State Rep. Summer Lee launches campaign for Congress

Second-term state Rep. Summer Lee launched her campaign for Congress on Tuesday, a day after longtime U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle said he wouldn’t seek reelection in the district representing Pittsburgh and suburbs in eastern and southern Allegheny County.

“For too long, communities like mine have suffered and been left behind while corporations that poison our air and destroy our planet have only gotten wealthier,” said Lee, 33, a Democrat from Swissvale.

“I don’t take this lightly,” Lee said of jumping into the race. “We are facing the dual pandemics of covid-19 and the racial justice issues it exposed. We have an environmental crisis that is not going away just because we don’t have leaders who are bold enough to say that we have to make a transition and that we need a Green New Deal so that we have a sustainable future for every single one of us.”

Lee kicked off her 2022 campaign by releasing a statement and video, accompanied by social media posts, on Tuesday morning. She held a campaign kickoff event in her hometown of Braddock later Tuesday morning.

My hometown was supposed to be the American dream.

Our labor made the steel that built America but when the mills left, we paid the price.

Now I’m bringing the fight I’ve been in my whole life to Washington - to win a Green New Deal, Medicare For All, and racial justice. #PA18 pic.twitter.com/5bXvLv6uik

— Summer Lee (@SummerForPA) October 19, 2021

In the video, Lee described Braddock as a place that she said “was supposed to be the American dream.”

“I never knew that town. We watched the people with money and power make our kids sick with asthma, break our unions and then blame us for the blight and crime,” she said in the video. “Braddock’s story is America’s story.”

Lee pointed to her record on criminal justice reform, community revitalization, environmental issues and gender and racial equity, noting she has sponsored more than 70 bills since being elected.

Lee defeated 20-year incumbent Paul Costa by more than 35 percentage points in the 2018 Democratic primary and then went unopposed in the November election to win her first term in the state House. She defeated Democratic challenger Chris Roland by nearly 53 percentage points in last year’s primary and again went unopposed in November in the heavily Democratic district.

Jerry Dickinson, a constitutional law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, announced in April that he would run for the congressional seat held by Doyle.

Dickinson, 34, of Swissvale, also ran in 2018 but lost to Doyle in the primary by 34 percentage points. Online records on the Federal Election Commission’s website show Dickinson’s campaign had raised $332,825 and spent $178,025 from the start of the year through Sept. 30, and he had $158,008 on hand.

Lee’s campaign filed paperwork with the FEC on Monday morning formally organizing her campaign committee, Summer Lee for Congress, online records show.

She noted that her run comes at a particularly uncertain time, as Pennsylvania lawmakers are set to redraw the state’s congressional districts this year. Lee said now is the time to “preserve the power and representation of urban-center folks, black and brown voters and liberal voters, who oftentimes have our representation split in big difficult redistricting moments like this.”

Pennsylvania is losing one of its 18 seats in the House as part of the latest redistricting process, which is done every 10 years based on changing Census numbers.

Regardless of what Pennsylvania’s 18th District looks like, she said, she believes he campaign’s focal points will resonate.

“I feel confident that the message that we’ve created – a message that centers on poor and working-class folks – will play all throughout this region,” Lee said.