Rep. Summer season 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 could possibly be a preview of how Democratic divides over Israel might play out this yr. 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 targeted her assaults on Lee on the Israel-Hamas battle, as did exterior 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 average 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 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 could inform you if somebody wins with [Lee’s] place is that it might not be a vulnerability,” says Berwood Yost, the pinnacle of the Franklin and Marshall School ballot in Pennsylvania. “However in fact, it is going to rely on the candidates who’re operating and what they’re emphasizing.”
Summer season 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 contains Pittsburgh — is solidly Democratic, however extra average 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 all the things 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 may have nonetheless had a task in its distribution.)
In terms of Israel-related coverage, she has condemned Hamas, known as for a ceasefire, voted towards a decision establishing that Congress stands with Israel, and voted towards sending a latest assist bundle to Israel. These positions construct on previous statements Lee has made in assist 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 occasions, 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 felony 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 isn’t 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 aspect on this state of affairs and fully disregards her total district,” Patel instructed the Washington Submit. “I feel it’s essential that any name for a cease-fire ought to acknowledge that hostages are nonetheless being held.”
Because the Submit famous, nevertheless, Lee’s assist for a ceasefire in Gaza displays the place many Democrats stand on this subject 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 struggle, 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 possibly November of final yr, and he or she was on this place, it could [be] barely completely 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 stable place going into main day, regardless of the disagreement some constituents have expressed about her stances. This energy might have been a motive 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 exterior teams — together with the Average 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 constructive sign to her fellow progressives who’re additionally below 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 task within the election
Lee’s race is way from the one one by 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 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 shall be up for primaries later this yr.
“We’re not desirous about defeating people who find themselves pro-Palestinian, we’re desirous about 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 pinnacle of the DMFI, instructed the Hill.
Consultants word that AIPAC and DMFI might have handed on investing in Lee’s race in favor of placing their {dollars} in primaries by which lawmakers are perceived to be extra weak. Bowman and Bush are two of the lawmakers who may properly 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 subject 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 impression 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 navy as greater than 30,000 Gazans have been killed. In Michigan, for instance, greater than 100,000 individuals forged their vote for “uncommitted” as a way 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 printed earlier on April 23, has been up to date to mirror Lee’s main victory.
