Rep. Jamaal Bowman Loses Support of an Ex-Colleague Over Israel

Roughly four years ago, Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman made history together. Young, left-leaning Democrats, they won hard-fought primaries in neighboring districts to became the first Black men ever to represent New York’s Westchester County in Congress.

Now, they find themselves deeply at odds over the Israel-Hamas war, a break so sharp that Mr. Jones vowed on Monday to help defeat Mr. Bowman in the Democratic primary on June 25 and endorse his opponent, George Latimer.

It was the latest sign of how intensely the conflict in the Middle East has come to divide Democratic politics this election year. Mr. Latimer and Mr. Bowman have already spent months debating the conflict, and the race has been transformed by $10 million in outside spending by pro-Israel interest groups on Mr. Latimer’s behalf.

Mr. Jones said in an interview that he could not sit by while Mr. Bowman positioned himself as a leading critic of Israel, saying that his former ally had sown “pain and anxiety” among Jewish New Yorkers and had torn “at the fabric of our community and our civil rights coalition.”

But Mr. Jones also may be considering his own political self-interest. After losing his House seat in 2022, he is now running to unseat Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican, in a swing district just to the north. Creating some distance from Mr. Bowman may help win over Jewish voters, as well as other moderate voters.

“As someone who is among the most popular Democrats in the Hudson Valley, it is my prerogative to play a dispositive role in ending this long, painful nightmare that we have been experiencing since Oct. 7,” Mr. Jones said. He planned to formally make the endorsement at an event on Tuesday.