U.S. Rep. Summer Lee gets a primary opponent
Patel to challenge freshman lawmaker
WASHINGTON — Edgewood Borough Council member Bhavini Patel announced Monday that she would challenge U.S. Rep. Summer Lee for re-election next year.
“As the daughter of a single, immigrant mother from India, I know firsthand the power of hard work, grit, and determination,” tweeted Ms. Patel, who entered the Democratic primary for the Pittsburgharea congressional district in January 2022 only to withdraw two months later.
She first worked in her family’s food truck and later co-founded and served as CEO of a small business. Besides serving on the Edgewood Borough Council, she has served as a community outreach manager for Allegheny County.
“I understand the unique challenges facing our community, from gun violence to small businesses struggling to make payroll,” she tweeted.
The incumbent, Ms. Lee, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House from Pennsylvania, overcame $4 million in advertising last fall by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC to win the seat vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills.
Since winning election last November, Ms. Lee, DSwissvale, has aligned herself with the group of young, liberal lawmakers of color known as the Squad.
Like many other Squad members, Ms. Lee has been critical of Israel’s policies, voting against resolutions supporting the Jewish state, boycotting Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint meeting of Congress, and being one of only nine House members, all Democrats, opposing a Republican resolution condemning antisemitism and declaring that Israel is “not a racist or apartheid state.”
Her district includes the Pittsburgh synagogue where 11 worshippers were murdered in 2018 in the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history, and she has been caught up in the increasingly politicized debate over antisemitism.
Jewish Insider reported in August that Ms. Patel was considering running for the U.S. House with the support of members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
Ms. Patel does not mention Israel on her campaign website, and AIPAC spokesman Marshall Wittmann said the group has not decided whether to get involved in the race,
“We are reviewing a number of races involving detractors of Israel, but we have made no decisions at this time,” Mr. Wittmann said.
At the same time, Ms. Lee was endorsed for re-election by the political action committee of J Street, which supports a two-state solution and was the second-biggest spender in 2022 among groups classified as pro-Israel by the research group OpenSecrets.