Charges of Race-Baiting Rattle a Key Democratic House Primary

One of the nation’s most bitter House primaries took an even uglier turn this week, as an embattled Black Democrat repeatedly accused his white challenger of race-baiting in the New York City suburbs.

The charges by Representative Jamaal Bowman infused an element of unpredictability into the final days of a contest that has largely been defined by stark differences over the war in Gaza.

The latest episode started during a debate on Monday night, when the challenger, George Latimer, suggested that Mr. Bowman was more interested in representing San Francisco or Dearborn, Mich., a predominantly Arab American city, than white communities in his district, which includes parts of Westchester County and the Bronx.

“When you get as much money as you get from outside the district, your constituency is Dearborn, Michigan. Your constituency is San Francisco, California,” said Mr. Latimer, who serves as the executive of Westchester County. “It’s not Harrison, it’s not Tuckahoe, it’s not Scarsdale.”

Mr. Bowman, one of Congress’s sharpest critics of Israel’s war in Gaza, called the remark an “Islamophobic dog whistle,” and his campaign pointed out that he had raised only small sums from donors in Dearborn.