Longtime Democratic Rep Mike Doyle is retiring after having represented the Allegheny County metro area since 1995, this is also my district and he has been my rep for most of my life. Aside from his first, early years in office when he cut something close to a Joe Manchin style approach, Doyle later settled in as a pretty center-lane , establishment type who never struck as having distinguished himself in any prominent way. He was challenged from the left in 2020 by Jerry Dickinson, a young law professor at University of Pittsburgh who did not have a high profile (he had never sought office) nor a comparable campaign war chest. The race did not receive much attention, other than locally down the stretch, but Dickinson still managed about 33% of the vote. It makes you wonder if Doyle might have recognized that a challenger more capable of mounting a formidable campaign would now be inevitable after sensing weakness, even in victory.
This all bears mentioning because the national media seems to be fixated on the notion that his retirement, along with that of North Carolina Rep David Price (who is 81 years old), is a sign that House Dems are in great fear of losing the house in 2022 and are rushing to the exits. To be sure, Republicans may very well reclaim the majority next year, but with redistricting maps across the country still largely unsettled it just seems to be far to early to hit the panic button. Rep Doyle had recently tested positive for Covid-19 and furthermore I think he saw ample evidence that this district is changing, Just this year incumbent Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto was successfully challenged from the left by the more progressive state Rep Ed Gainey, who is now quite likely to become the first black Mayor of Pittsburgh. Even just two months before the primary I would have told you that a Gainey victory was something close to inconceivable, so on the night that he was declared the winner it was a clear statement that locally, the left is ascendant and built to win major elections.
Lest anybody doubt that the left was watching closely, not even a full 24 hours had passed since Doyle’s announcement before state Rep Summer Lee announced her candidacy for the seat and quickly pulled in an endorsement from Justice Democrats, likely solidifying her place in the race as the major candidate on the left. Lee was elected to the PA State House in 2018 amidst the national Blue Wave after she ran an insurgent campaign and knocked off the much more moderate Paul Costa, a member of a local political dynasty whose cousin Dom, also a state Rep, was defeated that year by Sara Innamorato, another name you will likely be hearing in the future. The point here: the progressive left has been gaining steam in the Pittsburgh area and the national media just was not paying any attention until perhaps after Gainey toppled Peduto. Fears of suffering a fate similar to the Costas is more likely the cause for this changing of the guard rather than a mad dash away from a fight with Kevin McCarthy.
Everyone who wants to see more progressives in the house of Representatives should start paying attention to this race and Summer Lee, this is a very Blue district so the Dem primary is the ballgame. Other candidates will probably jump in, but I now expect her to shore up the left pretty quickly. Pittsburgh has never been friendly to liberal politics (more rustic, blue collar type Dems), but numbers do not lie and I feel change is coming.