The Winner
If you live in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) will keep representing you after winning a third term in a rematch with Republican James Hayes). The Associated Press called the race for Lee on election night, Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Lee had 194,205 votes, or 65.4%, to 102,571 votes, or 34.6%, for Hayes, a margin of about 31 points, in unofficial results. That more than doubled her 2024 margin over Hayes, when she won 56.2% to 43.5%.
The Race
Hayes is a business executive and a former vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and he was unopposed in the May 19 Republican primary. Lee won the Democratic primary with 81.2% over William Parker, according to Decision Desk HQ’s certified primary results. Before the election, Cook Political Report and Inside Elections rated the seat Solid Democratic, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rated it Safe Democratic, according to Ballotpedia.
The district covers all of Pittsburgh along with nearby suburbs and the Mon Valley in Allegheny County, plus part of Westmoreland County. Its communities include McKeesport, Clairton, Duquesne and Jeannette, according to Pennsylvania’s congressional redistricting records.
The district has about 760,900 residents, a median household income of $72,000 and a median age of 39.5. About 41.9% of adults hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, unemployment is 5.6% and 14% of residents live below the poverty line. Residents are 73.7% white, 15% Black, 4.2% Asian and 3.1% Hispanic.
What’s Next
Lee’s new term begins Sunday, Jan. 3, in a House that Democrats won control of in the midterms. She said the new majority should push Medicare for All and a higher minimum wage, tackle “the cost of childhood” and the cost of education, and make paid parental leave national, according to PublicSource.
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