While at UW-M, Bowen became program director at Urban Underground, served on the Medical College of Wisconsin's Violence Prevention Initiative Steering Committee and the City of Milwaukee's Homicide Review Commission.
[2] He was the lead author of a living wage bill requiring all companies doing business with Milwaukee County to be paid $11.32 an hour.
Bowen received a majority of the votes in the August 2014 Democratic primary,[3] and was unopposed in the general election.
In 2023, he ran for an open seat on the Milwaukee Common Council, but fell 17 votes short of his opponent.
[5][6] Bowen attended the 2016 Democratic National Convention as a superdelegate, and pledged his support to Bernie Sanders.