Summer Lee’s Primary Foe Wants Pro-Israel and Right-Wing Hindu Supporters to Take Down the Squad

The leading challenger to progressive Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., said her campaign was encouraging independents and Republicans to re-register as Democrats so that they can vote against Lee in the primary. The comments came during a fundraiser Monday night hosted by several U.S.-based groups linked to India’s far-right Hindu nationalist movement.

Bhavini Patel, a borough council member in Edgewood, Pennsylvania, told supporters on the fundraising call that she could help take down the progressive Squad by leveraging support from right-wing Hindu and pro-Israel supporters.

During the fundraiser, which was attended by 30 people on Zoom and first reported on by Pittsburgh City Paper, Patel spoke of plans to tap into Republican support for her campaign, attract national spending, and eventually take down the progressive Democratic incumbents.

“We are making really strong efforts within the Jewish community, within the Hindu community, to encourage people registered as independents and Republicans to re-register as Democrats for the primary.”

“We are making really strong efforts within the Jewish community, within the Hindu community, to encourage people registered as independents and Republicans to re-register as Democrats for the primary,” Patel said.

Asked about non-Democratic voting in the primary, Patel said the primary is closed but that, because the district leaned heavily blue, the primary election would be competitive whereas the general would not be. Attendees concurred that Patel could leverage Republican support.

“She is so fringe and so extreme,” Patel said of Lee. “There are many Republicans who see that in this district.”

Targeting the Squad

Patel portrayed her race as part of a broader moderate response to the growing popularity of the progressive Squad in Congress, singling out Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Patel attacked Lee as having consistently associated herself with members of the Squad — naming Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others as “the most fringe, extreme members of Congress.”

In response to questions from The Intercept about the fundraiser’s hosts, Patel campaign manager Andrew DeCarlo said it was racially insensitive to attack Hindu nationalist groups and their supporters. While Patel supporters described her as a moderate during the fundraiser, DeCarlo said Patel had always been a progressive Democrat.

“It’s racially insensitive to attack Hindu Americans who are politically involved and who have supported a number of progressive and liberal democrats, such as Governor Wes Moore (MD) and Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller (MD), Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL), and State Rep. Padma Kuppa (MI),” DeCarlo said in a statement. “Any insinuation that it is an extreme group is also racially tone-deaf. As she said clearly on the call, Bhavini Patel is a lifelong principled progressive Democrat who is building a diverse coalition that reflects this district.”

Prominent members of the Hindu right in the U.S. have organized and fundraised for Democratic politicians in recent years, including Krishnamoorthi, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Texas congressional candidate Sri Preston Kulkarni, and Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller.

The Patel fundraiser was hosted by several political action committees — including Americans4Hindus, founded in response to what it identifies as anti-Hindu sentiment among progressive Democrats — and people linked to the Hindu nationalist movement and involved in organizing efforts to support India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party. One of the hosts, Ramesh Bhutada, is vice president of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the U.S. wing of the fascist paramilitary group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is an affiliate of the BJP.

Among them are several people and groups linked to the Hindu American Foundation, which lobbies Congress to counter criticism of minority suppression in India. Some Hindu American PAC board members are involved with the Hindu American Foundation. One of the individual hosts of the event was Rishi Bhutada, Ramesh Bhutada’s son and the treasurer of Hindu American PAC; he also sits on the board of directors for the Hindu American Foundation. Rishi Bhutada was also the official spokesperson for Modi’s 2019 Houston rally with then-President Donald Trump.

“The people who are against us are insane,” Mihir Meghani, a chair of Hindu American PAC and a co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation, said at the fundraiser. “If we don’t get Bhavini elected, we’re gonna have 10 to 20 years of someone like Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib. This is our chance. We need to max out or we need to show up in these crucial races.”

According to campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, Patel’s campaign has raked in money from donors who have also given to Republican candidates including Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Sens. Ted Cruz and Rick Scott, Rep. Steve Scalise, and others.

Hindu Nationalists for Israel

During the fundraiser, Patel sought to raise money by singling out the Squad. “This is the first race in the cycle of Squad members who are being primary challenged,” Patel said. Early investments in her campaign, she said, would pay off later, noting that she had already attracted national coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico.

“It will allow us to put this race on the national map and help us to position ourselves to attract national funding, and really make this race more competitive than it is now,” Patel said. She said her campaign planned to begin running TV ads in February.

Many observers think outside money in the race is likely. Pro-Israel groups spent $5 million in a failed bid to keep Lee out of the House in 2022. One of the groups, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, tried and failed to recruit two candidates to run against her. (Patel has not said whether she was recruited by AIPAC, but the group has been in touch with her campaign, according to a source with knowledge of the race.)

Patel said at the fundraiser that Lee boycotted a congressional address by Modi, has taken votes against Israel even prior to the October 7 Hamas attacks, and that her foreign policy stances had negative implications for U.S. relationships with Israel and India.

Israel was a major issue at the fundraiser. “She’s called for a ceasefire,” Patel said, referring to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Representatives from pro-Israel groups were also in attendance at the fundraiser. Julie Paris, Mid-Atlantic regional director for StandWithUs, a pro-Israel group that has worked to silence criticism on college campuses of Israel’s human rights abuses, was a co-host and had a speaking slot. “We need a strong woman who will come in and understand the challenge that America is facing right now,” Paris said, “and also understand the importance of the U.S.–Israel relationship and the U.S–India relationship.”

“Israel is doing India’s work right now, and we support it.”

Hot-button issues in the South Asian American community were also front and center. In one case, also related to the Squad, Patel also said she would oppose a resolution introduced by Omar that condemns human rights violations and religious right violations in India, including those targeting religious and cultural minorities like Muslims, Sikhs, and Dalits.

Some attendees, however, made a direct connection between attendees’ pro-Israel and their own Hindu nationalist agendas. One drew a parallel between the October 7 attack and the conflict in Kashmir in 1990, a hotly debated period in the history of the disputed province that has led to three wars between India and Pakistan. Another attendee agreed: “Israel is doing India’s work right now, and we support it.”