Progressives are celebrating a major win in Pennsylvania, where state Rep. Summer Lee overcame a deluge of outside money to win a Democratic House primary.
While the funding came from pro-Israel super-PACs that have supported a number of Republicans, they did not attack Lee for her position on international relations but instead questioned her loyalty as a Democrat who would support President Biden’s agenda.
. The ads were , including Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, who toppled Peduto, a moderate Democratic incumbent, in last year’s primary. Gainey is the city’s first Black mayor.“While I do think the ads did work in areas where Rep. Lee wasn’t as well known, they were easily refuted given Summer’s record of expanding the Democratic electorate, supporting President Biden along with Bernie Sanders in his race against Trump, and serving the people of her statehouse district,” Innamorato, who campaigned for Lee, told Yahoo News. “The messaging was disingenuous. “While I was knocking doors, I also found the ads working against their original intent,” she continued. “After seeing the ads or reading the mailer, many people were motivated to go out and vote for Summer, because they too are frustrated with the Democratic Party and believe that it does need to be rebuilt to be more diverse, inclusive and rooted in progressive values.” Lee got a late boost in fundraising from Justice Democrats while Sanders held a rally in downtown Pittsburgh supporting her. The Vermont senatorto Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison calling on him to condemn super-PACs participating in Democratic primaries, saying he had “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.” “The goal of this billionaire funded effort is to crush the candidacies of a number of progressive women of color who are running for Congress,” wrote Sanders. Lara Putnam, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who lives in the 12th District, said she received so many mailers in support of Irwin or against Lee that she could have wallpapered a room of her house with them, including receiving four on Election Day. Putnam, who studies labor and activism, said Lee’s coalition shows how union power is moving from blue-collar white men to service jobs inSteve Irwin, a Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, at a campaign event on May 14 in Pittsburgh. “The underlying story here is a shift of political weight away from the unions that represent people who build hospitals, towards the unions that are seeking to represent people who labor in them,” Putnam told Yahoo News. “Unions and their members are not a monolith,” Innamorato said. “As we saw with Summer’s campaign, she did receive a handful of union endorsements from organizations that tend to serve lower-wage retail and service workers, teachers and industrial workers, while Irwin’s campaign received the endorsement of the building trades locals, whose endorsements tend to be more in line with the establishment candidate. “I’m curious to watch how union leadership shifts as more lower-wage, service-based, as well as emerging industries where workers tend to skew younger and more progressive join in unionization efforts,” Innamorato continued. “This will not only provide needed energy to the union movement, but also may shift the type of candidates they help elect. Adding new industries and growing membership is a great thing for the entire labor movement.” However, Putnam also noted that Irwin coming this close to victory mainly on the back of outside spending shows the effect big money can have on races like this, as it did Tuesday night in North Carolina
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