Far-left progressive Rep. Summer Lee wins PA primary on platform of 'opposing genocide'

On Tuesday, far-left, ceasefire-supporting Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee defeated her more moderate, pro-Israel opponent, Bhavini Patel, in the state's Democratic primary election, securing 59.5 percent of the vote to her opponent's 40.5 percent.

Lee, a proud member of the "Squad" who has represented the state's 12th District in Congress since 2022, did not shy away from voicing her criticisms of the war between Israel and Hamas, and centered much of her re-election campaign on the issue.

"Opposing genocide is good politics and good policy," she wrote in a post on X celebrating her victory.

"There were so many people who wanted to make this a referendum on just one issue," Lee told supporters. "There were a lot of people who wanted to convince us that we could not be pro-peace and win this district."

"Our movement is expansive enough, and big enough, that each and every one of us can lay down our arms and cease fire ... so that we can build peace from Pittsburgh to Palestine. We won't be ashamed and we won't put our heads down when we say we want no more wars, when we say that people deserve dignity and human rights and self-determination, whether they are Jewish or Muslim or black or white."

To some, calls for a ceasefire have been viewed as thinly veiled, or just blatant, antisemitism. Lee attempted to push back against that narrative by saying, "We will not let anyone tell us that our pro-peace stance is rooted in anything but what it is," denouncing all forms of hate, including antisemitism and Islamophobia.

As the New York Post reports, throughout the primary election campaign, Patel warned voters that having a far-left "Squad" member on the ballot in the general election in November would hurt the Democrats' chances of winning in Pennsylvania, highlighting Lee's stance on Israel, which she deemed to be rather extreme.

The 12th District includes the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, a historically Jewish area that was the site of the antisemitism-driven Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018.