://coribush.org/contact/
Pre-dating the war in Gaza, the Pro-Israel lobby and Corporate lobbyists teamed up: they have the same enemy, Progressives. Defending human rights and supporting legislation to address inequality are anathema to AIPAC, (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), DMFI, (The Democratic Majority for Israel), and UDP, (the United Democracy Project). Until now they collected their dark money and undermined Progressive’s campaigns in relative obscurity. Let’s tear off their Invisibility Cloaks and expose their greedy, inhumane treachery
