A political group behind recent ads attacking U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, received $800,000 from Jeffrey Yass, a billionaire and conservative donor in the Philadelphia area, federal filings this week show.
The group, called Moderate PAC, has spent more than $586,000 in the Pittsburgh area, running a series of ads online and on TV attacking Lee and boosting her Democratic challenger Bhavini Patel, an Edgewood councilwoman.
The ads claim Lee has an “extreme socialist” agenda and accuses her of opposing President Joe Biden and voting against his priorities.
Yass, the richest man in Pennsylvania, is an influential player in state and national politics.
While he has funded some Democrats, he is one of the largest contributors to Republicans in the country.
He has a record of supporting “school choice” legislation, much to the chagrin of many Democrats who support public schools.
Yass’ investment firm, Susquehanna International Group, also holds a $22 million stake in Trump Media, according to the New York Times.
Lee represents Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District and is considered one of the most progressive members of Congress. She condemned the donations from Yass and said it was another example of conservatives trying to take her down.
“Every cycle Republican billionaires find a new Super PAC to spend millions of dollars against me in the final weeks of my election because there’s no greater threat to Donald Trump and their right-wing power than a Black woman that expands our Democratic electorate,” Lee told TribLive on Thursday.
Moderate PAC president and founder Ty Strong initially told Politico in March the ads were being funded by people within the 12th District, which includes Pittsburgh, eastern Allegheny County suburbs, the Mon Valley and Westmoreland County communities such as Murrysville, North Huntingdon, Penn Township, Sewickley Township, Jeannette and parts of Hempfield.
Last week, Strong admitted to Politico that Yass provided a donation to Moderate PAC, but wouldn’t disclose the amount and said that anything from Yass would be matched by Pittsburgh-based donations.
Disclosures show that Yass gave $800,000 to the PAC in February, which marked the first donation it received this year.
Pittsburgh-based contributions to Moderate PAC totaled $125,000, and they came in after Yass’s donation, according to filings Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.
Local donors included the Steamfitters Local 449 labor union; Todd Reidbord, president of Pittsburgh-based developers Walnut Capital; and the Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council, which endorsed Patel.
Moderate PAC did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
Patel has run her own ads contrasting herself with Lee. They use similar rhetoric as the Moderate PAC ads, claiming that Lee “wants to dismantle the Democratic Party,” citing past social media posts from Lee.
Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor at Inside Elections, a national election research group, said Patel’s campaign has spent about $160,000 on ads.
I'm committed to fighting for what truly matters: reproductive justice, gun violence prevention, and the creation of good-paying union jobs.
And unlike my opponent, I stand by President Biden 100%.
Watch our first TV ad ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/WYAllGewhf
— Bhavini Patel (@PatelForPA) March 11, 2024
Patel denounced Yass, and said that she can’t control how independent political groups spend their money. She said she is 100% committed to backing Biden but questioned Lee’s support of the president.
“I think it is very clear that my opponent wishes she was running against a Republican, but the reality is I am a Democrat,” Patel told TribLive.
Outside spending has been a consistent phenomenon in races involving Lee and her challengers. In 2022, the pro-Israel group American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent nearly $4 million in an attempt to defeat Lee.
Those ads also attacked Lee and claimed she was opposed to the Democrat Party and its agenda.
Lee, for her part, has spent about $700,000 on ads this year, according to Rubashkin.
Her ads claim she was integral to bringing $1.2 billion in federal funding into the district thanks to her close ties and work with the Biden administration.
INBOX: Summer Lee has dropped her first ad in the PA-12 race. It highlights her efforts in brining back $1.2 billion in investment into the district and mentions her 100% voting record in Congress https://t.co/52rwZjDyjA
— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) March 19, 2024
Outside progressive groups, such as the Working Families Party, PA United and Justice Democrats, have also spent nearly $600,000 on ads, mailers, and canvassing boosting Lee and countering the Moderate PAC attack ads, according to filings.
Lee said she is working to deliver “Democratic priorities from abortion rights to environmental justice, and unapologetically stand up to billionaires and corporate power on behalf of all marginalized people.”
Ryan Deto is a TribLive reporter covering politics, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County news. A native of California’s Bay Area, he joined the Trib in 2022 after spending more than six years covering Pittsburgh at the Pittsburgh City Paper, including serving as managing editor. He can be reached at rdeto@triblive.com.
