Summer Lee became the first black woman elected to the House from Pennsylvania, overcoming a late flood of outside money and confusion about her opponent and the retiring congressman they were vying to replace.
A year ago, Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle decided to retire. Lee won a hard-fought primary to compete for his seat in the 12th District and drew a Republican opponent as well. Some voters in the redrawn Pittsburgh-area district who wanted to support the Democrat accidentally voted for the Republican.
The results of the Pennsylvania congressional elections are updated.
The Republican said he had called Lee to concede and wished her well in Congress. The AP hasn't called a winner yet.
We built alliances. When we are going to make history, there are always going to be barriers that come up against us. Everyone in this movement has done a great job.
Lee's campaign tried to draw the distinction by releasing an ad that said Democrat Mike Doyle was not on the ballot. A different person is a Republican. The team was talking about the name issue when they knocked on doors.
Voters were told to support Lee at a campaign event last week after the Democrats initially refused to endorse her. In an October interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he said he wasn't surprised about the name overlap, and that there were four more Mikes in his own family.
The congressman said that there was a group of people with the same name in Pittsburgh.
Lee, a lawyer and labor activist, was elected to the state Legislature after defeating an incumbent who had been in office for two decades. Outside spending from the pro-Israel lobby was defeated in the primary by her opponent.
She helped found Unite and earned the endorsement of Justice Democrats, a group that helped members of the "Squad" get elected.
The seat was thought to be safe for Lee, but there were concerns that the name issue and money from the pro-Israel lobby could make the race harder than expected. She got a boost in the final days of the campaign when she spoke to Barack Obama before his rally in Pittsburgh, and she also got a boost when she was campaigning with her opponent. A group of more than 200 Pittsburgh-area Jews wrote a letter condemning the spending of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on the race.
It was a good night for the Democrats in Pennsylvania, as they won the governor's race and John Fetterman was elected to the Senate. Lee was in the race in the last weeks. Democrats won or were in the lead in a number of swing House districts.
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