Sen. Santarsiero Says ‘Israel First’ Mailers Were Antisemitic

Mailers sent ahead of an Upper Bucks County primary election have drawn condemnation from members of both major political parties.

The mailers urged voters to support Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley over Bradley Merkl-Gump, an Upper Bucks County teacher and school board member.

Both men are competing in the Democratic primary for the 16th Senatorial District, which is made up of Upper Bucks County and Lehigh County.

The mailers were funded by a political action committee called Protecting Our Democracy, according to citation on the campaign literature.

“You don’t have to settle for the hand-picked candidate of the corporate, Israel-first Democratic party boss and insiders,” one mailer stated.

The advertisement featured a photograph of Bucks County Democratic Party Chair Steve Santarsiero, a state senator for the 10th Senatorial District who is Jewish, with an image of an Israeli flag placed beneath his face. The photo appeared to be of his 2024 profile image on his official Facebook page.

I released the following statement with@SenJudySchwank, as cochairs of the PA Legislative Jewish Caucus, in reference to the materials arriving in folks' mailboxes in the Lehigh Valley pic.twitter.com/A6uH61vHOK

— State Rep. Dan Frankel (@RepDanFrankel) May 14, 2026

Santarsiero, who noted that the Bucks County Democratic Party did not endorse a candidate in the race, rejected the mailers. He called the “Israel-first” language an antisemitic trope that falsely implies Jewish Americans are disloyal to the United States.

“The use of the term Israel First is antisemitic because it buys into the lie that Jews cannot be trusted to be loyal Americans, since their first loyalty is allegedly to Israel,” Santarsiero said in a statement.

Santarsiero, a former social studies teacher and lawyer, said that while he supports the right of the Jewish people to have a homeland, he does not support Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and supports the creation of a Palestinian state.

Santarsiero said his legislative support for Israel does not mean he places that country ahead of the United States or his local communities.

In 2024, he introduced a bipartisan bill that would penalize Pennsylvania universities that choose to boycott or divest from Israel for political reasons, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Leaders of the Pennsylvania Legislative Jewish Caucus also denounced the campaign materials.

State Rep. Dan Frankel and State Sen. Judy Schwank, both Democrats who co-chair the caucus, issued a joint statement calling the mailers unacceptable and dangerous.

“These mailers are designed to inflame and capitalize on antisemitic hatred in a time when Jewish communities and Jewish public figures are already facing unprecedented threats,” Frankel and Schwank said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican, labeled the campaign literature antisemitic.

“Its language and use of an Israeli flag that targeted a Jewish state senator inappropriately suggests disloyalty to America,” Sunday said. “That is the type of antisemitic action and rhetoric that must be called out, condemned and shunned.”

Bucks County District Attorney, a Democrat, said the mailer isn’t a “partisan issue.” He added that he stood with Sunday in calling out the “antisemitic messages and affirming our commitment to protect our public servants from threats.”

Santarsiero called on those involved in the election to renounce the mailers.

Incumbent Republican State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, who was first elected to represent the 16th Senatorial District in 2022, is running unopposed on the Republican primary ballot.

The mailers were from Protecting Our Democracy, which registered as a PAC with the state in mid-April.

Spotlight PA reported that the PAC is chaired by an executive for a company that supplies equipment and skill games to bars.

Last summer, as the Republican caucus debated the regulation of skill games, Coleman authored an op-ed supporting tax rates and rules favored by the industry.

The political fallout comes amid heightened security concerns for local lawmakers. Santarsiero was among a group of state legislative Democrats who were recently identified on a “hit list” compiled by a Lebanon County man who allegedly planned to kill them on Memorial Day, according to state police.