Summer Lee declares victory in Pennsylvania, but pro-Israel super PACs helped make it a close race

Votes are still being counted, but over 90% of them are in and Summer Lee has declared victory in Pennsylvania’s 12th District Democratic primary. Local attorney, and former Republican Senate staffer, Steve Irwin is close behind in the tally and has yet to concede. University of Pittsburgh professor Jerry Dickinson is trailing in a distant third.

Less than two months ago a poll released by the Democratic group EMILY’s List, and conducted by GQR, had Lee up by 25 points. When pollsters provided voters with more information about the candidates, Lee’s lead doubled. “Summer Lee is the bold and inspiring leader we need to secure victory of the must-win open seat in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District in November,” said EMILY’s List president Laphonza Butler, at the time of the polling. “With five weeks to go until the Democratic primary, it’s clear the voters of PA-12 are fired up and ready to send a working-class champion from their community to Washington, D.C. and make history by electing the state’s first Black Congresswoman.”

That clarity was quickly diminished, in part because pro-Israel lobbying groups spent big on the race. The United Democracy Project (a Super PAC launched by AIPAC last December) emptied over $2 million on the contest, running ads and sending out mailers that either attacked Lee or celebrated Irwin. Democratic Majority for Israel’s Super PAC spent over $400,000. As Max Berger documented at More Perfect Union, those numbers, combined with totals from AIPAC’s other PAC, show that the pro-Israel groups spent $3,360,675 trying to deliver Irwin a victory.

Lee, a state legislator and former organizer, does not support the BDS movement, hasn’t publicly called Israel an apartheid state, and said she would have voted for the extra billion in Iron Dome funding last year. She was endorsed by J Street, the liberal Zionist group that’s faced increasing criticism from left-wing activists. However, she also has positions on the issue that symbolize the marked shift that’s occurred within the progressive flank of the Democratic party in recent years. She doesn’t support anti-BDS legislation and she’s compared the movement to the Black Lives Matter protests. She supports conditioning military aid to Israel over settlement expansion and further annexation. When Israel bombed Gaza in May 2021, Lee questioned the way in which the attacks were framed by most U.S. lawmakers.

“When I hear American pols use the refrain ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ in response to undeniable atrocities on a marginalized population, I can’t help but think of how the west has always justified indiscriminate and disproportionate force and power on weakened and marginalized people,” she wrote. “The US has never shown leadership in safeguarding human rights of folks its othered But as we fight against injustice here in the movement for black lives we must stand against injustice everywhere. Inhumanities against the Palestinian people cannot be tolerated or justified.”

While appearing at event organized by the Pittsburgh Jewish Federation in April, Lee was asked about the tweet and didn’t back down. “I was seeing, as a black woman, somebody who has also experienced oppression– we as black folks have experienced global oppression– and really looking at the parallels and being startled,” she said. “That was I believe a year ago, also during Ramadan, where we saw a mosque being raided. Those are folks who are in their most vulnerable point and they’re holding on, praying and breaking fast, and that was an internationally-recognized event that happened that was an escalation unlike we had seen, and what I heard and what I continue to hear was instead of a cryout to say that was not OK… instead what I saw were American politicians rushing to use that phrase that Israel has a right to defend itself.”

“The question was what were they defending themselves against at that moment and I think that that was specifically what that tweet was speaking about,” Lee continued. “When we are saying that a powerful entity has a right to defend itself, when no one had done anything needing a defense, that was the parallel that was drawn between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman who instigated it and then saying he had a right to defend himself. And that’s what I was seeing as a black woman and recognizing that parallel and the trauma that comes with it.”

In contrast to Lee, Irwin is a staunch supporter of Israel. When asked about Lee’s Gaza tweet by an interviewer last fall, he implied that she might be antisemitic and reiterated his commitment to the country. “We can’t ignore them. Israel is not perfect, but Israel is a democracy,” said Irwin. “The views that some of these people share mirror concerns that people in Israel may have. But Israel has a right to self-determination. I think it’s going to take my reaching out to develop a relationship to understand the way they feel and why they feel that way, to provide facts, to speak out, when necessary. Antisemitism is not acceptable, and threats to Israel’s existence and security and America’s support of Israel is just not acceptable. I will be a staunch supporter of Israel..I will do everything that I possibly can to make sure that Pittsburgh’s representative in Washington is a leader in preserving our relationship with state of Israel.”

At an event last week Irwin was confronted by activist about the Super PAC money funding attacks Lee. He simply said that his campaign hadn’t paid for those efforts and refused to comment beyond that.

AIPAC has developed an increasingly rocky relationship with Democrats in recent years. Attendance at their annual conference used to be viewed as a rite of passage for Democratic presidential candidates, but now the vast majority of them skip the event. The new White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, wrote an 2019 op-ed declaring that politicians can’t be associated with the group and continue to call themselves progressives. One of the group’s anti-Lee ads portrays her as a phony Democrat who promotes party infighting, which is ironic given that AIPAC is currently backing over 100 Republicans who refused to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory. These endorsements have resulted in growing Democratic criticisms of the organization.

Just days ago Senator Bernie Sanders sent Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Jamie Harrison a letter calling on the DNC to ban all Super PAC cash in primaries. “The Democratic leadership has, appropriately, condemned Republican ‘dark money’ super PACs which spend huge amounts of money to elect their right-wing candidates,” wrote Sanders. “I am concerned, however, that I have not heard any criticism from Democratic leaders about the many millions of dollars in dark money being spent by super PACs that are now attempting to buy Democratic primaries.”

On Wednesday morning AIPAC’s official Twitter account congratulated primary victors it backed: Don Davis (NC-01) , Valerie Foushee (NC-04), and Morgan McGarvey (KY-03). They also bragged about over $8 million across just three primaries. After incumbent Rep. (and pro-Israel lobbying group favorite) Shontel Brown beat Nina Turner in a Ohio’s 11th District rematch this month, The Intercept’s Akela Lacy asked the progressive group Justice Democrats why they chose to sit the race out. “Nina is a giant in the progressive movement and we’re proud to have gone all in for her campaign last year,” they said in a statement. “The reality is our organization has to be strategic about our priorities as we are getting massively outgunned by Republican donors funneling millions to SuperPACs like AIPAC and DMFI against our existing candidates.”