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bhavini patel
Summer Lee Calls Out Primary Opponent for Taking Right-Wing Money
"Her entire campaign is backed by Republicans, yet she says that I'm not a good enough Democrat," Lee said of Bhavini Patel during a debate Thursday night.
Apr 05, 2024
In a debate on Thursday night, "Squad" member and progressive Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee called out her Democratic primary opponent Bhavini Patel for taking money from Republican megadonors, including Jeffrey Yass.
Her remarks came the day after news broke that Yass had given more money to a super PAC supporting Patel Patel, after initially donating to the group in 2022 in support of conservative Democratic Rep. Jared Golden (Maine). Also on Thursday, 250 constituents from Pennsylvania's 12th District wrote to Patel urging her to disavow Yass and other Republican donors.
"Her entire campaign is backed by Republicans, yet she says that I'm not a good enough Democrat," Lee said on the debate stage.
"It feels like she is implying that there is enough room for Joe Manchin, but not a Black woman fighting for her own community," Lee continued.
"No candidate running in the Democratic primary should be primarily funded by Republican donors working to elect Trump."
During her remarks, Lee said Patel was "outwardly calling for people who are Republicans to vote for her."
"She is now backed by Jeffrey Yass, who is the richest man in Pennsylvania, who has spent all of his money eroding public education," Lee added. "He has eroded abortion rights, and right now he is on the shortlist to be Treasury secretary for Donald Trump."
News of the relationship between Yass and Patel first emerged last month, when the so-called Moderate PAC ran an ad backing the Edgewood, Pennsylvania, councilmember. Moderate PAC's only donor for all of 2022 was Susquehanna International Group, a trading firm that Yass co-founded.
Then, on Wednesday, Moderate PAC's president Ty Strong told Politico that Yass had donated additional funds in recent weeks after Strong spoke to him about the primary campaign against Lee.
"I went to Jeff Yass and made a proposal," Strong told Politico. "He knew nothing about Summer… He's a really wealthy guy, so he made a donation in line with his wealth. But there's other Pittsburgh people that are now seeing this and doing the same thing. And so it's not Jeff Yass, it's me and Pittsburgh who realized that this far-left member shouldn't be representing a D-plus-eight district."
Yet several district members are concerned that Yass is not the only Republican seeking to influence a Democratic primary. In their letter, the 250 constituents noted that Patel's only Federal Election Commission filing to date shows that more than 60% of her primary donors had also given over $100 million to MAGA Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Nikki Haley, and election deniers like Republican Reps. Scott Perry and Mike Kelly, both of Pennsylvania.
"Your Republican donors are part of the plan to pass a national abortion ban; attack our LGBTQ+ siblings; bankroll Big Pharma and the NRA; tear away our access to healthcare, workers' rights, voting rights; and ultimately end democracy in America," the letter reads. "They are actively undermining our democracy, promoting discrimination and hate, and endangering the lives and well-being of our communities."
The District 12 voters also pointed to reporting by The Intercept that Patel told potential donors at a fundraiser that her campaign would encourage Republicans and independents to register as Democrats to vote against Lee.
The constituents said they were writing to Patel to "express grave concern" about appeals to Republican donors and voters.
"This is a craven and undemocratic ploy to unseat Congresswoman Summer Lee," they said. "The involvement of Republican donors in your campaign is deceitful and deeply hypocritical. It undermines any hope of earning the trust of Democratic voters and the communities you claim to be running to serve. Accepting financial support from those who actively work against our values is unacceptable and incompatible with the responsibilities of a Democratic representative. We deserve better."
Lee also faces the threat of right-wing money being laundered through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has promised to spend $100 million to unseat Lee and other Squad members. Lee has been outspoken against Israel's genocide in Gaza and co-sponsored legislation calling for a cease-fire as early as mid-October. However, AIPAC also spent more than $2 million to unseat Lee in the 2022 election through its United Democracy Project (UDP) super PAC.
In response to Lee's debate performance, former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner applauded her for "exposing the AIPAC grift for what it is: GOP-funded candidates who encourage Republicans to vote in blue seat primaries against progressives who dare to stand up for their communities."
While Yass had donated more money than anyone else to outside spending groups during the 2024 U.S. campaign season—shelling out more than $46 million to right-leaning groups—he has not given money to either AIPAC or UDP, Haaretz reported in March.
However, the 250 District 12 constituents said that Patel had sought the endorsement of UDP.
"No candidate running in the Democratic primary should be primarily funded by Republican donors working to elect Trump," the group wrote.
The constituents called on Patel to "take immediate and transparent action, pledging not to encourage Republicans and independents to re-register in our primaries and publicly demand that a Republican-funded Super PAC like AIPAC not spend money in our Democratic primary."
"The integrity of our democratic process and the voters' trust in PA-12 are at stake," they concluded.
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Groups Slam Billionaire Jeffrey Yass for Trying to Oust Pennsylvania Progressive
"Is it any surprise that a billionaire who made his money off of our exploitation is trying to stop us from electing champions who advocate for what our communities need to thrive and be safe?" asked one campaigner.
Mar 19, 2024
A coalition of progressive advocacy groups on Monday condemned suburban Philadelphia multibillionaire Jeffrey Yass for funding right-wing political groups and for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bid to unseat a progressive congresswoman in far-away Pittsburgh.
Yass—who is Pennsylvania's wealthiest person—is a GOP megadonor with a history of funding political action committees (PACs) and other groups opposed to LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, unions, minimum wage increases, public schools, and raising taxes on the rich. He also has dodged $1 billion in taxes, according to a ProPublica investigation, and is reportedly on Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump's shortlist for treasury secretary.
"Yass prefers to be behind the scenes. So he contributes to dark money PACs and has helped sustain his own network of nonprofit organizations and PACs to distribute funds to candidates for office and issues," the #AllEyesOnYass campaign explained.
"People like Jeffrey Yass are not only a threat to democracy, but they create the conditions that allow for discrimination and violence to happen."
During the 2022 midterms, Yass gave $47 million to GOP candidates and committees, making him the third-biggest conservative political donor during that election cycle. He is on pace to obliterate that record this cycle, having already spent $46.4 million.
In addition to being the top Republican donor during the 2024 election cycle, Yass has also poured at least $1 million into a super PAC that aims to elect so-called "moderate" Democrats. The Moderate PAC—which is funded exclusively by Yass—last week released an ad promoting Bhavini Patel, a Democrat running for Congresswoman Summer Lee's (D-Pa.) House seat.
"Jeff Yass—a billionaire who tries to privatize our public schools, evades paying his taxes, funds elected officials who supported the January 6 insurrection, and just this week, pledged support for Trump—should not be allowed to buy our election," said Steve Paul, co-executive director of the progressive advocacy group One Pennsylvania.
"From this congressional seat to the Pennsylvania Legislature to the U.S. presidency, we will resist Yass' corporate authoritarian power grabs," he added.
Miracle Jones, legislative director of coalition member 1HoodPower, said: "For the last few years, we have been fighting to make this region livable for all of us. Pittsburgh was deemed the worst livable city for Black women. Is it any surprise that a billionaire who made his money off of our exploitation is trying to stop us from electing champions who advocate for what our communities need to thrive and be safe?"
"When Republican billionaires spend money to buy politicians who do not have our community's needs at the center of the work, then people like Jeffrey Yass are not only a threat to democracy, but they create the conditions that allow for discrimination and violence to happen," Jones added. "Rest assured that we won't let him prevail in our quest to build a better world for our community."
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Summer Lee Challenger Says Constituents 'Have No Families... Live in Squalor'
"This is how A LOT of politicians on both sides of the aisle feel about disadvantaged communities," said Nina Turner. "They usually don't say it out loud, though."
Jan 29, 2024
In what one observer called a "cartoonishly racist" rant, a right-wing Democrat running for progressive Congresswoman Summer Lee's seat shocked attendees of a Sunday primary debate by berating people living in the Pennsylvania district she's seeking to represent.
Laurie MacDonald, a former Republican who heads a nonprofit that serves crime victims, squared off against Lee and Edgewood Borough Councilmember Bhavini Patel during the often raucous 12th Congressional District debate at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In a baffling response to the audience booing her answer to a question about congressional support for gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people, MacDonald lashed out at her would-be constituents.
"My opponent, the people who live in her district have no families, they live in squalor," MacDonald said, referring to Lee and drawing boisterous disapproval from the audience.
"You think you know, right, well guess what, I worked there," she continued. "I have helped those communities."
"I don't need to take that," MacDonald shot back at her hecklers. "My record speaks for itself. I've walked the walk, I've talked the talk, I help families. I help everybody. I don't have a prejudiced, white, black, purple, pink bone in my body. I love everybody. And I love all of you too, even if we disagree."
Former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner was among the many social media users who criticized MacDonald's remarks.
"If we want to tell the whole truth, this is how A LOT of politicians on both sides of the aisle feel about disadvantaged communities," Turner said. "They usually don't say it out loud, though."
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