Sen. Summer Lee’s primary could test progressive Democrats critical of Israeli attacks in Gaza

Lee, a lawyer who represented Pittsburgh in her first term, says she helped bring calls for a ceasefire in Gaza to mainstream Democrats

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Elections this month in Pittsburgh and a few of its suburbs look like an early test of whether Israel’s war with Hamas poses a political threat to progressive Democrats in Congress who’ve criticized the handling of the conflict.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a first-term lawmaker who aligned with the “squad,” faces a primary challenge from Bhavini Patel, and the war has develop into a flashpoint in the race.

Patel frames Lee’s criticism of Israel as part of a broader pattern of left-wing politics that’s extreme in the district and potentially harmful to Democratic President Joe Biden in a state crucial to his re-election bid against Republican Donald Trump. Lee responds that she helped bring calls for a ceasefire in Gaza into the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

The war shook Democratic politics across the United States. It divides traditionally progressive groups, including Pittsburgh’s sizable Jewish community, in ways in which don’t all the time fall along ethnic and cultural lines. But it’s an especially pressing issue in the Lee District, home to a synagogue where in 2018 a gunman killed 11 congregants in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

The April 23 primary could make clear whether the war itself will likely be enough to show a critical mass of Democrats against Lee.

“Clearly it’s big enough for a certain group in this district,” said Sam Hens-Greco, the party’s chairman in Allegheny County, which incorporates Pittsburgh. “Whether it will be big enough for the entire population, we will find out.”

If Lee is defeated, she will likely be the primary Democratic congressional candidate to lose a primary this yr. Other progressive Democrats, including Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Jamaal Bowman of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, will face primary challengers this summer.

Lee has raised significantly extra money than Patel and has the support of Pennsylvania’s Democratic establishment, including Sen. Bob Casey, and a constellation of progressive groups that include each Jewish and Muslim organizations.

Lee, 36, the primary Black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania, is a Howard University law school graduate and community activist who began her political profession in 2018 with a successful challenge from the left against an entrenched Pittsburgh state legislator.

In this yr’s campaign, Lee promoted herself as a hard-working representative who advocates for voters and speaks in Congress on behalf of marginalized communities on issues starting from fighting inequality to climate change and bigotry, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Regarding the Israel-Hamas war, Lee condemned the Hamas attack, but additionally accused Israel of committing “war crimes” in Gaza, demanded an end to American military aid to Israel, and called for a ceasefire inside days of the beginning of the war as the most effective technique to end cycle of violence and dealing for peace.

That sets her aside from the position of Biden and most House Democrats, though dozens of others have now joined her in calling for a ceasefire. Lee during Biden’s State of the Union speech founded kaffiyeh, a checkered scarf that has develop into a logo of solidarity with the Palestinians.

Patel, 30, a small-town city councilor who worked in the administration of former Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, announced her candidacy days before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Patel, who’s Indian and has Indian roots, has cultivated a Jewish community by opening a campaign office in the Jewish enclave of Squirrel Hill, which he attended after October. 7 vigils and rode a bus with community members to a pro-Israel rally in Washington, D.C. in November.

Patel recently sharply criticized Lee for aligning himself with supporters of the “unaligned” campaign, which inspires Democrats to protest Biden’s treatment of the war vote in the primaries as “unaligned.”

This, Patel suggested, is dangerous.

“I would say that every Democrat in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District should take note that my opponent is equivocal about her support for President Biden and has not condemned the ‘non-aligned’ movement,” Patel said in an interview. “I think this is an issue that is of great concern to Democrats in this district.”

Lee defended the “disengagement” movement, saying it was unsuitable to discourage people from voting and potentially lose a key portion of the electorate that Democrats want to influence to support Biden in November’s presidential election. Biden sees that, too, Lee said.

Lee said she had met with people on all sides of the war, including the families of the hostages and the families of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza, and that her calls for a ceasefire reflected the bulk in the district.

Lee also accused Patel of aligning herself more with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than with Biden.

“Joe Biden is getting closer and closer to us, which means that no, we weren’t wrong, that we came out early and came out stronger, because as we see now, this was always where we needed to get to,” Lee said in an interview. “It has always been the only path to peace.”

For now, the sharpest questions on the war are largely confined to the exchanges between Lee and Patel.

The case barely made it onto the airwaves, and the pro-Israel groups that had spent heavily to defeat Lee in the 2022 primary – the Democratic Majority for Israel and the US Israel Public Affairs Commission, higher often called AIPAC – didn’t step in ​​discussion. race.

In Pennsylvania, a possible boost for Lee could be students who, unlike the elementary school in 2022, will likely be on campus this time. At the University of Pittsburgh, the war has been a “commanding” presence on campus, with most students favoring a ceasefire, said Will Allison, president of Pitt’s College Democrats.

The group unanimously supported Lee, although the war has caused some division amongst members, with College Democrats campaigning for Lee.

One possible sign of a shift in politics across the war is the 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club, a nonpartisan organization based around Squirrel Hill, which voted to endorse Patel after endorsing Lee in 2022.

Sue Berman Kress, a Patel supporter who’s Jewish, said she knows several Jewish Democrats who will not vote for Lee. They imagine she has abandoned the Jewish community and that her policies could open the door to a Trump victory and an increase in anti-Semitism.

“These things are divisive in a very scary way,” Kress said.

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