Both women running to represent Pittsburgh as Democrats in the US House are similar on the surface.
They’re young, at least by Congress’ standards, and are running on many of the same issues: gun violence prevention, education, bringing jobs to the district.
But the race, in a reliably blue district where a gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, has become more about an issue far from Pennsylvania.
Incumbent Rep. Summer Lee, one of the nine members of the House’s progressive Squad, called for a cease-fire in Gaza soon after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks inside Israel. Challenger Bhavini Patel, one of several centrist challengers who want to make tensions in Israel the center of their campaigns, has accused Lee of using language that stokes antisemitism in the heavily Jewish district.
Pennsylvania’s early primaries - set for April 23rd - make Lee the first member of the Squad to face a more moderate challenger. If she’s defeated, it could signal trouble for others in the group, like Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York and Rep. Cori Bush in Missouri. Challengers to Lee’s fellow Squad members have seen funds pouring in from pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel.
“This surfaces one of the tensions within the Democratic Party, between the more moderate and progressive wings, and also what we know is a real division in the party about Israel at the moment and the war with Hamas,” said Berwood Yost, director of the Floyd Institute for Public Policy at Franklin and Marshall College. “And so it’ll be interesting to watch how this plays out.”
The race to represent PA-12 owes much of its national attention to the fact that it’s in swing-state Pennsylvania, where President Joe Biden’s aggressive play to turn voters against ex-President Donald Trump is complicated by a growing progressive wing of the party that’s unsatisfied with his stance on Israel. Biden will appear in Pittsburgh on Wednesday to talk about labor.
Opposition to Progressives
Lee says her challenger is Republican-funded and disingenuous, stoking divisions in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
“The Jewish community, like all the rest of the communities in my district, are not monolithic,” Lee said, contending that the community deserves space to “really interrogate what they do want to happen” in the country’s relationship with Israel.
“The unfortunate situation is that maybe they’re not able to do that because of how politicized this has become — obviously from my opponent, right, who has been politicizing a very painful moment.”
Lee’s campaign received $11,140 between Jan. 26 and March 28 from J Street PAC, a Jewish-founded organization dedicated to “diplomatic peace” in Israel and Palestine. J Street endorsed Lee, citing her ability to fight “MAGA extremism” and “the disastrous consequences a second Trump presidency would have for Israelis and Palestinians,” said Tali DeGroot, national political director at J Street.
Patel, in an interview after a local town hall discussion at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, called Lee “not a real Democrat.” Patel, the daughter of an Indian immigrant, sits on the Edgewood Borough Council and formerly co-founded the technology startup BeamData.
“She’s called to dismantle the Democratic Party. She’s not denounced the uncommitted movement, and when she was asked on the debate stage on multiple occasions whether she would support Biden, she hedged,” Patel said.
GOP Funding
AIPAC and DMFI haven’t become involved in Lee’s race.
While that indicates she may be seen as less vulnerable than other progressives, Lee did not do as well as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro or Sen. John Fetterman in winning their 2022 races, getting 56 percent of the vote in the general election to Shapiro’s 68 percent and Fetterman’s 63 percent. Pennsylvania’s 12th district, redrawn before Lee won the last election, includes the state’s second-biggest city and swaths of Allegheny County.
But Lee has been hit with attack ads paid for by the Moderate PAC, funded by Pennsylvania GOP donor
“We need a representative who will work with President Biden,” a recent 30-second TV ad funded by the Moderate PAC says. The spot paints Lee as a thorn in the Democratic party’s side, showing her sitting during the president’s State of the Union address and calling out “casual racism” from Biden.
The Yass-funded ads for Patel have become a centerpiece of Lee’s campaign, with the progressive arguing her opposition is something of a Republican plant. A Lawrenceville resident opens a new TV ad with: “I’ve known Summer Lee since 2017; I know that Republican-funded super PACs are lying about her again.”
The ad goes on to highlight Lee’s fight against “GOP extremism” and the money she’s brought to the district through earmarks. It’s a prime example of how Lee seeks to neutralize the arguments against electing progressives to the House.
“My opponent wishes that she were running against a Republican,” Patel hits back, noting that she’s publicly denounced Yass and can’t control outside spending in her campaign. The Moderate PAC didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Lee has endorsements from both of Pennsylvania’s US senators, despite Fetterman’s growing tensions with his party’s Israel critics. Fetterman declined to comment on his and Lee’s policy differences.
Jews for Summer
Jonathan Mayo, a resident of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, lives just around the corner from the Tree of Life synagogue.
As part of his local Bend the Arc: Jewish Action chapter, Mayo helped organize a march after the Tree of Life attack that Lee attended “without any hesitation.” He’s part of a newly-formed group called “Jews for Summer,” which he and fellow Pittsburghers organized to turn out voters with methods like phone banking and canvassing.
Lee has not run away from having difficult conversations with people about the issues that matter to them most,” Mayo said, including “the survival of the State of Israel, and how that relates to the safety of the Jewish community in their eyes.”
The Jewish Federation invited Lee to a town hall-style discussion and she hasn’t agreed to come, said Laura Cherner, community director at the Federation.
Asked about the invitation, Lee highlighted Congress’ busy schedule that keeps lawmakers in Washington during the week.
“Unfortunately Johnson doesn’t know what he’s doing, so we’re spending more of our time here than we would at home, which is what we would absolutely prefer,” she said, referring to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
But that’s not a sufficient answer for the constituents who say Lee should be more engaged in fighting antisemitism in the district as hatred toward Jews rises around the country.
“As these wild and as antisemitic incidents have been rising, it’s unbelievable that you see people not willing to speak out,” said Jeremy Kazzaz, who formed the Beacon Coalition with the goal of informing voters about issues that affect the Jewish community. “It’s a wake up call, and it feels lonely.”
Greg Giroux in Washington and Jon Meltzer in Washington also contributed to this story.
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