Lefty teams rescind endorsement of ex-NY Rep. Mondaire Jones after he snubbed Jamaal Bowman over ‘Squad’ member’s anti-Israel views

A progressive congressional PAC and left-wing political group rescinded their endorsements of Mondaire Jones on Wednesday after the previous New York consultant backed Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s Democratic main opponent due to the “Squad” member’s anti-Israel views.

Jones’ marketing campaign introduced Thursday that the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC had pulled its help as a result of ex-congressman’s endorsement of Westchester County Government George Latimer over Bowman in New York’s sixteenth Congressional District.

“Jones was clear that he made the endorsement to face up for his Jewish constituents,” the marketing campaign mentioned in a press launch.

“I’ve no regrets about standing up for what I firmly consider in. I’ve identified and labored with George Latimer for years,” Jones added in an announcement. “Rep. Bowman and I’ve very completely different views on Israel.

“I’ve been horrified by his latest acceptance of the DSA endorsement, his denial of the sexual assault of Israeli ladies by Hamas on October 7, and his rush to name for a cease-fire earlier than Israel may hardly start to defend itself in opposition to the worst assault on Jews because the Holocaust,” he added.

The progressive PAC mentioned in an announcement to NBC Information that “quite a lot of elements” led to the choice, nevertheless it was unanimously made by the PAC’s board.

The Working Households Occasion additionally revoked an endorsement of Jones on Thursday for having “strayed from the values and ideas that made us proud to help him in 2020.”

“His choice to again George Latimer, who makes use of racist dog-whistles, rejects core elements of Biden’s financial agenda and shares donors with Mondaire’s personal MAGA extremist opponent, runs counter to our values as a celebration,” the group mentioned in an announcement.

Jone will however stay on the celebration’s poll line, since candidates can solely be kicked off for dropping a main, shifting out of state, committing a felony, operating for one more seat or dying.

Home Progressive Caucus chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) instructed NBC that Jones’ endorsement this week of Latimer was “horrific.”

“Actually, I’m simply so disgusted by it,” she instructed the outlet. “It is a former colleague of his, an incumbent member who’s a top-priority candidate for us, an incumbent for us within the Progressive Caucus.”

Jones in his Thursday assertion mentioned if elected, he “will proceed to be a champion for the insurance policies I’ve lengthy advocated, together with reducing prices for working households, restoring ladies’s reproductive freedom, defending Social Safety and Medicare, implementing transformative local weather motion, banning assault weapons, and preventing for common well being care.”

He’ll proceed unopposed by way of the June 25 main within the Empire State, not like Latimer and Bowman, and face a rematch in opposition to freshman Republican Rep. Mike Lawler within the November common election for Hudson Valley’s seventeenth district.

The pivot comes after he confronted criticism final 12 months from his former main opponent, Liz Whitmer Gereghty, the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for mocking Lawler and former Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) carrying yarmulkes throughout a meal with Jewish leaders.

“Effectively this was a waste of everybody’s time,” Jones snarked on X, prompting Gereghty to publicly query his “judgment.”

“If Mondaire Jones didn’t notice that his tweet could possibly be considered as antisemitic and elicit vile feedback in response, I’d query his judgment,” Gereghty instructed Jewish Insider in October, simply days earlier than Hamas invaded Israel.

Jones and Bowman in previous congressional cycles additionally acquired donations from members of the Westchester Folks’s Motion Coalition (WESPAC), a fiscal sponsor of the teams Inside Our Lifetime and College students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) that funded anti-Israel tent encampments on school campuses nationwide this spring.

The previous Hudson Valley Democrat acquired greater than $35,000 in donations from billionaires George and Alex Soros since 2022, FEC filings additionally present, who additionally funded the tent cities whose denizens harassed and intimidated Jewish college students on campuses.

His principal marketing campaign committee has greater than $3 million money readily available as of the newest filings in April — roughly the identical quantity as Lawler’s marketing campaign committee.

Jones was elected to the US Home of Representatives in 2020 and served only one time period following a stint as a litigator within the Westchester County Legal professional’s Workplace.