Summer Lee earned an undergraduate degree from Penn State and a law degree from Howard University.

Summer Lee is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District. She was elected to Congress in 2022 and is a member of the Democratic Party. Lee has a background in community organizing and law, having previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

Summer Lee | Congress.gov

Summer Lee has a background in community organizing and law.

Summer L. Lee | Congress.gov

Summer has a background in community organizing and law.

Biography: Summer Lee is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District. She was elected to Congress in 2022 and is a member of the Democratic Party. Lee has a background in community organizing and law, having previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The Clerk of the House lists her current office as Pennsylvania (PA) – 12th, Democrat, with an oath of office on Jan. 03, 2025.

Summer currently serves as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District. She was elected to Congress in 2022. She previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

2026 Pennsylvania General Election 

Every child deserves access to a first-rate, free public education - regardless of their zip code or socioeconomic background. Unfortunately, the way public schools are funded is deeply inequitable, leaving behind working-class communities and communities of color. In the State House and now in Congress, I’ve fought tirelessly for equitable funding for our schools. That means a fair funding formula that guarantees that children will not be punished for growing up in the “wrong” zip code – and it means raising teachers' pay so that our educators have what they need to provide every child with a quality public education.

Issues | Summer Lee For Congress

I’m also fighting for universal free pre-kindergarten, including early childcare, free school meals for every child, and dramatically expanding teacher-training programs with a focus on generating high-quality teachers with cultural competency among an increasingly diverse student population.

As a working-class Black woman with a mountain of student debt, I know firsthand that the massive burden of student debt is not only keeping us from being able to afford even the basics, starting families, opening up small businesses, and building generational wealth – but it’s hurting our entire economy. Public colleges and universities and vocational programs should be tuition-free and ALL existing student loan debt should be canceled - period.

Advocates for equitable school funding through a fair funding formula and higher teacher pay.

Advocates for universal free pre-kindergarten, early childhood care, free school meals, and expanded teacher-training programs.

Supports tuition-free public colleges, universities, and vocational programs and the cancellation of all existing student-loan debt.

- Advocates for equitable school funding through a fair funding formula and higher teacher pay.
- Advocates for universal free pre-kindergarten, early childhood care, free school meals, and expanded teacher-training programs.
- Supports tuition-free public colleges, universities, and vocational programs and the cancellation of all existing student-loan debt.

Education

Right now, our economy works for the wealthy few and corporations at the expense of the working poor. Corporate tax breaks, unregulated Wall Street and Big Tech companies, and handouts to corporate polluters as social services continue to be underfunded have only reinforced the deep systemic inequalities that we continue to face as a nation. Economic growth has left behind marginalized communities and it’s time we center working people in our economic policies. That’s why I’ve continued to advocate for legislation that supports a livable wage and aims to close the unnecessary gap between skyrocketing corporate profits and working people’s poverty wages.

Our community’s history is the greatest proof you need for the benefits of being in a union and the disadvantages of being kept out of them. Now, we’re witnessing historically low rates of unionization nationwide. We know unions are one of our greatest tools to reduce inequality, raise wages, and support better benefits and job protections, so I’m ready to fight for a robust labor movement that reflects the racial, gender, and industry diversity that a 21st century labor movement demands. That’s why I’m fighting to pass the PRO Act - because I believe that every worker deserves a union and it’s time for our laws to protect unions and strengthen workers’ rights to organize.

While almost 1 in 4 people in the nation have a disability, disabled people are overrepresented in our prisons, are disproportionate victims of police violence, and are more likely to face poverty. We must ensure that all disabled people are paid fairly, and we must end the loopholes that allow businesses to pay disabled people subminimum wages. Additionally, we must expand and reform Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), so that people receiving benefits can actually survive on them and end the punitive regulations that trap disabled people into poverty.

Advocates for legislation supporting a livable wage and reducing the gap between corporate profits and workers’ wages.

Supports the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would strengthen workers’ rights to organize.

Calls for ending business loopholes that allow disabled workers to be paid wages below the minimum wage.

- Advocates for legislation supporting a livable wage and reducing the gap between corporate profits and workers’ wages.
- Supports the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would strengthen workers’ rights to organize.
- Calls for ending business loopholes that allow disabled workers to be paid wages below the minimum wage.

Economy

Years after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the deep inequities that have always existed within our healthcare system–especially for disabled communities–we must not only pass Medicare for All, but ensure that it includes coverage of community-based long term support services as well as massive federal investments in home and community-based services (HCBS) to get hundreds of thousands of disabled people off waiting lists for home care and ensure they have access to the care they and their families need.

Advocates for Medicare for All with community-based long-term supports and federal investment in home- and community-based services.

- Advocates for Medicare for All with community-based long-term supports and federal investment in home- and community-based services.

Healthcare

Additionally, as long as corporations can funnel billions into elections, our democracy will continue to belong to the highest bidder. In Congress, I’m fighting back against corruption and for comprehensive campaign finance reform that ends Citizens United and puts campaigns back into the hands of the people is a necessary step to rebuilding our democracy.

Fixing our democracy goes beyond stopping Trump, elected Republicans, and right-wing judges from engaging in voter suppression and abusing their power to overturn the results of free and fair elections. It also includes working to end racist voter ID and suppression laws, restoring the full power of the Voting Rights Act, and ending gerrymandering. I’m working to make it easier to vote, not harder – and that means federal automatic voter registration, nationwide early and mail voting, federal holidays for election days, and same day voter registration. Everyone deserves a say in our democracy–and that includes immigrants and folks who are incarcerated.

Advocates for comprehensive campaign-finance reform that ends Citizens United.

Advocates for comprehensive campaign-finance reform.

Advocates for federal automatic voter registration, nationwide early and mail voting, election-day holidays, and same-day voter registration.

- Advocates for comprehensive campaign-finance reform.
- Advocates for federal automatic voter registration, nationwide early and mail voting, election-day holidays, and same-day voter registration.

Voting & Elections

No human being is illegal. Our immigration system is a broken web of xenophobic policies that seek to punish brown and Black people and treat them as political pawns instead of building pathways to citizenship. We need to restore humanity in our immigration system by ending the separation of families and reversing roadblocks for asylum-seekers and refugees. Millions of undocumented immigrants, from Dreamers to people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), deserve a pathway to citizenship because their home is here.

Right now, our immigration system is built like our broken criminal legal system - it is punitive, relies on private prisons for detention, has built up an over-militarized border, and has turned ICE into a violent policing agency. All of that must end for us to prioritize the people getting lost, abused, and deported by our current immigration system.

Calls for ending family separation and barriers for asylum seekers and refugees, and providing undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship.

Calls for ending private-prison detention of immigrants, an over-militarized border, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a policing agency.

- Calls for ending family separation and barriers for asylum seekers and refugees, and providing undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship.
- Calls for ending private-prison detention of immigrants, an over-militarized border, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a policing agency.

Foreign Policy and Immigration

In Congress, I’ve fought tirelessly for a Green New Deal to transition to a 100% clean and renewable energy economy and create thousands of good-paying, union jobs in Western Pennsylvania. This includes ending fracking, which poses a disproportionate threat to communities like ours. The Green New Deal allows us to center our frontline and marginalized communities facing the brunt of environmental racism.

I believe everyone deserves clean air and safe drinking water. That’s why in Congress, I’ve brought home millions of dollars to fund the replacement of all lead water lines. It is unconscionable that anyone in America wouldn’t have access to clean water. We can and must guarantee clean water for all. We have the financial resources to make it happen.

Advocates for a Green New Deal to transition to fully clean, renewable energy and end fracking.

Said she secured millions of dollars to replace lead water lines and calls for guaranteed access to clean water.

- Advocates for a Green New Deal to transition to fully clean, renewable energy and end fracking.
- Said she secured millions of dollars to replace lead water lines and calls for guaranteed access to clean water.

Energy & the Environment

Gun violence even more often means the widespread violence that happens in our streets with handguns. That violence is rooted in poverty, rooted in communities that have gone underfunded and ignored for too long. We need an investment in our schools, after-school programs, and wrap-around services. We need an investment in jobs and higher wages, so people have a choice in shaping their future. Gun violence cannot be addressed in isolation, it’s rooted in every social service funding we cut and must be combatted at that level too.

I am opposed to mandatory minimum sentencing laws. The strategy behind the “War on Drugs” has been an unmitigated disaster that has only torn families and communities apart. Mandatory minimums disproportionately affect poor and Black communities, and hinder efforts to combat the opioid crisis in our communities today.

We must also end the numerous inhumane practices across our justice system. That means eliminating cash bail because our current system, which imprisons people based on their ability to pay, is a barbaric relic that punishes the poor for their poverty. Additionally, we must abolish the death penalty and life without parole–the state should not have the power to end someone’s life or sentence them to death by incarceration.

Calls for investments in schools, after-school programs, wraparound services, jobs, and higher wages to address gun violence.

Opposes mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

Calls for abolishing the death penalty and sentences of life without parole.

- Calls for investments in schools, after-school programs, wraparound services, jobs, and higher wages to address gun violence.
- Opposes mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
- Calls for eliminating cash bail.
- Calls for abolishing the death penalty and sentences of life without parole.

Public Safety

Instagram

Summer Lee

- Advocates for federal automatic voter registration, nationwide early and mail voting, election-day holidays, and same-day voter registration.

- Opposes mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
- Calls for eliminating cash bail.
- Calls for abolishing the death penalty and sentences of life without parole.

Isaac Brickman

Buket Urgen

James Hayes

- Your US Representative represents the interests of your district in the US House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. Pennsylvania currently has 19 US Representatives.
- US Representatives can author, sponsor, debate, and vote on bills that become national law.
- Representatives may serve on congressional committees. Committees focus on certain policy areas, such as transportation, education, or labor. They may also run for higher positions within their party, such as the Speaker of the House or Majority/Minority Leader.
- Representatives are elected to two-year terms. To hold this office, a candidate must be a legal resident of Pennsylvania for at least seven years before their election. 
- US Representatives are paid a salary of $174,000/year.

Your representative and federal lawmaker in the US House of Representatives