James Hayes believes in his path to victory in District 12

U.S. House candidate James Hayes believes he can beat incumbent Summer Lee in the Nov. 3 election for Pennsylvania’s District 12, partly because of the results of the 2024 election.

Lee won, but Hayes sees a story in the numbers.

“In the last election we did a poll that said I would only get 28% of the vote. I ended up getting 44% of the vote, so I substantially outperformed the polls,” Hayes said. “I substantially outperformed Donald Trump. I even outperformed David McCormick by four points in the district. I got 181,000 votes last time. In Summer Lee’s first run [in 2022] she only got 141,000 votes.”

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The Republican hopeful, who said he doesn’t like to quit, credited his business background with teaching him to see challenges rather than problems.

Defeating Lee is a challenge he thinks he can overcome.

“We’re going to work hard,” he said. “I believe that we have a path to victory.”

To help forge that path, Hayes employed a new strategy this election cycle.

“I realized how hard it is to raise funds, so I contracted with a group that talked about a low-budget strategy focused on social media,” he said. “There are new technologies that we didn’t have five years ago.”

As an example, Hayes pointed to an ad run he purchased during the governor’s debate that targeted only the ZIP codes in District 12.

He believes that if he could have used the same technology in the last race, he would have won.

And while he understands the need for new techniques, Hayes hasn’t abandoned the tried and tested ways of building a coalition through community. He said he’s been working hard in the Jewish, Indian and Black communities, and believes the Black community shares commonalities with traditional Republicans.

“They’re churchgoing, family-oriented and have the same social values,” he noted.

He’s done outreach to Democratic voters as well. In fact, he was recently approached by a group of Democrats who asked him to create a “Democrats for James Hayes” presence. He now has corresponding signs available for those interested.

“I believe that at the core, most of us agree on 80% of the values,” Hayes said. “There might be a few areas in which we differ, but if you compare it to the Democrat Socialists it’s going to be flipped. You might agree with 20% of what they say and disagree with 80%.”

Because of that, Hayes hopes people ignore party labels and, instead, vote for the candidate most closely aligned with their values and traditions, and who they believe will be the best fit for the region.

And while there’s been a lot of talk about the expected blue wave, Hayes isn’t so sure it will manifest next week.

“There are a lot of Democrats that don’t appreciate the fact that the Democratic Socialists of America have hijacked their party,” he noted. “If JFK were alive today, he would most likely be a liberal Republican.”

The House hopeful argued that some factors driving the anticipated blue wave, including high gas prices, are actually consequences of Democratic policies. He said the war with Iran has produced pressure on gas prices but noted that California closed three oil refineries in the last year.

“We’re producing crude. What we can’t do is produce the distillates — gasoline and diesel fuel,” he said. “If you put the Iranian supply back on the market tomorrow, it wouldn’t bring the prices down because we don’t have the refining capacity.”

As to another hot topic this election, data centers and AI, Hayes believes there’s a middle ground to be reached.

AI, he said, has great promise for the region, likening it to a hammer — a useful tool that can build a house or be used for violence. The goal, he said, is to ensure AI it’s being used for good.

Data centers, too, can be used for the good of society. Hayes thinks requiring them to create their own power plants — mini nuclear reactors, for instance, that would be required to produce excess power to be fed into the existing power grid — would be a benefit for the region.

He has an idea of where they should be located as well, suggesting brown fields — former industrial sites.

“There are ways to do this logically and responsibly, but let’s not stop growth,” he said. “Let’s embrace it. Let’s bring in this great tax base. The property taxes and income taxes they pay will help relieve everybody else’s property taxes and income taxes.”

While his opponent has made news over the last few months by attempting to visit ICE detention centers, Hayes said he has a more pragmatic approach. ICE is a law enforcement agency, he stressed, noting there are courts available to adjudicate any issues with the agency.

“People who are creating this drama are fighting law enforcement,” he said. “That’s not how you keep communities safe. You don’t escalate. You go with law enforcement and trust in what I believe is an extremely fair court system.”

It was public safety that originally inspired Hayes to seek public office after his son was fatally shot in 2022.

“That was my ‘John Wick’ moment, if you will — when I lost my son,” Hayes told the Chronicle in 2024. “That’s really why I’m in the race.”

Another issue on which Lee and Hayes diverge is Israel. He lamented that Jews have been “scapegoated, going back thousands of years.” Antisemitism and racism, he said, go hand-in-hand — and there are many who want it to continue.

“Because if we start to work together then we can focus on growth,” he said. “If it’s ‘divide, divide, divide,’ then they can focus on power and dividing and conquering.”

Israel, he said, is one of America’s strongest allies and has earned our support.

He’s also clear that he doesn’t believe Israel is committing a genocide. Israel’s response to the murder of 1,200 of its citizens in a single day, he said, has been “way more accommodative than most countries’” would have been.

In the lead-up to the election, Hayes plans to do what he has done since he announced his candidacy: meet with people across the district and explain why he believes he should be elected.

In the end, he thinks voters will elect the right candidate.

“I believe I can win,” he said.

Lee did not respond to multiple interview requests from the Chronicle. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.