Jamaal Bowman

representative for New York's 16th congressional district since 2021. The district covers the southern half of Westchester County, including Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, and Bowman's hometown of Yonkers, as well as a small portion of the Bronx.

Jamaal Bowman
Official portrait, 2021
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 16th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2021
Preceded by	Eliot Engel
Personal details
Born	(1976-04-01) April 1, 1976 (age 48) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Other political affiliations	Working Families Party Democratic Socialists of America (until 2022)
Spouse	Melissa Oppenheimer
Children	3
Residence(s)	Yonkers, New York, U.S.
Education	University of New Haven (BA) Mercy College (MA) Manhattanville College (EdD)
Website	House website Campaign website
Jamaal Bowman's voice Jamaal Bowman speaks in honor of Caribbean American Heritage Month Recorded June 22, 2022

Bowman is the founder and former principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, a public middle school in Eastchester, Bronx. He defeated 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel in the 2020 Democratic primary and was first elected to Congress that fall. Bowman is a member of the Squad, an informal group of progressive House Democrats. He was a member of the Lower Hudson Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America until 2022, when he departed the organization over disagreements on policy regarding Israel.

On October 26, 2023, Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for willfully setting off a false fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building. In exchange for his guilty plea, the charge was dropped. On December 7, 2023, the House of Representatives voted 214–191 to censure him in connection with the fire alarm incident.

Bowman was born in Manhattan, a borough of New York City. He lived with his grandmother in the East River Houses in East Harlem during the week and with his mother and sisters in Yorkville on the Upper East Side on weekends. His grandmother died when he was eight years old, after which he lived full time on the Upper East Side. At age 16, he moved with his family to Sayreville, New Jersey. He attended Sayreville War Memorial High School, where he played on the football team.

Bowman briefly attended Potomac State Junior College in West Virginia before earning a Bachelor of Arts in sports management from the University of New Haven in 1999. At the latter institution, he played college football as a linebacker for the New Haven Chargers. Bowman later earned a Master of Arts in counseling from Mercy College and a Doctor of Education in educational leadership from Manhattanville College.

After earning his undergraduate degree, Bowman decided not to pursue a career in sports management. Upon the suggestion of a family friend who worked for the New York City Department of Education, Bowman began working as an educator. His first job was as a crisis management teacher in a South Bronx elementary school. In 2009, he founded Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, a public middle school in the Bronx.

As principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, Bowman curated a "wall of honor" featuring prominent Black, Latino, and Asian individuals. The featured people included Martin Luther King Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, Cynthia McKinney, Mutulu Shakur, and Assata Shakur. Daniel Marans, writing in HuffPost, criticized Bowman for including "a notorious antisemite and two Black militants convicted of murder and armed robbery"; Bowman's campaign spokesperson responded that it is "a rhetorical tool of the far right to insinuate educating students on major figures of Black American history is serving to promote hateful or divisive rhetoric or actions."

Bowman became a leading advocate against standardized testing. His blog on the role of standardized testing has received national attention. He has written about high-stakes testing's role in perpetuating inequalities, including the turnover, tumult, and vicious cycle it creates in students' and educators' lives, as assessment performance damages a school's ability to teach and, subsequently, the quality of the education upon which the student is assessed. By the mid-2010s, a quarter of Bowman's students had opted out of standardized testing.

Bowman also advocated for children to receive arts, history, and science education in addition to the basics of literacy and numeracy. Bowman's school policy used a restorative justice model to address the school-to-prison pipeline. After 10 years as principal, he left the job to focus on his congressional campaign.

Elections

2020

The Justice Democrats recruited Bowman to run for the United States House of Representatives in New York's 16th congressional district, represented by 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel. Engel had served as a member of the House since 1989 and as chair of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs since the first session of the 116th United States Congress. Bowman was inspired to run by the insurgent 2018 campaign of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and described his platform as "anti-poverty and anti-racist", with support for housing, criminal justice reform, education, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal. No Republican even filed, meaning that whoever won the Democratic primary would be essentially assured of victory in November. Registered Democrats in the district outnumber registered Republicans by more than four to one, meaning that any hypothetical Republican challenger would have faced nearly impossible odds in any case.

Bowman's campaign criticized Engel's record on foreign policy and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bowman's endorsements from the Sunrise Movement and the New York Working Families Party assisted with fundraising despite being well behind Engel. He was also endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and the editorial board of The New York Times.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large portion of ballots were cast absentee, but because of Bowman's 26-point lead on election night, news outlets soon started referring to him as the presumptive Democratic nominee. On July 17, 2020, based on their analysis of the absentee ballot count, the Associated Press called the primary race for Bowman.

Bowman's primary victory all but guaranteed he would win the general election due to the 16th's heavily Democratic nature and the lack of Republican opposition. He won in a landslide, defeating Conservative nominee Patrick McManus with 84% of the vote.

Tenure

 

Upon his swearing-in, Bowman joined The Squad, a group of progressive Democratic lawmakers. He was photographed alongside the four original Squad members and another new member, Cori Bush of Missouri's 1st congressional district.

In January 2021, following the storming of the United States Capitol, Bowman introduced the Congressional Oversight of Unjust Policing Act (COUP Act) to establish a commission to investigate how United States Capitol Police handled the storming of the Capitol and to look at potential ties of some of its members to white nationalism. Bowman said that introducing the bill is "critical when you look at the disparity in terms of how the Capitol Police responded to the insurrection on Wednesday, versus how they responded to—not just [Black Lives Matter] protestors this summer, but other people of color, and people who are disabled, historically". Such legislation came after both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer called for the resignation of the Capitol Police chief.

On November 5, 2021, Bowman was one of six House Democrats to break with their party and vote against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act because it did not include the Build Back Better Act.

Bowman was among the 46 House Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

Fire alarm incident and House censure

 

On September 30, 2023, while House Democrats were attempting to delay a vote on a continuing resolution to fund the government ahead of a midnight deadline, Bowman pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building, causing the building to be evacuated for an hour and a half. Bowman initially claimed that he had set off the alarm by accident, telling reporters, "I thought the alarm would open the door". His office released "suggested talking points" for political allies, which reiterated the claim that the alarm was an accident and called some Republicans "Nazis", language Bowman said he had not approved. Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy alleged that the fire alarm was a delaying tactic, and promised punishment for Bowman. Other House Republicans suggested measures ranging from censure to expulsion.

On October 3, thirteen Republicans introduced a motion to expel Bowman from the House because of the incident. After a Capitol Police investigation, Bowman accepted a deal in which he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor crime of willfully or knowingly falsely pulling a fire alarm, paid the maximum fine of $1,000, and wrote a letter of apology to police; in exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop the charges after three months. On December 7, 2023, the House censured Bowman for the incident by a 214–191 vote. After the censure, the House Ethics Committee dropped its review of Bowman's actions as moot.

Foreign and defense policy

In September 2021, Bowman voted in favor of providing Israel with an additional $1 billion in aid to fund its Iron Dome missile defense system. His vote was controversial among members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and sparked debate within the DSA about whether it should ensure its members support Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel. A spokesman confirmed in October 2023 that Bowman had let his DSA membership expire in 2022 following DSA's response to his vote.

Bowman was among 51 House Democrats to vote against the final passage of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. Explaining his vote, he said, "it is astounding how quickly Congress moves weapons but we can't ensure housing, care, and justice for our veterans, nor invest in robust jobs programs for districts like mine."

On July 18, 2023, Bowman and eight other progressive Democrats voted against a congressional non-binding resolution proposed by August Pfluger that "the State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state", that Congress rejects "all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia", and that “the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel".

On October 25, 2023, Bowman and eight other progressive Democrats, along with Republican Thomas Massie, voted against congressional bipartisan non-binding resolution H. Res. 771 supporting Israel in the wake of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The resolution stated that the House of Representatives "stands with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists" and "reaffirms the United States' commitment to Israel's security"; it passed 412–10–6.

On November 17, 2023, Bowman called reports of Israeli women being raped during the 2023 Hamas attack "propaganda" and a "lie". After Politico reached out to his office about his statements in March 2024, Bowman walked back his previous remarks.

Liberal Israel lobby group J Street withdrew its endorsement of Bowman on January 29, 2024, citing his "framing and approach" in his rhetoric after the Hamas attack on Israel. J Street's president Jeremy Ben-Ami said that Bowman's rhetoric had "gone too far".

Committee assignments

• Committee on Education and the Workforce
  • Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
• Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Energy (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Black Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus

2020

2022

 

Bowman lives with his wife, Melissa Oppenheimer, and their three children in Yonkers, New York. His wife was upset about his decision to run for office for "the first eleven months", Bowman revealed on an episode of The Carlos Watson Show.

Bowman is a fan of New York hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan. He described hip-hop as a "culture that is created by teenagers who were forgotten about, and because they were forgotten about, they were forced to come together and create something beautiful". Bowman drew inspiration from the Wu-Tang Clan during his underdog campaign, and has frequently been seen in a Wu-Tang Clan emblazoned face covering during the COVID-19 pandemic, which GQ noted allowed Bowman to send voters a message.

From 2011 to 2014, Bowman maintained a blog on which he promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories. After the blog was reported on by The Daily Beast, Bowman said he regretted his posts.

• List of African-American United States representatives
• Progressivism in the United States § In the 21st century
• List of United States representatives expelled, censured, or reprimanded