writing | First One Through

Former Congressman Jamaal Bowman was an embarrassment to his constituents again and again.

As a member of the House of Representatives, he received a bipartisan censor for intentionally pulling a fire alarm to delay a vote, putting thousands of lives at risk. His constituents later filed a petition to have Planned Parenthood rescind their endorsement, after Bowman ranted to a crowd on the streets of Westchester, that Jewish women couldn’t be believed when they claimed rape during the October 7 massacre in Israel.

Now Bowman is starting his comeback effort after he was defeated by a fellow Democrat in last year’s primary, in a similar disgraceful manner.

First Bowman announced on February 20 that he is joining Zeteo, a media platform started by Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC commentator who has been charged with Jew hatred and justifying violence against Jews by various watchdog groups and individuals.

Now he announced the formation of a PAC (Political Action Committee) called Built to Win PAC. According to its website, its mission is to get non-Whites (“Black, Arab, Asian, and Latino communities”) to vote. It’s basically a sister clone of Justice Democrats, a PAC to get non-Whites into office with the backing of those communities.

So why start another PAC that does the same thing? It’s not as though Bowman’s PAC is going after conservative non-White voters; it’s using the same alt-left agenda as Justice Democrats, including supporting Gazans who initiated and supported a jihadi genocidal massacre against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.

Bowman knows he has a terrible record. His brand is so tainted that he needed to go around the country including California and Virginia with other members of Congress to try to raise money during his failed primary run.

A new congressional run – perhaps this time for Rep. Ritchie Torres’s seat in NY-15 if Torres decides to run for governor against the unpopular Kathy Hochul – would require money that may not be so forthcoming to a censored former politician. As such, creating a new PAC BEFORE he announces his intention to enter a race, could give him several advantages:

He may be able to market the cause more successfully if it isn’t about him personally
He gets practice stumping and meeting donors without being forced to disclose his numerous failings
Bowman can use the Zeteo platform with Mehdi to go even more viciously anti-Israel than Justice Democrats may be willing to go, perhaps unlocking deep jihadi pockets
Disclosure rules are more lax for PACs. Pro-terrorist groups have easier times giving money to blind pools than individual candidates. Bowman can court antisemitic donors with greater ease

Should Bowman enter the race, he may attempt to repurpose this PAC to himself. This is a tactic that was used by Rick Scott who took over the New Republican PAC in 2016. Scott’s moves in this regard brought multiple investigations. As the non-partisan group OpenSecrets stated about the issue, “Federal law would prohibit an announced federal candidate or campaign from coordinating with either state-level committees or federal super PACs, which can take unlimited corporate money that federal candidates are not permitted to receive.” Campaign Legal Center wrote at that time “Campaign finance laws are in place to prevent schemes like this one that hide information from voters about which wealthy special interests are spending big money to secretly influence our votes and our government.” Imagine these aren’t “wealthy special interests” seeking profit but groups out to destroy America and its allies.

Built to Win PAC may become the alt-left anti-Israel piggybank for Bowman and his co-host on Zeteo, Cori Bush, who made their losses all about the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC rather than their own failings.

Bowman’s reemergence on two platforms: Zeteo to engage the public in race-baiting, and with a PAC to draw in unlimited monies, is potentially a cause for serious alarm for the country, especially Jews in the midst of a horrifying spike in antisemitism.