Jamaal Bowman

Jamaal Anthony Bowman (born April 1, 1976) is an American politician and educator serving as the U.S. representative for NY'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.

Bowman is the founder and former principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, a public middle school in Eastchester, Bronx.

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 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.

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.

He 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.

The Justice Democrats recruited Bowman to run for the United States House of Representatives in NY's 16th congressional district, represented by 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel.

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.

Upon his swearing-in, Bowman joined The Squad, a group of progressive Democratic lawmakers.

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.

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 criminal misdemeanor for willfully setting off a false fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building.

On December 7, 2023, he was censured by the House of Representatives 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.

On July 17, 2020, based on their analysis of the absentee ballot count, the Associated Press called the primary race for Bowman.