If that was the first questionable race-related comment he made I’d be inclined to believe it’s no big deal, but it’s not.
Here’s one of the controversies, a donor made an explicitly racist statement on camera, and the candidate never disavowed it (at least by two weeks later when the second article was written).
And there are certainly stereotypes you just need to be careful about implying when pursuing a Democratic nomination. If your opponent is greedy and happens to be Jewish, spend some extra time thinking about how it’s going to be heard by people who have been working under that stereotype their whole life. That line of attack could have been framed as uninterested in reaching across the aisle or smooth talking other representatives, but he chose “argues too much” and “scream at”, then said he should talk “like normal people”. He’s not lighting up crosses, but he probably would have “voted for Obama a third time”.
Like this isn’t just a random off-hand comment where he didn’t have time to think and said something inartfully, this was a core line of attack on the first black representative of the district, something he must have realized would resonate with bigoted voters. And Bowman isn’t a particularly angry representative. Like “more firebrand” is true, but not in a sense where you’d think he’s really out of line. Making statements of principles on the steps of the capitol is something politicians do, especially when they’re in the minority.