One of the up-and-coming members of Congress scored a major victory on April 23: Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Summer Lee won her primary challenge against Edgewood Borough Council member Bhavini Patel. A member of Congress’ progressive ‘squad,’ Lee will face Republican James Hayes in November’s general election.
What is more notable than Lee’s primary win, though, is the discourse surrounding it. The Democratic Party has been split over how to deal with the Israel-Hamas war, with more traditional liberals backing the U.S.’ support of Israel while progressive Democrats decry the country’s alleged war crimes in Gaza. Lee falls into the latter category, and her primary victory could prove to be a preview of how Democratic voters will handle the issue in November.
Lee does appear to be making an attempt at straddling both sides of the argument, as her 12th Congressional district has one of the largest Jewish populations in Pennsylvania. But she has also called for peace “from Pittsburgh to Palestine.” Ultimately, her campaign was “about making sure President Biden gets reelected in November,” Lee said in her victory speech, per NBC News.
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Lee’s beginnings and entrance into Congress
Summer Lee was born in Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley in 1987. She grew up in the town of North Braddock before “graduating from Penn State and Howard University School of Law, where she focused on civil rights and social justice advocacy,” according to her House biography. After college, Lee worked as a labor organizer around Pennsylvania, engaging in efforts to increase the state’s minimum wage. A former member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Lee also campaigned for Bernie Sanders’ presidential run in 2016.
In 2018, Lee ran as a Democratic candidate for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She defeated her GOP opponent, a 20-year incumbent, by a large margin to become the “first Black woman from Western Pennsylvania ever elected to the [state] legislature,” her biography said. Lee served in the state House for three years, and in 2021 announced that she was running for the U.S. House. She won the Democratic primary in a close race before defeating her Republican opponent in the 2022 general election by over 10 points. Her victory made Lee the first Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania.
Lee’s ‘squad’ membership and future
Upon her arrival in Washington, D.C., Lee became a vocal member of the ‘squad,’ a group of nine progressives in the House that includes names like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). The squad has been outspoken about their disavowal of Israel’s actions in Gaza since the Hamas attack, and Lee has joined in the outcry.
Lee was “among the first lawmakers to call for a cease-fire” in Gaza, Politico said, and was one of just a few Democrats who recently voted against additional aid for Israel. However, given that most of the Democratic Party remains aligned behind Israel, Lee’s primary was seemingly a barometer for where the party stood on the issue. She was the first member of the squad to be primaried this season, and her opponent, Bhavini Patel, “hammered the progressive freshman over her response to Israel’s war in Gaza” and accused Lee of “ignoring [her] district’s Jewish community and undermining President Joe Biden’s policy in the region,” said CNN. Lee has pushed back against these accusations, denouncing both antisemitism and Islamophobia.
While pro-Israel groups attempted to dismantle Lee’s campaign, her “popularity in the district and the lack of name recognition for Patel … mostly kept them off the airwaves,” CNN said. Not only did she win her primary challenge, but the makeup of her district means that Lee appears “poised to cruise to victory come the fall in the deep-blue district,” said Politico.
While Democratic in-fighting over Israel and Hamas continues, Lee’s primary win was a “powerful rebuke to those who imagine that progressive advocates for a cease-fire and justice for Palestinians are necessarily vulnerable in this year’s Democratic primaries,” said The Nation. Her vote against additional Israel and Ukraine aid came days before the primary, and a “more cautious politician might have avoided a supposedly controversial vote on the eve of a high-profile primary.” But the fact that she won her primary in a landslide anyway shows that “opposing genocide is good politics and good policy,” said Lee on X.
