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Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Slumlord Millionaire: how landlords, politicians and developers are fueling the housing crisis
The trouble began when the ceiling above the toilet collapsed. The Bravo family lost hot water and heat – sometimes the temperature would drop to 20F – and they had to boil water to bathe. Nathan, the youngest in the family, has asthma and needs a machine to help him breathe. A doctor blamed mould and cockroaches. Related: 'A cynical ploy to hold power': how the US right has exploited racial division 'It was because of a leak,' says his sister Samantha Bravo-Huertero. 'When someone doesn't fix it, it does start filling with mould. It's disgusting to see. The landlord, her solution was to paint over it. You've covering it but it's still there. Like, you're not fixing it!' It's a story that could be told in any of the world's poorest countries. But it is happening in the 21st century in 'the greatest city in the world', as Lin-Manuel Miranda put it in Hamilton. The Bravo family live in New York – Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to be precise – and are experiencing the dark side of the new gilded age. Their 15-year struggle with an abusive landlord who targeted Latino families is among the stories told in Slumlord Millionaire, a documentary directed by Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez that explores the housing crisis in New York, focusing on the impacts of gentrification, predatory landlords and developer influence on the city's residents. 'We wanted to showcase how interconnected all these systems were and dig more into the roots of why this housing crisis exists and how it continues to persist,' Ching, 37, says via Zoom from Brooklyn. 'Looking at how real estate money feeds into the politics of our city. There are these same issues that impact not only tenants but also homeowners.' New York is the US's biggest city but increasingly unaffordable for the average American. Some 69% of its residents rent. A third of New Yorkers spend more than 50% of their income on rent. The average Manhattan rent now stands at $5,000 a month. The median rent nationwide has surpassed $2,000 a month for the first time in history. As rents increase, some landlords have become more aggressive in trying to get long-term tenants to move out of their homes. A major theme of Slumlord Millionaire is the unethical and often illegal methods used to push out existing, often rent-stabilised tenants to make way for higher-paying residents. These tactics include neglect (ignoring repairs, turning off heat and gas, doing nothing to eliminate vermin infestations), creating uninhabitable living conditions (rats 'will come marching in, almost like troops', says one woman), and engaging in verbal and physical harassment. The 86-minute film exposes the influence of wealthy real estate developers on local politics and legislation. This is exemplified by the onslaught against Moumita Ahmed, who ran for election to the city council in Queens with a pro-tenant agenda. Ching explains: 'Her campaign was viciously attacked by a Super Pac [political action committee] that was started by these billionaire developers who put a million dollars into it. 'Everyone is familiar with big real estate money in politics, especially on a national or even state level. But for it to trickle down to these smaller local elections was eye-opening to us and shows how much hand the real estate industry has in all of our politics and, as a result, the legislation that gets written in our city.' Meanwhile, the 421-a tax break, an incentive programme intended to encourage development, has disproportionately benefited luxury housing developers at a significant cost to the city, resulting in billions in lost potential revenue. The rent guidelines board, appointed by the mayor, determines rent increases for nearly half of New York apartments, illustrating a direct link between political power and rent affordability. A mayor bankrolled by the pro-developer lobby could choose to stack the board with anti-tenant individuals. Martinez, 37, who used to live in a rent-stabilised unit, says: 'I remember my rent going up a random amount and I had no idea that this was actually a thing that you could go see and also that it was so directly tied to the mayor. 'There's a lot of candidates in the race for mayor right now who are promising rent freezes and that is something they are able to achieve because they do appoint this board of people that determines the rent each year for stabilised units.' Slumlord Millionaire also sheds light on the lesser-known but devastating issue of deed theft, in which scammers target homeowners, particularly in historically Black neighborhoods, and steal their properties through fraudulent means. One example is Janina Davis, a former supermodel who is trying to reclaim her home after a deed theft scam. Ching adds: 'We did want to show how it's not just tenants versus landlords. It's these big money real-estate industry developers against your average resident here. 'Janina was a smaller landlord but she had been able to buy this beautiful brownstone in Brooklyn. She actually wanted to expand her building. She wasn't in any sort of financial issue or anything. A lot of times when people talk about deed theft they think people are not educated enough and it's their fault that they got scammed. 'But Janina is super well educated – graduated from Howard University with an economics major – and she was scammed out of this building by these developers who gained her trust and went into business with her and, through the course of years and all this paperwork, stole her home from her.' The low prosecution rate for deed theft allows scammers to operate with little fear of significant consequences. The crime is often racially motivated. Martinez comments: 'The racial dynamic is very clear. The deed fraud case is overwhelmingly people of colour targeted. Historically Black and brown neighborhoods in Brooklyn are being targeted. 'We have a scene, it's a hearing to discuss deed fraud – there's some politicians there – and literally it's an entire room, basically, of African American people that were victimised by deed fraud. It's extremely clear. People are now calling this a new form of redlining, where they don't want certain people to own homes.' Despite the overwhelming power dynamics, the directors point to the resilience and efforts of residents, activists and non-profit organisations fighting back. Examples include the Bravo family's advocacy for the Asthma-Free Housing Act and victory at the Human Rights Commission, community organising efforts in Chinatown against luxury towers, and Ahmed's campaign as a renter advocating for tenants' rights. Ching reflects: 'This is an issue that is happening throughout not just New York City but in other cities in the country, especially in places that are predominantly people of colour. Remember that you are not alone. There are resources that exist. Definitely use the voice that you have. Any form of community engagement is very helpful.' Slumlord Millionaire is now showing at DCTV in New York with more cities to follow. It will premiere on PBS on 28 July
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New York mayoral candidate accuses Cuomo donors of altering photo in act of ‘blatant Islamophobia'
Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist state assemblyman waging a progressive bid to become mayor of New York City, has accused donors to the frontrunner Andrew Cuomo of 'blatant Islamophobia' after a mailer from their Super Pac altered Mamdani's image giving him a darker, bushier beard. Mamdani, 33, posted a closeup of his face as featured in the mailer from the Cuomo-backing group Fix the City alongside the original photograph from which it was drawn. In the transition, the image's visual contrast appears to be manipulated, slightly lightening Mamdani's skin but also giving him the appearance of a longer and significantly fuller beard. The mailer, first revealed by a reporter from the Forward, was aimed at Jewish voters. It accuses Mamdani, who is openly critical of Israel's war in Gaza which he calls a genocide, of refusing to recognize Israel and supporting the boycott movement against the state. A spokesperson for Fix the City, Liz Benjamin, said that the mailer had not been released in the form that Mamdani found objectionable. 'The mailer was proposed by a vendor; upon review it was immediately rejected for production and was subsequently corrected.' She added: 'We are disturbed that this was posted online without our consent.' Mamdani, who would become the first Muslim mayor of New York should he prevail in the Democratic primary on 24 June and go on to win the general election in November, said the altered image amounted to 'blatant Islamophobia'. He added a dig at Cuomo, referring to his big money donors who also back Donald Trump and the president's Make America great again movement. The image, Mamdani said, was a demonstration of 'the kind of racism that explains why Maga billionaires support [Cuomo's] campaign'. Mamdani also cast the altered image as a sign that Cuomo and his donors were afraid of losing the mayoral race. Recent polls have suggested a tightening contest, with one recent internal poll, disputed by the Cuomo campaign, indicating that Mamdani was edging in front. The New York mayoral race is being followed very closely in political circles, partly because the city is the largest in the US and partly because the clash between Cuomo and Mamdani could be a referendum on the future of the Democratic party. Cuomo, 67, is a consummate machine politician who was elected as governor three times before resigning in 2021 following accusations of sexual harassment which he denies. He has been endorsed by Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of the city. Mamdani, by contrast, is a progressive state lawmaker from Queens who immigrated to the US from Uganda when he was seven. He was elected as a member of the New York state assembly four years ago. A self-identified democratic socialist, he was endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the leading progressive member of Congress. He is running on a platform of making the city affordable to working New Yorkers, through a combination of rent freezes, free childcare and free and faster bus transport.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wisconsin supreme court race a litmus test for Elon Musk's political power
A race to determine control of the Wisconsin supreme court that has profound stakes for voting, abortion and labor rights in the state, is also shaping up to be a litmus test of Elon Musk's political power, making it one of the most consequential elections of Donald Trump's second term. Liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority on the state supreme court, but the liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley is retiring. Susan Crawford, a liberal judge, is facing off on Tuesday against the conservative judge Brad Schimel for the seat. The winner will determine which party has control of a court that is set to rule on the future of the state's 1849 abortion ban, collective bargaining rights and the makeup of the state's six congressional districts. The election has become the most expensive judicial election in American history, with more than $80m spent on both sides so far. Musk began spending in the race earlier this year, shortly after Tesla filed a lawsuit challenging a Wisconsin law that blocks the company from opening car dealerships in the state. The billionaire's Super Pac is offering $100 to those who sign a petition in opposition to 'activist judges'. So far, Musk and groups he funds have spent more than $20m in the race. On Friday, he posted on Twitter/X and said he would campaign in Wisconsin this weekend and give away $1m as part of a sweepstakes-like contest to people who had voted. He later deleted the post after experts pointed out such a program could be illegal under state law. He posted a revised tweet saying he would distribute the money to people to act as spokespeople for the petition. The Wisconsin attorney general, Josh Kaul, a Democrat, also sued Musk and his Pac on Friday to stop the giveaway. 'This is kind of a test case for Elon Musk,' Crawford, a former prosecutor, said in an interview. 'He wants to make sure that nothing stands in the way of what he's doing to try to dismantle the federal government.' Schimel's campaign did not respond to an interview request. Musk's entrance in the race comes as he has railed against federal judges who have threatened to halt Trump's agenda, calling for the impeachment of some and backing Republicans who have heeded the call. So much money being spent in a state supreme court election would have been unthinkable even a decade ago. Wisconsin supreme court justices are elected to 10 year terms, and until recently the candidates had low profiles and few paid attention to the races. In a 2020 state supreme court race, both candidates spent a combined $10m. But in recent years, awareness has grown of the powerful role state supreme courts can play in defining major issues, bringing more money and hard-nosed politics to these races. In North Carolina, a Republican candidate is seeking to overturn a supreme court election he lost to a Democratic candidate by 734 votes. 'What we've really seen in recent years is just how important state courts are in determining election law and how elections are run,' said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the state democracy research initiative at the University of Wisconsin law school. She noted that Trump carried the state by just 30,000 votes in 2024 and Biden by even less in 2020. 'Really what we're seeing is state courts are playing a huge role not just in determining issues for the state, but in determining rules for elections that can have impacts at a national level when you're looking at a swing state like Wisconsin,' she added. Schimel, a former Republican state attorney general, has made no secret that there would be little daylight between him and Trump, praising the president and talking about the need for a 'support network' for him. He has also posed with a large inflatable Trump and said the justices 'screwed [Trump] over' by keeping a Green party candidate off the ballot in 2020 (Trump narrowly lost the state to Joe Biden that year). He has also called one of the female justices on the state supreme court 'dumb as a sack of hammers' and another female justice 'crazy'. Trump endorsed Schimel on 21 March. State Democrats have made the race a referendum on Musk, putting up 'people v Musk' billboards across the state and holding town halls. When the party tested messaging, it showed ads highlighting Musk's connections to Schimel to 'motivate Democrats who otherwise want to tune out politics entirely to come out, cast a ballot, and recruit their friends', said Ben Wikler, chairman of the state Democratic party. 'If Brad Schimel loses this race and Susan Crawford wins, it'll become clear to Democrats that they can fight back against Musk and win,' said Wikler. 'And it'll be clear to Republicans that Musk may not be able to save their bacon if they keep going along with his attacks on our country. That could have a profound impact on the whole arc of American politics in this era.' The race has energized Democrats. 'Back in November and December, I think a lot of people I was talking to were pretty discouraged by some of the results that they saw in the November election after having put a lot of time and energy into some of those campaigns,' Crawford said. 'That has dramatically changed in the last couple of months as the administration has taken a lot of actions in a hurry that have made people really worried and concerned about the direction our country is heading.' In the weeks after Musk got involved in race, Wikler said, he saw Democrats 'get up off the mat and lean into the fightback'. • • • Even before Musk's involvement, the high stakes of the race were clear. The court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the state's 1849 abortion ban last year and is set to consider another one dealing with whether the state constitution protects the right to an abortion. In 2020, the state supreme court narrowly voted 4-3 to turn away a Trump lawsuit challenging his loss in the state and seeking to overturn the results. In 2023, Democrats won a major victory when the liberal candidate Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the court and flipped its ideological balance. Last year, the new state supreme court struck down state legislative maps, getting rid of Republican districts that were so distorted they gave Democrats no chance of ever winning a majority. Republicans went from having a near two-thirds supermajority to a slim majority in the statehouse. The next court could hear a challenge to Wisconsin's congressional maps, in which Republicans hold six of eight seats. That balance is also considered severely askew in favor of Republicans and could ultimately help determine control of the US House, where Republicans hold a majority of just a few seats. The spending in the race has shattered the more than $50m spent in the 2023 race. Musk has spent more than $18m through America Pac and Building America's future. The Republican mega-donor Richard Uihlein has gotten somewhat less attention, but Uihlein-aligned groups have spent at least $5.3m in favor of Schimel, funneling it through various entities, according to campaign finance records. Related: In Wisconsin's supreme court race, a super-rich beer family calls the shots Lynde Uihlein, a cousin of Richard Uihlein has also been a major donor to the group A Better Wisconsin Together, which has spent more than $6m in the race supporting Crawford. The family members were also on separate sides of the 2023 state supreme court race. Robert Yablon, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that the huge spending in the race was only possible because of the state's loose campaign finance laws. People in Wisconsin can donate unlimited amounts to state parties, which can pass that money on to candidates. There are also very weak anti-coordination laws between independent expenditure groups and campaigns. The race, Yablon said, was a 'test for judicial independence'. If Musk succeeds in winning and ultimately gets rulings favorable to him, it could undermine that perception. 'You would hope that in a judicial race, you might have different candidates – maybe they have different ideologies or philosophies, different ways that they talk about the law, but it's shared ground that they believe that the judiciary ought to operate independently from other branches, ought to check those branches,' he said. The turnout in Tuesday's election is expected to be much lower than the turnout in the November presidential election, making it difficult to make firm conclusions about the voter reaction to Trump so far. But there still may be signals to take away from Tuesday's contest. 'If there is a strong win for Crawford, it will at least be evidence of the energy of liberals and the extent to which opposition to the Trump administration, to Elon Musk, has been effectively activated,' Yablon said. If Schimel wins, he said it 'will probably be quite disheartening for liberals, for the Democratic party that's invested so much in this race, and they may then really have to go back to the drawing board'.
The Guardian
29-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Wisconsin supreme court race a litmus test for Elon Musk's political power
A race to determine control of the Wisconsin supreme court that has profound stakes for voting, abortion and labor rights in the state, is also shaping up to be a litmus test of Elon Musk's political power, making it one of the most consequential elections of Donald Trump's second term. Liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority on the state supreme court, but the liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley is retiring. Susan Crawford, a liberal judge, is facing off on Tuesday against the conservative judge Brad Schimel for the seat. The winner will determine which party has control of a court that is set to rule on the future of the state's 1849 abortion ban, collective bargaining rights and the makeup of the state's six congressional districts. The election has become the most expensive judicial election in American history, with more than $80m spent on both sides so far. Musk began spending in the race earlier this year, shortly after Tesla filed a lawsuit challenging a Wisconsin law that blocks the company from opening car dealerships in the state. The billionaire's Super Pac is offering $100 to those who sign a petition in opposition to 'activist judges'. So far, Musk and groups he funds have spent more than $20m in the race. On Friday, he posted on Twitter/X and said he would campaign in Wisconsin this weekend and give away $1m as part of a sweepstakes-like contest to people who had voted. He later deleted the post after experts pointed out such a program could be illegal under state law. He posted a revised tweet saying he would distribute the money to people to act as spokespeople for the petition. The Wisconsin attorney general, Josh Kaul, a Democrat, also sued Musk and his Pac on Friday to stop the giveaway. 'This is kind of a test case for Elon Musk,' Crawford, a former prosecutor, said in an interview. 'He wants to make sure that nothing stands in the way of what he's doing to try to dismantle the federal government.' Schimel's campaign did not respond to an interview request. Musk's entrance in the race comes as he has railed against federal judges who have threatened to halt Trump's agenda, calling for the impeachment of some and backing Republicans who have heeded the call. So much money being spent in a state supreme court election would have been unthinkable even a decade ago. Wisconsin supreme court justices are elected to 10 year terms, and until recently the candidates had low profiles and few paid attention to the races. In a 2020 state supreme court race, both candidates spent a combined $10m. But in recent years, awareness has grown of the powerful role state supreme courts can play in defining major issues, bringing more money and hard-nosed politics to these races. In North Carolina, a Republican candidate is seeking to overturn a supreme court election he lost to a Democratic candidate by 734 votes. 'What we've really seen in recent years is just how important state courts are in determining election law and how elections are run,' said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the state democracy research initiative at the University of Wisconsin law school. She noted that Trump carried the state by just 30,000 votes in 2024 and Biden by even less in 2020. 'Really what we're seeing is state courts are playing a huge role not just in determining issues for the state, but in determining rules for elections that can have impacts at a national level when you're looking at a swing state like Wisconsin,' she added. Schimel, a former Republican state attorney general, has made no secret that there would be little daylight between him and Trump, praising the president and talking about the need for a 'support network' for him. He has also posed with a large inflatable Trump and said the justices 'screwed [Trump] over' by keeping a Green party candidate off the ballot in 2020 (Trump narrowly lost the state to Joe Biden that year). He has also called one of the female justices on the state supreme court 'dumb as a sack of hammers' and another female justice 'crazy'. Trump endorsed Schimel on 21 March. State Democrats have made the race a referendum on Musk, putting up 'people v Musk' billboards across the state and holding town halls. When the party tested messaging, it showed ads highlighting Musk's connections to Schimel to 'motivate Democrats who otherwise want to tune out politics entirely to come out, cast a ballot, and recruit their friends', said Ben Wikler, chairman of the state Democratic party. 'If Brad Schimel loses this race and Susan Crawford wins, it'll become clear to Democrats that they can fight back against Musk and win,' said Wikler. 'And it'll be clear to Republicans that Musk may not be able to save their bacon if they keep going along with his attacks on our country. That could have a profound impact on the whole arc of American politics in this era.' The race has energized Democrats. 'Back in November and December, I think a lot of people I was talking to were pretty discouraged by some of the results that they saw in the November election after having put a lot of time and energy into some of those campaigns,' Crawford said. 'That has dramatically changed in the last couple of months as the administration has taken a lot of actions in a hurry that have made people really worried and concerned about the direction our country is heading.' In the weeks after Musk got involved in race, Wikler said, he saw Democrats 'get up off the mat and lean into the fightback'. Even before Musk's involvement, the high stakes of the race were clear. The court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the state's 1849 abortion ban last year and is set to consider another one dealing with whether the state constitution protects the right to an abortion. In 2020, the state supreme court narrowly voted 4-3 to turn away a Trump lawsuit challenging his loss in the state and seeking to overturn the results. In 2023, Democrats won a major victory when the liberal candidate Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the court and flipped its ideological balance. Last year, the new state supreme court struck down state legislative maps, getting rid of Republican districts that were so distorted they gave Democrats no chance of ever winning a majority. Republicans went from having a near two-thirds supermajority to a slim majority in the statehouse. The next court could hear a challenge to Wisconsin's congressional maps, in which Republicans hold six of eight seats. That balance is also considered severely askew in favor of Republicans and could ultimately help determine control of the US House, where Republicans hold a majority of just a few seats. The spending in the race has shattered the more than $50m spent in the 2023 race. Musk has spent more than $18m through America Pac and Building America's future. The Republican mega-donor Richard Uihlein has gotten somewhat less attention, but Uihlein-aligned groups have spent at least $5.3m in favor of Schimel, funneling it through various entities, according to campaign finance records. Lynde Uihlein, a cousin of Richard Uihlein has also been a major donor to the group A Better Wisconsin Together, which has spent more than $6m in the race supporting Crawford. The family members were also on separate sides of the 2023 state supreme court race. Robert Yablon, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that the huge spending in the race was only possible because of the state's loose campaign finance laws. People in Wisconsin can donate unlimited amounts to state parties, which can pass that money on to candidates. There are also very weak anti-coordination laws between independent expenditure groups and campaigns. The race, Yablon said, was a 'test for judicial independence'. If Musk succeeds in winning and ultimately gets rulings favorable to him, it could undermine that perception. 'You would hope that in a judicial race, you might have different candidates – maybe they have different ideologies or philosophies, different ways that they talk about the law, but it's shared ground that they believe that the judiciary ought to operate independently from other branches, ought to check those branches,' he said. The turnout in Tuesday's election is expected to be much lower than the turnout in the November presidential election, making it difficult to make firm conclusions about the voter reaction to Trump so far. But there still may be signals to take away from Tuesday's contest. 'If there is a strong win for Crawford, it will at least be evidence of the energy of liberals and the extent to which opposition to the Trump administration, to Elon Musk, has been effectively activated,' Yablon said. If Schimel wins, he said it 'will probably be quite disheartening for liberals, for the Democratic party that's invested so much in this race, and they may then really have to go back to the drawing board'.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NY Ex-Rep. Jamaal Bowman launches Super PAC to defeat pro-Israel pols ‘from Yonkers to Gaza'
Israel-bashing former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman is creating a Super PAC aimed at ousting pro-Israel candidates. 'From Yonkers to Gaza and everywhere in between, we will fight for justice and reclaim our humanity,' says the new 'Built to Win' Super Pac pushed by Bowman, who was ousted in a Democratic primary last year in large part because of his anti-Israel stance. Bowman was even more explicit about his new PAC's anti-Israel mission during a recent interview. 'Any candidate that supports [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and genocide more than their constituents, any candidate that's tied up with corrupt crypto money, any candidate tied up with the real-estate lobby as opposed to renters, we're going to go after those candidates very aggressively,' Bowman told City & State. Former Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a pro-Israel moderate, trounced Bowman by more than 10 percentage points in the past Democratic primary for the 16th House District that takes in much of Westchester County and portions of The Bronx. Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern, Jewish leader in Westchester, told The Post that Bowman again is showing his 'true colors. 'Bowman is a true, authentic antisemite,' said Morgenstern, head of Young Israel of Scarsdale, a modern orthodox synagogue. 'The [super PAC] shows his true colors. He's tripling down on attacking the Jewish people and the only Jewish state. It's disturbing and sad.' Liora Rez, a founder the watchdog group StopAntisemitism, said, 'Even if someone wanted to get more antisemitic, anti-Israel candidates elected, it's hard to imagine they'd give their money to a failure like Jamaal Bowman. 'He already wasted the money that was donated to his own losing campaign,' Rez said. 'Americans overwhelmingly stand with Israel and the Jewish people who have been a contributing and vital part of this great nation since the founding.' New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs said, 'Former Rep. Bowman would be better to devote his new PAC to helping underserved people in our communities as well as promoting the economic interests of working class Americans instead of continuing his antisemitic, pro-terrorist advocacy in a pitiful attempt to retain even a drop of political relevance.' Rory Lancman, a Jewish civil-rights lawyer and former Queens councilman, added, 'Last year, voters across the country said loud and clear that America stands with Israel and against anti-Semitism and terrorism, and they said it especially loudly to Jamaal Bowman.' He noted that Bowman announced the formation of his political action committee days after the Palestinian terror group Hamas held a propaganda-filled parade as they handed over the bodies of tiny slain Israeli hostages Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were just 9 months and 4 years old when they were violently abducted, along with the remains of their mother Shiri. That's 'all you need to know about Bowman's, and his PAC's, values — and, frankly, its prospects,' Lancman said. Latimer's coalition of backes included voters turned off by Bowman's criticism of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza after the terrorist group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish state. His well-funded backers included the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that spent a staggering $14 million in the race, and a cryptocurrency group called Fair Shake that bankrolled another $2 million worth of ad spots. Bowman accused Israel of committing 'genocide' in Gaza and belatedly apologized for denying the horrific rapes of Israeli women during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed an estimated 1,200 people — including 33 Americans. The weekend before the primary vote, Bowman vowed to 'show f–king AIPAC the power of the motherf–king South Bronx' during a manic rally alongside fellow 'Squad' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City. In Bowman's concession speech, he doubled down on his stance, telling supporters: 'We will continue to fight for a free Palestine, and God help us that we live in a better world where when we say, 'Free Palestine,' it is not antisemitic.' But even some black activists said the Super Pac won't revive Bowman's career. 'Jamaal Bowman's loss wasn't about Israel—it was about his complete failure to represent the priorities of the Black community,' said Darius Jones, senior adviser to National Black Empowerment Action Fun, in a statement. 'Voters rejected him because he championed an extreme agenda that ignored their real concerns. 'You can't oppose public safety in Black neighborhoods, deny Black families access to quality education through school choice, and neglect infrastructure and small business investment in Black communities while expecting Black support,' Jones said. 'That's why he lost—plain and simple.'
