George Latimer
By Dan Murphy
Less than two months after launching his campaign for United States Congress, Democrat George Latimer continues to win overwhelming support from local Democrats and Democratic Committees across the 16th Congressional District. Latimer is challenging incumbent democrat, Congressman Jamaal Bowman.
To date, Latimer has picked up the endorsements from 8 local, democratic committees, including: Mamaroneck Town Democratic Committee, Harrison Democratic Committee, Pelham Democratic Committee, Scarsdale Democratic Committee, Rye Town Democratic Committee, White Plains Democratic Committee, Rye City Democratic Committee, and the Eastchester Democratic Committee. And later in the week, the Yonkers Democratic Committee also endorsed Latimer.
To date, Congressman Jamaal Bowman has not picked up an endorsement from any democratic committee in Westchester.
Latimer thanked his endorsers for giving his campaign critical momentum in its early stages. “This election is about who can best deliver actual progressive results, not just more rhetoric,” said Latimer. “I’m proud to have worked with my supporters and proud of what we’ve accomplished together, protecting abortion rights, standing up to the NRA to get guns off our streets, and protecting our democracy from Republican extremism. I’m a proud progressive Democrat, and I’m honored to have earned this support from so many Democratic leaders I respect.”
Laitmer also picked up the endorsements from County Legislator Ben Boykin and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin.
“There is only one candidate in this race who has ever flipped a seat from red to blue – Democrat George Latimer. There’s only one candidate with an unmatched record of campaigning for and electing Democrats up and down the ballot – George Latimer. And there is only one candidate in this race who has actually passed laws protecting a woman’s right to an abortion, legalizing same sex marriage, and getting guns off our streets – Democrat George Latimer,” said Westchester County Legislator Ben Boykin in endorsing Latimer. “I’m proud to endorse George for Congress.”
“I’m supporting George because he has a proven track record of delivering on the issues that matter to our community. George and I have successfully worked together to protect abortion rights, fight domestic violence, expand LGBTQ rights, take on climate change, and address our high cost of living. Time and again George gets the job done,” said New York State Assemblymember Amy Paulin . “More importantly, George knows that we must stand with our democratic allies from Israel to the Ukraine in these uncertain times. We are experiencing horrifying levels of antisemitism and prejudice, and we need a leader who realizes that an attack on Jews anywhere in the world is an attack on all Jews. I’m proud to support George, and I look forward to helping him win in June and November.”
A video was leaked of Bowman attending a political event in Westchester, in which he said, “They’ve got all these little democratic clubs. With all due respect, when I first ran and nobody knew who I was, I didn’t go to one democratic club meeting. And I won by 16 points. And we ran again in two years and my vote totals were more than both of my opponents. We don’t need their support. We work with the grass roots. We work with people directly,” said Bowman. (Note: Bowman, with 54%, defeated fellow democrats Vedat Gashi-25%, and Catherine Parker-19% in 2022.)
We see support for Latimer in the democratic committees along the Sound Shore, Scarsdale and White Plains for two reasons: One is Latimer’s history with all of these committees over four decades. “We know George, we have seen him at our meetings forever. And we appreciate what he does and his record,” said one sound shore democrat.
The other reason for Latimer’s strong support in Westchester is based on the reason he decided to challenge an incumbent member of Congress from his own party. Many democrats in Westchester are unhappy with Bowman’s representation for a number of reasons, including a lacking constituent services and response to local and state elected officials, and their opposition to Bowman’s stance on Israel and the Gaza war.
