Summer Lee cruised to a convincing victory on Tuesday night against a well-financed opponent who had hoped Lee’s outspoken opposition to Israel’s ongoing attack on Gaza would bring the freshman congresswoman down. With most of the vote counted, Lee leads Bhavini Patel with a blowout margin. The race was a test of the politics of Israel–Palestine, as Lee is among the Squad members who called for an early ceasefire and whom AIPAC had been hoping to take out.
To give some personal context, Summer Lee represents Pittsburgh, where I grew up. I was watching this race somewhat closely, and was in town visiting family last week. I saw a lot of yard signs for Lee’s opponent, and many signs for Lee as well, though not as many as her rival’s in my parents’ heavily Jewish, upper middle class neighborhood.
As Ryan Grim writes, this is a big victory not just because Summer belongs in congress: her victory is a sign that the current approach to removing progressive critics of the war in Gaza from congress was dealt a serious blow in this race. Attempts to present her as out of touch or radical failed terribly. We should expect even more vicious attacks on representatives like Cori Bush, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that a major shift in power has begun. Strategies for silencing critics of the Israeli system of apartheid that were incredibly potent just two years ago are already looking far less effective when countered by organized progressive candidates.
Thanks for the post and comment. This gives me a little hope for change.
I am really hoping this Gaza thing ends up landing a lot more progressives in congress, since it seems pretty clear from this that that’s where popular (democratic) opinion seems to lay. Hopefully if that happens, next election cycle the DNC will stop being such adamant moderate shitbags, and MAYBE (massive hopium) we can actually get the social safety nets we need out of it, too.