Huge upset. Engel has been in congress since 1989 and won his primary decisively as recently as 2018. https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1275803793192615943

The Jewish angle to this race is a) the district includes large Jewish communities and b) Engel is one of the most reliable pro-Israel Democrats in congress.

If you're unfamiliar with the underlying psychology of this, a fear internalized by many American Jews before the Trump era was a day when the Democrats become Corbynized. Which is to say, rabidly anti-Israel and hostile to American Jews in the process.

Bowman is on the record saying he wishes to make American aid conditional on human rights requirements, and has specifically included Israel as one of the places where that would be explored. But does that make him the avant-garde of a Corbynized Democratic party? Hardly.

It's worth keeping in mind a few things:

1) Most White non-Orthodox Jews, like most college educated White Democrats, have moved left in the Trump era

2) Netanyahu has spent over a decade telling U.S. Jews they don't matter and picking fights with the politicians we vote for

3) The anxiety is from an era that is hardly recognizable now. Republicans are on the record supporting annexation, a policy opposed by most U.S. Jews who support direct negotiations between parties.

Pro-Israel stalwarts like Chuck Schumer now criticize Israeli policy publicly.

4) We can't know what's in Bowman's heart and from a public policy perspective what's relevant is what he publicly commits to and who he has to answer to.

What he says on Jews and Israel is mild and empathetic. And his sizable base of Jewish constituents isn't going away.

5) This one is the most important: The small but loud and well-funded cadre of right wing Jews is going to add Bowman to their list of bogeyman about the direction of the Democratic party. (Multi-part tweet keep scrolling)

But as the old saying goes, all politics is local. Bowman didn't win because he's somewhat more critical of Israeli policy. He won because he's a strong candidate who ran a good campaign. https://twitter.com/tanyadomi/status/1275630203029553153?s=20

In short, Bowman is a good candidate who ran a strong campaign. His constituents include a sizable number of non-leftist Jews, and his views on Israel are similar to (not identical) most U.S. Jews.

If there's an underlying trend here, it's a Jewish one rather than a Bowman one.