BEAVER FALLS, Pennsylvania — The battles this year for two U.S. House seats currently held by incumbent Democrats in Western Pennsylvania will be big telltales for the direction of American politics. Rep. Summer Lee’s (D-PA) seat in Pittsburgh will test the durability of the progressive Left in a primary in May. The result this fall in Rep. Chris Deluzio’s (D-PA) suburban district will be an indicator of which party can win battleground districts.
First-termer Lee is facing challenger Bhavini Patel in her Democratic primary for the 12th Congressional District. Both women released fundraising numbers last week, with Patel raising over $300,000 —impressive numbers for a challenger — and Lee raking in a cool $1 million in the last quarter of 2023.
Deluzio, also in his first term, is not facing any primary challenger for the 17th Congressional District seat, but in November, he will in all likelihood face Republican challenger Rob Mercuri, a state representative. Deluzio raised more than $460,000 to the $203,000 raised by Mercuri.
What makes the race for the 17th District so competitive is its composition of both the lush upper-middle-class municipalities of Mt. Lebanon, Pine Township, and Oakmont and of the working-class neighborhoods of Aliquippa, Forest Hills, and Swissvale. Voters in the district often seesaw between the parties in different election years.
What also makes the race compelling is the temperament of both candidates. Both served in the military: Deluzio attended the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned as an active-duty naval officer, and Mercuri is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy who deployed for two tours in Iraq.
Since 2018, Mercuri has represented the 28th District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Right in the center of the 17th Congressional District, it’s a swing suburban House seat where he faced tough competition in all of his races.
Currently, Kyle Kondik at the University of Virginia Center for Politics rates the district as leaning Democratic.
The seat held by Lee, on the other hand, has a heavy Democratic registration, making it certain to elect a Democrat in the fall. Yet Lee faces problems among Democratic primary voters for expressing antagonism toward Israel. The Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, where the worst-ever U.S. massacre of Jews happened in 2018, is in the center of her district.
Lee’s hard-left ideology, which was popular in parts of her district, may now be out of sync with most of the district’s voters. In elections in November 2023, the Democratic nominee for district attorney, Matt Dugan, who was financed by hard-left billionaire George Soros, lost despite benefiting from $2 million spent on his behalf.
Another sign of fading leftist dominance in this region happened in the race for the Allegheny County executive’s office, when Lee’s Democratic ally Sara Innamorato — who, like Lee, started her political career as a socialist — only narrowly beat the Republican running in a heavily Democratic county.
Millersville University political science professor Terry Madonna said both races are telling us a lot not just about the direction of where the country is going for the presidential race, but also where the Democratic Party is heading.
“We will see if Pittsburgh Democrats are still heading on a left trajectory in the primary; certainly in primary races they are the ones more motivated to show up,” Madonna said of Lee’s intraparty battle. “This could also be a good indicator of a change election, and tell us if people are unsatisfied with incumbents.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
As for Deluzio’s 17th District seat, Madonna says, “Keep an eye on this race; it is the ultimate bellwether in the country and I believe that this is one of those horse races that could be heavily impacted by what is happening on the top of the ticket,” he said.
Then he added, “No matter what, Pennsylvania races are always giving us the broader scope of what will happen nationally this year.”