Rep. Jamaal Bowman knows he can be loud. As a former middle school principal in the Bronx, he’s had to be loud. But two and a half years into his congressional career, Bowman is finding that he can use what he calls his “principal voice” to get plenty of attention—and to piss off plenty of Republicans.
In March, he got into a very public shouting match, just off the House floor, with conservative Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) over gun control.
In May, Bowman used his prolific heckling skills to go after Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who had just been indicted days before.
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And throughout his time in Congress, he hasn’t shied away from calling out Republicans—on Twitter or in person—for what he views as their cowardly inaction.
To hear Bowman tell it, he’s just being himself: a New Yorker.
“That’s how we are in the barber shop,” he told The Daily Beast during a recent sit-down interview. “That’s how we are in the neighborhood.”
Bowman said in New York, if you’re in a bar watching a game with a stranger who likes the other team, “y’all just start talking shit and you get to arguing.”
“That’s how not just New Yorkers, but I think how regular people engage in life,” he continued.
While he wasn’t necessarily quiet his first two years in Congress, it’s only been recently that Bowman has made a name for himself by mixing it up with Republicans—hardly letting them get a word in by using his booming, baritone voice to drown them out.
During his argument with Massie, Bowman repeatedly talked over the Kentucky Republican, who’s perhaps the most pro-gun member of Congress. Instead of debating Massie on the merits—Massie kept trying to tout his bill to make it easier for teachers to carry guns in school—Bowman refused to engage with an argument that the majority of law enforcement, teachers, and public health officials agree would make schools more dangerous.
“I was watching the video again yesterday,” Bowman told The Daily Beast on June 8. “First of all, I hate watching videos of myself. Like I never rewatch interviews… But I was watching again. I was like damn—I was really loud.”
Gun violence is a personal issue to Bowman. While he noted that he’s never been in a school shooting situation, he said he’s been in “several incidents where there was shooting like right next to me.”
“Twice in high school that happened,” he said. “But then I had close friends whose brother was killed, cousins killed. I have a close friend that was killed. Another close friend whose sister was killed and her 8-month-old baby killed. So this has just been my entire life.”
Bowman makes no apologies for speaking out in a less-than-traditional, less-than-diplomatic tone about gun violence. And he said his style is actually more reflective of himself and many other Americans that have largely been excluded from the conversation in Congress for too long.
“I just think we’re going through a transformation, or a metamorphosis, as a country right now,” he said. When he looks at himself and others who are in Congress, he said—“now that we’re here, and like winning re-election”—it’s indicative of “the conversation about America and what it’s supposed to be.”
On that recent day in June when Bowman invited The Daily Beast to his office—when the House was in session but not voting because conservatives had taken the House floor hostage—Bowman said he doesn’t like to be the center of attention. It’s just that he may not be able to help himself. (On this day, he was sporting a blazer over a T-shirt that said “Ban Assault Weapons Now.”)
“Welcome to my apparently boring office,” Bowman said, taking a subtle shot at the GOP dysfunction and lack of action.
More literally, his office walls are indeed still mostly bare, save for some flags. And even though an unsolicited portrait of Bowman from Pablo Manriquez—a Capitol Hill reporter who frequently paints lawmakers and the Capitol dome—is soon to be delivered, it’s unclear if it’ll get hung anywhere on the office walls. Bowman said he was trained “to not have the office be a shrine to you.”
He noted he does want to put up some pictures of his district and his constituents—“when my comms people get around to it, I guess they’ll make that happen” he said, in another one of his playful shots—and he’s more open to displaying accolades now.
“As a principal, I hated it,” he said of teaching awards. “I felt like I didn’t do anything to get it. But now in this position, I kind of, I’m grateful for it.”
Part of his shifting attitude toward awards, Bowman said, is that things don’t change quickly when you’re working with kids. In Congress, things also don’t change quickly—if at all—but they can.
The congressman’s first two years in office were spent in the majority, with Democrats in control of the House, Senate and the presidency. He pointed toward things like getting COVID vaccine centers set up in his district and getting amendments into a major domestic manufacturing bill as moments of “having an impact.”
Since then, for Democrats like Bowman, times have changed.
House Democrats are now in the minority. The chamber has largely become Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s personal tool for passing GOP messaging bills. Progressives like Bowman hoped they could convince President Joe Biden to make substantive changes through executive action, but that hasn’t really happened. And as a result of everything, many Democrats feel like they’re not living up to their own expectations.
But Bowman has found a way to at least make headlines: his voice.
His shouting match with Massie, which started with him loudly imploring journalists to ask Republicans about gun violence, made major headlines, seeming to capture the frustration of so many that Congress seems unwilling to address mass shootings.
And his needling of Santos solidified his status as a liberal gadfly.
Bowman claimed during our interview that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was actually behind the Santos heckling
“That was Alex’s fault,” Bowman said. “I don’t think I said this on the record yet, but I was talking to a journalist… Alex walks by and she’s like, ‘Let’s go heckle Santos.’”
“If you watch the tape, you’ll hear her voice too,” Bowman added. “My voice is just a bit louder.”
Roughly a minute after causing Santos to flee, Bowman drew even more attention—this time, for getting in an argument with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). The two quarreled over everything—from guns, to impeaching Biden, to immigration, to QAnon.
Bowman told The Daily Beast that he hasn’t spoken to Massie or Greene since his viral exchanges with them. Bowman actually said he “won’t go anywhere near” Greene after the congresswoman insisted she felt “threatened” by Bowman during the exchange.
The congressman said some of his fellow Democrats have “teased” him about the exchanges. But he insists there hasn’t been pushback from within his caucus. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hasn’t called him “into the principal's office,” he said. And he noted that Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the longtime No. 2 Democrat who tried to simmer Bowman down during his exchange with Massie, told him the next day that he was just trying to make sure nobody got punched in the face.
Asked if he has any less fraught relationships with Republicans, Bowman noted he gets along with Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, one of the few Black members of the House GOP.
But even though his antics have drawn some negative attention from Republicans, Bowman has found a way to make people listen.
The Daily Beast witnessed all three of these events. Each time, cameras flocked. The clips went viral. Liberal onlookers filled the comments with adoration. Bowman said he’s also received praise from his district. He’s already a go-to quote for many in the congressional press corps—and the recent brushes with viral fame have just reinforced that status.
“Some journalists have, you know, questions about decorum and things like that,” he said. “And I’m kind of like—what do you mean decorum when kids are being killed? What are we talking about here? If we’re not outraged about that, what are we doing?“
But the question remains: Now that he has a platform, how does he use it?
Bowman said he’s running for re-election to the House in 2024. He’s already shut down rumors about primarying New York City Mayor Eric Adams, or Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY). (Bowman noted that he at least hasn’t been rumored to be primarying President Biden, “So that’s good. People haven’t completely lost their minds.”)
But as for the next cycle, things are less clear.
Bowman said he’d be interested in running for the Senate. “I don’t think I would do it right now,” he said. “But I would.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s seat doesn’t open up until 2028, but his fellow New York Senate Democrat, Kirsten Gillibrand, is up for re-election in 2024.
Asked if he’d be interested in House leadership, it was a “maybe.” Being chair of the Education and Labor Committee “would be fun,” he said. But he wasn’t so sure about the other types of leadership—the upper echelons of it, that is—which he described as being “like herding cats.” He thinks Jeffries and the rest of the new leadership team are doing a good job, and he applauded the racial and gender diversity of the team.
If you ask Bowman what he’s doing with his platform now, however, he said he’s just hoping to “inspire” people to “get more involved in our democracy—in local politics and national politics and to do grassroots organizing to help us win big elections.”
Bowman went on to list a number of aspirational policy items like universal child care and paid family leave that he thinks Democrats can achieve if they “get the right people into office.” He’s hoping people see him speak up—even in ways that challenge traditional rules about decorum—and think to do the same.
“In the future, and I mean, near future, I just want to do everything I can to have an impact and help people. That’s it,” he said. “So whatever position allows me to do that, that’s what I want to do.”
