Republican megadonor funds super PAC targeting Summer Lee

Republican megadonor Jeff Yass recently gave money to a super PAC trying to topple a progressive incumbent in Pittsburgh.

The Moderate PAC, an outside group that aims to support centrist Democrats, has fueled a primary challenge to Rep. Summer Lee, a member of “The Squad.” Lee and her supporters are quick to point out that Yass, a Pennsylvania businessman, donated $1 million to the PAC in 2022 in support of Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Don Davis of North Carolina.

Yass has actually given more to the group in recent weeks, Ty Strong, president of Moderate PAC, told POLITICO — the first time this donation has been publicly disclosed.

Moderate PAC was formed last cycle and received almost no donations last year. When the PAC began airing its first ad last month — a contrast ad promoting Lee’s challenger Bhavini Patel, a member of the Edgewood Borough Council — Strong said it was funded by donations raised in Lee’s 12th District.

Strong declined to say how much the billionaire has given this time, saying the details will be disclosed in a campaign finance filing later this month. He said he approached Yass in March after receiving donations from voters in the district.

“I went to Jeff Yass and made a proposal,” Strong said. “He didn’t know anything about Summer. … He is a very rich man, so he made a donation commensurate with his wealth. But there are other people from Pittsburgh who are seeing this now and doing the same thing. And so it’s not Jeff Yass, it’s me and Pittsburgh that realized that this far-left member should not represent a D-plus-eight district.”

Strong said the donations from Pittsburgh will match Yass’ contribution.

Yass is a major donor to the conservative Club for Growth. He was also recently in the news amid congressional pressure for TikTok’s Chinese parent company — in which Yass is an investor — to sell the app. Strong said Yass “doesn’t see anything in this other than he likes a moderate Democrat as opposed to a far-left Democrat.”

“He’s clearly painted a certain way in the media,” said Strong, a former financial analyst. “But I realized that what he really cares about is that he is a libertarian, but also that he is a free market player. And so with my economics background, that’s kind of what I talked about. … He does like certain Democrats, and he likes Bhavini as a Democrat.”

Lee denounced “super PACs funded by Republican billionaires” in a statement, saying they “have no place in our Democratic primaries or our democracy.”

“I will never stop defending our abortion rights, protecting our public schools, or demanding billionaires pay their fair share, so I’m glad to be an enemy of an extremist like Jeffrey Yass,” Lee said.

Moderate PAC released its second ad on Tuesday, Accuse Lee of the “opposing” President Joe Biden. The group has spent more than $500,000 on television and digital advertising since the start of the year, according to ad tracker AdImpact. (Patel’s campaign has spent about $150,000.) Strong said future investments will depend on fundraising, but that the group will “stay in the race and continue at the same pace for as long as we can.”

External players are also coming to Lee’s aid. Working Families Party, the Islamic advocacy group Emgage and Justice Democrats plan to spend a combined $500,000 on TV and digital ads to boost the incumbent, said Ari Kamen, Mid-Atlantic regional director at Working Families Party. That investment will add to the more than $700,000 Lee has already put on the air.

Lee’s allies are explicitly using Yass’s support to discredit her challenger. “The attacks on Congresswoman Summer Lee are being funded by a Republican billionaire,” a spokesperson said advertisement from the groups which was released last week, leads with.

There is one notable player yet to be seen: United Democracy Project, the super PAC arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Lee and other members of The Squad have been brace for heavy expenses from the group, as AIPAC has pledged to cut $100 million this cycle to oust progressives over their support of the Palestinians amid the war between Israel and Hamas.

The group typically begins participating in races in the weeks before the election, but there are less than three weeks to go before the April 23 Pennsylvania primary.

“The clock is ticking,” said Mike Mikus, a Pittsburgh-based Democratic strategist not involved in the race. “Every day is a day of no return, especially since the ballots will soon be in the hands of the people.”

A version of this story first appeared in POLITICO Pro’s Morning Score newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Pro.