Ex-congressman Jamaal Bowman’s PAC Built to Win is falling far short of the grand vision its founder promised after losing his congressional race. Former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) claimed he had secured “commitments in the millions” for his new political operation, but Federal Election Commission filings show it raised just $132,529.03 in the first half of 2025. As of July 30, the PAC held only $3,125.68 in cash while carrying $47,007.38 in debt—mostly owed to law firms.
Bowman’s PAC has done little to support candidates. In six months, it spent roughly $1,100 directly on races—$1,000 to Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) and $103.48 to a failed New Rochelle school board bid. Most of its funding came not from grassroots enthusiasm but from Bowman’s own congressional campaign account ($53,000) and the Squad Victory Fund ($7,100), backed by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.
Bowman—best known for pulling a Capitol fire alarm during a spending vote, his censure, and staunch anti-Israel rhetoric—promised his PAC would “dismantle corporate control over our democracy” and “elect leaders who fight for us—not for billionaires and special interests.” Yet the filings show little traction with small donors.
Ryan Adams, Bowman’s former digital organizing director, called the poor performance troubling: “So the failure of this now in this moment is not good.”
For a man who once vowed to channel “grassroots” energy “from Yonkers to Gaza,” the numbers tell a different story—a PAC deep in debt, propped up by political allies, and far from the national force Bowman pledged to build.
