The Pennsylvania House race is testing the consequences of the war between Israel and Hamas

PITTSBURGH – Few Democrats appear more vulnerable to the political fallout from the war between Israel and Hamas than Summer Lee.

Her Pittsburgh district is the first high-profile progressive member of the House of Representatives to face a contentious primary this year. It is home to a close-knit Jewish community struggling with the consequences of the war. Last month, dozens of Jewish leaders signed an open letter to Pennsylvania’s representative, criticizing her for her criticism of the Israeli government and “divisive rhetoric, which we have sometimes found to be overtly anti-Semitic.”

And in a district still affected by the massacre of Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue by an anti-Semitic gunman, many areas have signs reading: “We stand with Israel.”

But while the war between Israel and Hamas has fueled intraparty divisions on the left, the April 23 primaries here are poised to test the limits of the conflict as an electoral issue.

“If Summer Lee keeps her seat, does that mean people won’t care so much about the war? No,” said Sue Berman Kress, a Pittsburgh-based Jewish activist who supports Patel. “But if she loses her seat as the incumbent president… I think that will be a major reason.”

Lee has the support of prominent Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, and a strong fundraising apparatus. And in this district in western Pennsylvania – where Jews form an important and deeply committed voting bloc – they are not abandoning her everywhere.

Just a few miles north of Squirrel Hill, a historic Jewish enclave, in the tree-lined residential neighborhood of Highland Park, a group gathered under the banner of “Jews for Summer Lee” on a recent morning to run for the Democratic incumbent. .

“At this moment when we all, I think, have real worries and concerns about the outbreak of war, Summer is the person who can bring us together in dialogue and community and try to figure out how to promote peace and mutual help and support can maintain. ,” Kenny Mostern, a longtime Lee supporter and Jewish activist, told attendees at the canvas launch, just a day after Iran launched an airstrike on Israel.

Both campaigns argue that the primaries are not a one-issue race. And even the conflict in the Middle East, they argue, is not as simple as reducing it to Israel versus Palestine.

“That has always been my biggest complaint, because there are no black and white issues that we have to deal with,” Lee, who has been outspoken in her support for the Palestinians and calling for a ceasefire, said in a interview.

But while the issue is a top priority for some voters — especially in the Jewish community — these voters do not constitute a majority of the electorate in the vast, reliably blue district. Both campaigns note that the war doesn’t often come up when they knock on doors and talk to voters. Lee said she’s having conversations about housing, air quality and racial injustice.

For her part, Patel said voters are expressing concern about the convergence of the Democratic Party around President Joe Biden.

““Obviously the war is happening in the background and has exemplified – and accelerated much of this – people’s realization that she is really aligning herself with a minority of the party,” Patel said.

Yet there is no doubt that the war hovers over the race. Israel has been a flashpoint in Lee’s campaigns long before the war, when her first bid for the seat in 2022 also increased tensions over Israel. proved to be a problem in the race. She won the primary by less than 1,000 votes.

This time, the war “really activated the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Yitzi Genack, who has encouraged members of his community to vote early since the primaries fall during Passover. “I don’t think any race is a referendum on any individual issue in general, but I think it is an important part, and it plays a big role within the Jewish community.”

Genack was one of dozens of Jewish religious leaders sign open letters Lee criticized her for what they called her “anti-Semitic” rhetoric. In a debate earlier this monthLee said she could not respond to these accusations because she did not “know what they consider anti-Semitic rhetoric,” noting that she has condemned Hamas and urged de-escalation in the region, while also calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the country’s attacks on the Palestinians.

“There are people who have politicized this issue — they saw it as an opportunity to bring out a loud black woman who they didn’t want in power in the first place,” Lee said in an interview. “We have seen, not just in Pittsburgh, but across the country, that Israel and Palestine have been successfully used as a wedge issue by the right wing for decades.”

Some voters who supported Patel noted that they already did not support Lee in 2022. And there are indications that Lee has also lost some support since the midterm elections. While Lee has the backing of the Allegheny County Democratic Party, Patel is heartened by the support she has seen in the 14th Ward — which includes Squirrel Hill — pointing toward her. endorsement from the district’s independent Democratic club. That group supported Lee in 2022.

Patel continues to press Lee on the war, calling on her to denounce an attempt to write “uncommitted” into the presidential primaries on Tuesday — a protest vote formed in part in response to Biden’s handling of the conflict.

She criticized Lee for a speaking engagement at the Council of American-Islamic Relations, which the incumbent president agreed to attend earlier this year. (Lee finished cancel the performance after facing backlash over other speakers’ anti-Semitic and homophobic comments.) And while Patel said the election is not a referendum on the war, she said Lee is out of step with the Democratic Party on a number of issues.

“You’re so focused on a small minority coalition and strengthening that coalition that you forget you’re part of a bigger picture,” Patel said of Lee. “There is undoubtedly a time and a place to push. And I would do the same. But there is a time and a place to do that, and in this election cycle, and this year, that is not the time.”

But public sentiment within the Democratic Party could shift in Lee’s favor surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas.

A majority of Democrats – 44 percent – ​​say they are sympathetic to both the Israelis and Palestinians in the conflict. according to a POLITICO-Morning Consult poll from early April, carried out before the airstrike from Iran on Israel. By a margin of 6 percentage points — 22 percent to 16 percent — more Democrats say they are more sympathetic to the Palestinians than the Israelis.

“People want this to be, ‘Oh, The Squad are extremists,’ and that’s such a terrible story, because the reality is… progressives are really, really, really at the heart of what makes so much of our democratic constituency wants and is. looking for,” Lee said.

The poll also shows that younger people are more sympathetic to the Palestinians. Thirty-three percent of Gen Z voters said they are more sympathetic to the Palestinians, while 15 percent said they are more sympathetic to the Israelis.

That generational divide is one that is clearly visible at the local level, said Rabbi Daniel Fellman, who also signed the letters criticizing Lee. He noted that younger people in the Jewish community have “more hostility toward Israel,” while the older demographic has more support.

In Pittsburgh, Lee’s supporters are counting on that change in public opinion – and on the protracted nature of the war.

“If October 7 had happened on March 7, I think it’s extremely likely that the timing and the way people reacted emotionally to it would have been very, very dangerous for Summer,” said Mostern, who is supporting Lee. “Support for the United States’ wars in the Middle East always peaks early and declines quickly. And that is what we see.”

Or as Pittsburgh-based Democratic strategist Mike Mikus, who is not involved in the race, put it: “Being on the side of a ceasefire in a Democratic primary is not a losing issue.”