Rep. Summer season Lee (D-PA), the primary member of the progressive group of Home Democrats referred to as the Squad to be up for a 2024 main problem, received her race Tuesday.
Her contest could possibly be a preview of how Democratic divides over Israel could 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 average challenger, Edgewood Metropolis Council member Bhavini Patel, was vocal about her assist for Israel and centered 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 battle, with many progressives on the Hill calling for a ceasefire and extra average lawmakers arguing for army help 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 dealing with primaries towards 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 severe a risk the primaries pose to these progressives dealing with challengers.
“What it might probably inform you if somebody wins with [Lee’s] place is that it will not be a vulnerability,” says Berwood Yost, the top of the Franklin and Marshall Faculty ballot in Pennsylvania. “However in fact, it would rely on the candidates who’re working and what they’re emphasizing.”
Summer season Lee’s main, briefly defined
Lee, a former group 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 average than among the different districts that progressives maintain across the nation. Lee has mentioned 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. In the course of 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 every part 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.)
With regards to Israel-related coverage, she has condemned Hamas, referred to as for a ceasefire, voted towards a decision establishing that Congress stands with Israel, and voted towards sending a latest help package deal to Israel. These positions construct on previous statements Lee has made in assist of Palestinian rights and calling for the conditioning of US help primarily based on humanitarian necessities.
Lee’s place on Israel’s battle 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 location of a devastating antisemitic mass capturing 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 towards Hamas,” a gaggle 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, nevertheless, supported Lee’s stances.
Patel, in the meantime, is an entrepreneur and metropolis council member. A few of her key coverage positions embody backing labor unions, supporting policing, and reducing prescription drug prices. Throughout a broad array of points, together with legal justice reform, well being care, and environmental coverage, her stances are to Lee’s proper.
Patel has a extra average place on Israel’s offensive and has expressed assist for the nation. She claimed, too, that Lee’s place will not be a mirrored image of the place her constituents stand and condemned Lee’s backing of voters who select “uncommitted” within the Democratic main as a substitute of supporting President Joe Biden. “She’s clearly picked a aspect on this state of affairs and fully disregards her whole district,” Patel informed the Washington Put up. “I believe it’s necessary that any name for a cease-fire ought to acknowledge that hostages are nonetheless being held.”
Because the Put up famous, nevertheless, Lee’s assist for a ceasefire in Gaza displays the place many Democrats stand on this situation as properly. A February 2024 Information for Progress ballot discovered that 63 % of Democrats assist a everlasting ceasefire in Gaza.
“There was rising criticism of this battle, even amongst those that had been horrified by the October 7 assaults and consider Israel has the precise 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 might [be] barely totally different politically than it does now.”
Lee constructed up a formidable arsenal of fundraising and endorsements that far outpaced Patel, together with backing from Pennsylvania Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman — a sign of the energy of her candidacy.
Such assist put Lee in a strong place going into main day, regardless of the disagreement some constituents have expressed about her stances. This energy could have been a cause 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 Reasonable PAC, which attracts a lot of its funding from a pro-Israel Republican donor — backed Patel.
Fundraising energy, incumbency, endorsements, and the state of public opinion helped Lee come out victorious towards her average challenger. Her success will now doubtless ship a optimistic sign to her fellow progressives who’re additionally beneath risk of main challenges, together with some that could possibly 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 through which lawmakers’ stances on Israel are anticipated to be a flash level.
AIPAC has already mentioned it intends to spend its sizable battle 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 mentioned 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 few of the members that AIPAC and DMFI intend to focus on embody different members of the Squad like Reps. Jamaal Bowman (NY), Cori Bush (MO), Ilhan Omar (MN), and Rashida Tlaib (MI), all of whom will probably be up for primaries later this 12 months.
“We’re not keen on defeating people who find themselves pro-Palestinian, we’re keen on defeating people who find themselves anti-Israel and I believe it’s honest 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.
Specialists be aware that AIPAC and DMFI could have handed on investing in Lee’s race in favor of placing their {dollars} in primaries through which lawmakers are perceived to be extra weak. Bowman and Bush are two of the lawmakers who might properly see harder races as a result of they’re navigating different points that might have an effect on their candidacies, together with Bowman’s previous weblog posts concerning September 11 conspiracy theories and a DOJ investigation of Bush’s use of marketing campaign safety funds.
“I believe with Bowman and Bush, particularly, they each have controversies surrounding them that don’t have anything to do with the Israel situation however have made them uniquely weak,” Erin Covey, a Home analyst for Prepare dinner Political Report, tells Vox.
Past Democratic primaries, there’s additionally an open query on the influence that intraparty fissures on Israel may have on assist for Biden in November. Already, a fraction of Democratic voters have expressed their opposition to his willingness to proceed backing the nation’s army as greater than 30,000 Gazans have been killed. In Michigan, for instance, greater than 100,000 individuals forged their vote for “uncommitted” with a purpose 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 individuals 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 replicate Lee’s main victory.