Rep. Summer time Lee (D-PA), the primary member of the progressive group of Home Democrats often called the Squad to be up for a 2024 main problem, received her race Tuesday.
Her contest may very well be a preview of how Democratic divides over Israel might play out this 12 months. Lee, one of many earliest lawmakers to name for a ceasefire in Gaza and to sentence Israel’s airstrikes, has fielded critiques from some Jewish leaders and members of her constituency for taking these positions. Her reasonable challenger, Edgewood Metropolis Council member Bhavini Patel, was vocal about her help for Israel and targeted her assaults on Lee on the Israel-Hamas battle, as did outdoors teams.
Their race displays the extraordinary focus there’s been on the battle within the wake of Hamas’s brutal October 7 assault and Israel’s devastating bombings of Gaza. Democrats have been divided of their stance on the continuing struggle, with many progressives on the Hill calling for a ceasefire and extra reasonable lawmakers arguing for navy assist to Israel.
As congressional main season unfolds, many anti-war progressives — significantly these within the Squad, together with Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — are going through primaries in opposition to challengers supported by pro-Israel teams just like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Although Lee’s race isn’t an ideal analog for these of her Squad colleagues, it sends an early sign about simply how critical a menace the primaries pose to these progressives going through challengers.
“What it could actually inform you if somebody wins with [Lee’s] place is that it might not be a vulnerability,” says Berwood Yost, the top of the Franklin and Marshall Faculty ballot in Pennsylvania. “However in fact, it can rely on the candidates who’re operating and what they’re emphasizing.”
Summer time Lee’s main, briefly defined
Lee, a former neighborhood organizer and state consultant, is a first-term lawmaker who represents Pennsylvania’s twelfth district. The district — which is within the western a part of the state and consists of Pittsburgh — is solidly Democratic, however extra reasonable than a few of the different districts that progressives maintain across the nation. Lee has stated that she strives to “be a consultant” for everybody in her district.
Lee has lengthy backed progressive insurance policies like Medicare-for-all and a Inexperienced New Deal. Through the race, she emphasised how a lot federal funding has flowed to her district throughout her time period, together with $1.2 billion devoted to the whole lot from changing lead water pipes and constructing out passenger rail within the area. (A lot of this funding is tied to the bipartisan infrastructure invoice, which handed earlier than Lee took workplace, however she might have nonetheless had a job in its distribution.)
In terms of Israel-related coverage, she has condemned Hamas, referred to as for a ceasefire, voted in opposition to a decision establishing that Congress stands with Israel, and voted in opposition to sending a current assist package deal to Israel. These positions construct on previous statements Lee has made in help of Palestinian rights and calling for the conditioning of US assist based mostly on humanitarian necessities.
Lee’s place on Israel’s struggle in Gaza has been scrutinized and, at instances, criticized by a few of her constituency, which incorporates a big Jewish American inhabitants. Squirrel Hill, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh and a part of Lee’s district, was the positioning of a devastating antisemitic mass taking pictures on the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018. “We name on Rep. Lee to train higher management and be part of her colleagues in upholding the ethical obligation for Israel to guard its residents in opposition to Hamas,” a bunch of Jewish leaders within the area wrote in a letter final November. Some Jewish constituents who’ve expressed issues about Israel’s assaults on Gaza have, nonetheless, supported Lee’s stances.
Patel, in the meantime, is an entrepreneur and metropolis council member. A few of her key coverage positions embrace backing labor unions, supporting policing, and reducing prescription drug prices. Throughout a broad array of points, together with felony justice reform, well being care, and environmental coverage, her stances are to Lee’s proper.
Patel has a extra reasonable place on Israel’s offensive and has expressed help for the nation. She claimed, too, that Lee’s place is just not a mirrored image of the place her constituents stand and condemned Lee’s backing of voters who select “uncommitted” within the Democratic main as an alternative of supporting President Joe Biden. “She’s clearly picked a facet on this state of affairs and fully disregards her total district,” Patel informed the Washington Submit. “I feel it’s necessary that any name for a cease-fire ought to acknowledge that hostages are nonetheless being held.”
Because the Submit famous, nonetheless, Lee’s help for a ceasefire in Gaza displays the place many Democrats stand on this concern as nicely. A February 2024 Knowledge for Progress ballot discovered that 63 p.c of Democrats help a everlasting ceasefire in Gaza.
“There was growing criticism of this struggle, even amongst those that have been horrified by the October 7 assaults and imagine Israel has the proper to defend itself,” says Dan Mallinson, a political scientist at Penn State College. “If this was January, or perhaps November of final 12 months, and she or he was on this place, it could [be] barely completely different politically than it does now.”
Lee constructed up a powerful arsenal of fundraising and endorsements that far outpaced Patel, together with backing from Pennsylvania Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman — a sign of the power of her candidacy.
Such help put Lee in a stable place going into main day, regardless of the disagreement some constituents have expressed about her stances. This power might have been a purpose why AIPAC, a pro-Israel group that’s vowed to ship $100 million to unseat progressive candidates, didn’t make investments on this specific main. Different outdoors teams — together with the Average PAC, which attracts a lot of its funding from a pro-Israel Republican donor — backed Patel.
Fundraising power, incumbency, endorsements, and the state of public opinion helped Lee come out victorious in opposition to her reasonable challenger. Her success will now possible ship a constructive sign to her fellow progressives who’re additionally below menace of main challenges, together with some that may very well be closely supported by pro-Israel teams like AIPAC.
Democratic divides are set to play a job within the election
Lee’s race is much from the one one during which lawmakers’ stances on Israel are anticipated to be a flash level.
AIPAC has already stated it intends to spend its sizable struggle chest — as a lot as $100 million — on taking out sure progressive members, although that spending has but to manifest, and teams together with the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC (DMFI) have stated the identical. In 2022, AIPAC noticed successes in six of eight Democratic main races that it invested in, together with Rep. Haley Stevens’s win over Rep. Andy Levin in Michigan.
A number of the members that AIPAC and DMFI intend to focus on embrace different members of the Squad like Reps. Jamaal Bowman (NY), Cori Bush (MO), Ilhan Omar (MN), and Rashida Tlaib (MI), all of whom shall be up for primaries later this 12 months.
“We’re not focused on defeating people who find themselves pro-Palestinian, we’re focused on defeating people who find themselves anti-Israel and I feel it’s truthful to say that Bowman, Bush, and a few of these different members are decidedly anti-Israel,” Mark Mellman, the top of the DMFI, informed the Hill.
Consultants notice that AIPAC and DMFI might have handed on investing in Lee’s race in favor of placing their {dollars} in primaries during which lawmakers are perceived to be extra weak. Bowman and Bush are two of the lawmakers who might nicely see harder races as a result of they’re navigating different points that would have an effect on their candidacies, together with Bowman’s previous weblog posts relating to September 11 conspiracy theories and a DOJ investigation of Bush’s use of marketing campaign safety funds.
“I feel with Bowman and Bush, particularly, they each have controversies surrounding them that don’t have anything to do with the Israel concern however have made them uniquely weak,” Erin Covey, a Home analyst for Cook dinner Political Report, tells Vox.
Past Democratic primaries, there’s additionally an open query on the affect that intraparty fissures on Israel could have on help for Biden in November. Already, a fraction of Democratic voters have expressed their opposition to his willingness to proceed backing the nation’s navy as greater than 30,000 Gazans have been killed. In Michigan, for instance, greater than 100,000 folks forged their vote for “uncommitted” in an effort to register their opposition to Biden.
“We’re anticipating [the presidential race] to be shut once more. So something that’s going to depress your turnout or folks not being enthusiastic about you is doubtlessly problematic,” says Mallinson.
Replace, April 23, 10:07 pm ET: This story, initially revealed earlier on April 23, has been up to date to mirror Lee’s main victory.
