Challenger Bhavini Patel, left, and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee are Democrats running to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district. (Courtesy Patel campaign and U.S. House of Representatives)
The 12th District Democratic primary between incumbent Summer Lee and Bhavini Patel has attracted more than $1 million in outsider spending.
by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource
The biggest political spender in the Democratic primary for Pittsburgh’s congressional seat is a Libertarian from the Philadelphia suburbs. Meanwhile the vast bulk of the money raised by the incumbent comes from other states.
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Jeffrey Yass, a billionaire who has long championed conservative causes and candidates in Pennsylvania, donated $800,000 this February to a political action committee that is airing television ads supporting Bhavini Patel in her bid to take the Democratic nomination from Rep. Summer Lee in the 12th Congressional District.
Lee’s national profile, though, has allowed her campaign to dramatically out-fundraise Patel’s, drawing nearly three-fourths of its dollars from outside of Pennsylvania.
District 12 includes Pittsburgh and some eastern suburbs, stretching into part of Westmoreland County. This is the second consecutive cycle a major outside funder attempted to sway the district’s primary voters, after pro-Israel donors sought to derail Lee in 2022.
At top, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee at the Hill District’s Bedford Dwellings in August 2023. At bottom, Democratic primary challenger Bhavini Patel talks with canvassers at her campaign office in Squirrel Hill in April 2024. (Photos by Stephanie Strasburg and Pamela Smith/PublicSource)
Lee has benefited from some outside money, too, though it made up a smaller percentage of her overall support and came from sources she explicitly aligns with politically. The New York-based Working Families Party has spent $347,495 on pro-Lee ads, in addition to $80,000 spent by progressive group Justice Democrats and $100,000 from Muslim-American Emgage PAC.
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In all, outside groups have spent $1.3 million boosting either Lee or Patel.
That’s more than the $1.2 million raised by the pair of candidates directly in the first three months of this year. Lee raised about 75% of that total, and enjoys a major financial edge heading into the April 23 primary election.
That’s more than the $1.2 million raised by the pair of candidates directly in the first three months of this year. Lee raised about 75% of that total, and enjoys a major financial edge heading into the April 23 primary election.
Incongruent sources
Each candidate has attracted a similarly large amount of independent spending, but the sources are very different.
Lee, a staunch progressive and member of the “Squad” of left-leaning House members, has benefited from more than $660,000 in outside spending by groups aligned with the progressive movement, such as the Working Families Party.
Patel’s largest outside backer, Yass, cuts against Patel’s most-repeated campaign claim: That she will be “100%” behind Biden as a member of Congress. Yass is one of the country’s top champions of conservative political causes, typically supporting Republican candidates. Yass is also an investor in the media company of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee seeking his second presidential term.
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