- When Summer season Lee ran for Congress in 2022, she needed to battle a wave of pro-Israel spending.
- That did not occur this 12 months, regardless of her initially showing to be a prime goal.
- Lee simply defeated her major challenger on Tuesday, doubtless assuring her reelection.
Going into this 12 months, Rep. Summer season Lee appeared prone to be a prime goal for pro-Israel teams.
The primary-term “Squad” member received the 2022 Democratic major for her Pittsburgh-area Home seat by lower than 1,000 votes after dealing with down hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in outdoors spending from a brilliant PAC affiliated with the The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
However that stage of spending did not materialize once more this 12 months, and Lee handily defeated Democratic major opponent Bhavini Patel on Tuesday.
Each AIPAC and one other key pro-Israel group, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), opted to remain out of the first. However that does not imply different progressives will go unscathed.
“The nationwide pro-Israel group didn’t have interaction on this race, which implies it is not likely a severe take a look at,” DMFI President Mark Mellman advised the Washington Submit. “However there will probably be assessments but to come back.”
Professional-Israel teams have develop into the most important opponents of progressives in Democratic primaries
The rise of the progressive left — spurred by Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns and accelerated by shock victories by politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — has introduced with it a cohort of Democratic politicians who’re extra crucial of Israel and sympathetic towards Palestinians.
That is more and more been a problem for teams like AIPAC, who’ve lengthy labored to keep a bipartisan consensus round assist for Israel by means of lobbying and political fundraising.
These teams started preventing again in 2020 and 2022, drawing on the assist of deep-pocketed donors — lots of which Republicans — to attempt to block progressive candidates from profitable Democratic primaries throughout the nation.
A type of progressive candidates was Lee, who was elected to the Pennsylvania State Home in 2018 with the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America. Professional-Israel teams spent cash towards Lee not simply within the major, however within the common election as nicely.
Why that did not occur this 12 months
Lee, who referred to as for a cease-fire quickly after the October 7 Hamas assaults, initially appeared susceptible partly because of anger from the native Jewish group in Squirrel Hill, the place the Tree of Life Synagogue mass capturing came about in 2018.
That congregation’s rabbi, together with a number of others, signed two completely different letters to the congresswoman denouncing her rhetoric on Israel.
Decoded @SummerForPA: Let Hamas keep in energy.
Calling for a ceasefire now could be a clear ploy to color Israel because the aggressor and permit Hamas to regulate Gaza.
Emboldening a terror group that massacres Israelis and makes use of Palestinians as human shields won’t ever obtain peace. https://t.co/o6e7abRSr2
— AIPAC (@AIPAC) October 16, 2023
However the politics of Israel throughout the Democratic Get together shifted considerably within the intervening months, largely because of the brutality of Israel’s struggle in Gaza, which has killed greater than 30,000 Palestinians.
The progressive forces backing Lee additionally ended up being stronger than these hoping to defeat her.
Lee’s opponent Patel did obtain roughly $612,000 in outdoors spending from a brilliant PAC bankrolled by GOP billionaire Jeff Yass, a important investor in TikTok’s mum or dad firm. However that solely proved to be a boon for Lee and her allies, who blasted Patel for benefiting from a GOP megadonor’s largesse.
In the meantime, progressive teams supporting Lee spent almost $710,000, and on Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez got here to Pittsburgh to rally with Lee.
Lastly, Lee — regardless of being considerably to the left of President Joe Biden — aligned herself intently with the president’s agenda, together with working on over $1 billion in federal funding that she helped ship to the district, a lot of which was initially allotted underneath the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation.
That helped the congresswoman neutralize assaults from Patel, who sought to color Lee as being inadequate loyal to Biden. The president even shouted out the congresswoman as one of many “of us who’ve had my again” throughout a current go to to the town.
