In the early days of her political career, Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-PA) was excited about what was in store for her, but she vividly remembers one specific thing: how she was going to pay for rent.
Lee, the first Black congresswoman from Pennsylvania, alongside Congresswomen Delia Ramirez (D-IL), the first Latina member of Congress elected in the Midwest, both said the challenge of how they would pay rent is similar to what is on the minds of millions of Americans each day.
“We were both silently in our heads doing the math of how much an apartment costs,” Lee, 36, told Teen Vogue, recalling her thoughts during freshman orientation on Capitol Hill. “We weren’t [prepared] for the fact that we’ve had to leave our jobs. We were going to have to furnish a house…move our stuff in, and we’re going to have to pay rent in DC (one of the most expensive cities) and our hometowns.”
Since moving to Capitol Hill, Lee and Ramirez have become good friends and decided to move in together in a three-bedroom house not too far from where they work.
“It was a godsend for us to find each other, and not just for the financial piece,” says Ramirez, 41, who splits her time between the townhouse with Lee and her home with her husband in Chicago. “But for the navigating Congress piece…” Lee chimed in rhetorically.
“We relatable members really struggle in this place,” Ramirez continued. “Because the truth is…we have to have uncomfortable conversations with colleagues of ours, who’ve never known what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, who have never known what it’s like to wonder if their husband is going to get deported because the Dream Act is about to expire, or a judge is going to make a decision.”
Ramirez and Lee, adopted into the progressive “Squad,” urgently need allies in Congress as they face mounting challenges. This new generation of progressives—leading voices on issues like a Gaza ceasefire, student loan forgiveness, immigrant rights, and campaign finance reform—is gearing up for the political fight of their careers.
In New York, AIPAC’s Super PAC, United Democracy Project, spent over $14 million to successfully unseat Squad member Rep. Jamaal Bowman. In Missouri, AIPAC and its allies helped oust Congresswoman Cori Bush, one of the progressive movement’s most prominent figures. AIPAC’s PAC is expected to spend around $100 million targeting progressives who support a ceasefire in Gaza, putting the entire Squad, including Lee and Ramirez, on high alert.
While AIPAC sat out Lee’s primary race, her opponent received significant backing from billionaire Jeffrey Yass, a staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lee says she’s ready to take on big-money donors again in November’s general election, whether it’s AIPAC or other well-funded groups.
“In my race, we are always at risk of monied interests coming in and trying to influence the election,” says Lee, adding, “As we say, let’s stay ready to get ready, right? Our job is always to prepare as if your challenge could come any day.”
However, Lee notes that candidates from working-class backgrounds vying to represent working-class communities simply can’t withstand the kind of “dark money” spending that occurred in Bowman’s race. “A district like mine would not be able to sustain raising $20 million for me every two years like that,” explains Lee. “And the people who are most likely to be impacted are the people who are the least likely to have historic traditional access to money, the people who are not from the country club class, right? Jamaal Bowman was a school principal. I came from a working-class Black neighborhood. I was an organizer. Cori Bush was a nurse, an activist, an organizer.”
Ramirez, who has not experienced the same outside spending in her race, believes the attack on Bowman was meant to send a clear message to progressives: stay quiet and back down, particularly on calls for a ceasefire. Sadly, she notes, for some of her colleagues, that strategy has been effective.
“I asked a colleague about a recent vote two weeks ago, like why would you vote inconsistent with how you [typically] vote and their response was, Did you see what happened to Jamaal?” Ramirez recounts. “This is the reality of what’s happening. It’s a sickening effect of big, unaccountable dark money in our democratic elections and it has devastating effects on [our] communities, especially communities of color.”
