Voters in parts of the Bronx and Westchester County headed to the polls on Tuesday to decide between a pair of candidates in what’s been billed as the most expensive Democratic primary ever for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Polls closed at 9 p.m. for New York’s primary elections, including the high-profile battle between Rep. Jamaal Bowman and challenger George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, in New York’s 16th Congressional District.
In other parts of the city, there were also Democratic primary battles for the state Assembly in every New York City borough but Staten Island, along with a Republican Assembly primary in eastern Queens and a Democratic state Senate contest in parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
Results are set to trickle in throughout the night, with early voting and absentee ballot results expected first.
But all eyes are largely on the 16th Congressional District, which spans from the northern Bronx into southern Westchester. The race pitted Bowman — a member of the left-leaning group of lawmakers known as “the Squad” — against Latimer, a Westchester political stalwart who received the backing of much of the Democratic establishment in New York.
The race attracted more than $24 million in political advertising, by far the most ever spent on a House primary, according to AdImpact, an organization that tracks political ad spending. Given the overwhelming number of Democrats in the district, the winner of the Democratic primary is likely to secure a win in the November general election.
As of early June, Latimer’s campaign had raised $5.7 million and had $2.5 million on hand heading into the final stretch of the primary, according to the Federal Election Commission. Bowman had raised $4.3 million and had just more than $1 million on hand, records show. Those funds did not include the outside spending on the race.
Bowman, who was first elected in 2020, is a progressive firebrand. But after Hamas’ attack against Israel on Oct. 7 last year, his condemnation of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza led to criticisms from members of his own party and a competitive challenge from Latimer, a longtime local official.
A mobilized base of pro-Israel supporters embraced Latimer. He was backed by organizations including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent more than $14 million in ads tied to the race and drew fault lines around the war — mirroring a chasm within the larger Democratic Party.
The district includes much of Westchester and a sliver of the Bronx, including Co-op City.
This is a developing story and will be updated.