Liberal Democrat Summer Lee became the first Black woman to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives after dominating Republican opponent Mike Doyle in the 12th Congressional District race last week.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, more than half of the voters voted for Lee (178,799; 141,991 for Doyle). CNN’s data showed that most of Lee’s voters were in Allegheny County (160,753; Doyle received 104,611), while Doyle won the most votes in Westmoreland (37,236; 17,849 for Lee).
“We fought. We built coalitions. We brought together people who had never worked together on campaigns,” Lee said on Nov. 8, adding that her campaign was a “multi-cultural, multigenerational movement.”
During her victory speech, Lee also thanked her supporters for making it happen.
“Our communities waited far, far too long for this,” she told her voters. “This victory is for each and every one of us.”
Lee won the race despite the United Democracy Project, a super PAC associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, spending over $1 million in efforts to get Lee to lose the race.
“When we were up against a wall, every single time when it looked like it was getting bleak, we had friends come from all over,” Lee said. “When we got into the name confusion and people started wondering what’s going on, we had friends come up. When AIPAC dropped another million in the last week just to send a message and just to try to demoralize us, our movement didn’t sit down, we stood up, and we fought back.”
The confusion Lee referred to was when voters were confused as to which Mike Doyle was on the ballot considering there are, confusing Democratic U.S. Congressman Doyle for the Republican Doyle. Republican, who campaigned under the slogan “#therightmike.”
Lee’s recent victory isn’t her first time making history. She became the first Black woman in 2018 to be elected to the state House in Harrisburg.
