1. Jamaal Anthony Bowman was born on April 1,1976 and is an American politician and former educator who served from 2021 to 2025 as the United States representative for New York's 16th congressional district.
38 Facts About Jamaal Bowman
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Jamaal Bowman defeated 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel in the 2020 Democratic primary and was first elected to Congress in November that year.
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Jamaal Bowman was a member of the Squad, an informal group of leftist members of the House Democratic Caucus.
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On October 26,2023, Jamaal Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for willfully setting off a false fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building.
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In 2024, Jamaal Bowman ran for reelection but lost to Westchester County executive George Latimer in the district's Democratic primary.
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Jamaal Bowman was the first of two Democratic incumbents of the 2024 election cycle to lose a primary along with Cori Bush.
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Jamaal Bowman was the first member of the Squad to lose a primary.
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Jamaal Anthony Bowman was born on April 1,1976, in Manhattan, a borough of New York City.
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Jamaal Bowman lived with his grandmother in the East River Houses in East Harlem during the week, and on weekends with his mother and sisters in Yorkville on the Upper East Side.
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Jamaal Bowman's grandmother died when he was eight years old, after which he lived full time on the Upper East Side.
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Jamaal Bowman attended Sayreville War Memorial High School, where he played on the football team.
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Jamaal 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.
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Jamaal Bowman later earned a Master of Arts in counseling from Mercy College and a Doctor of Education in educational leadership from Manhattanville College.
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Jamaal Bowman became a leading advocate against standardized testing, calling it "slavery".
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Jamaal Bowman wrote that high-stakes testing had a role in perpetuating inequalities, including turnover, tumult, and a vicious cycle it creates in students' and educators' lives, saying performance assessments damage a school's ability to teach.
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Jamaal Bowman advocated for children to receive arts, history, and science education in addition to the basics of literacy and numeracy.
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The progressive Justice Democrats recruited Jamaal Bowman to run for the United States House of Representatives in, represented by 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel.
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Jamaal Bowman was inspired to run by the insurgent 2018 campaign of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and called his platform "anti-poverty and anti-racist", with support for housing, criminal justice reform, education, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal.
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Jamaal Bowman's campaign criticized Engel's record on foreign policy and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Jamaal Bowman was endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and the editorial board of The New York Times.
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Jamaal Bowman was challenged in the Democratic primary by Westchester County legislator Vedat Gashi, who was endorsed by Jamaal Bowman's predecessor and 2020 primary opponent, Eliot Engel.
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In January 2021, following the storming of the United States Capitol, Jamaal Bowman introduced the Congressional Oversight of Unjust Policing 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.
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On November 5,2021, Jamaal 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.
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Jamaal Bowman was among the 46 House Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
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On September 30,2023, while House Democrats were attempting to delay a vote on a bill that would avoid a government shutdown, Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building.
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Jamaal Bowman's action caused the building to be evacuated for an hour and a half.
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Jamaal Bowman initially claimed that he had set off the alarm by accident, telling reporters, "I thought the alarm would open the door".
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Jamaal Bowman's office released "suggested talking points" about the incident for political allies.
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Jamaal Bowman later stated that he had not approved the "Nazis" comparison.
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In September 2021, Jamaal Bowman voted in favor of providing Israel with an additional $1 billion in aid to fund its Iron Dome missile defense system.
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Jamaal Bowman's vote was controversial among members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and sparked debate within the DSA about whether it should require that its members support Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel.
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Jamaal Bowman was among 51 House Democrats who voted against the final passage of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.
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In February 2025, Jamaal Bowman started his own super political action committee, Built to Win PAC, to support progressive candidates in competitive elections by mobilizing nonwhite voters disillusioned with the Democratic Party.
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Jamaal Bowman did not name any specific candidates that his PAC would support, but said that it would target any congressional candidates that support Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as those receiving support from cryptocurrency PACs or real estate lobbyists.
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Jamaal Bowman's wife was upset about his decision to run for office for "the first eleven months", Bowman said on an episode of The Carlos Watson Show.
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Jamaal Bowman is a fan of New York hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.
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Jamaal Bowman 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".
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Jamaal 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 Jamaal Bowman to send voters a message.