What’s in a name? GOP congressional candidate Mike Doyle shares name with retiring Democrat, sowing confusion

A candidate’s name in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District race is turning out to be a key issue in the campaign.

Mike Doyle, the Republican nominee in the race, has the same name as the man who represented the area for the past 28 years in Congress. Democrat Mike Doyle is retiring at the end of the year.

The campaign for the race’s Democratic nominee, Summer Lee, accuses the Republican Doyle of trying to sow confusion and capitalize on the longtime incumbent’s name recognition.

The Republican Doyle dismisses such talk and says sharing names with the longtime incumbent can be a double- edged sword, noting that he has had to assure many GOP voters in the heavily Democratic district that he is, in fact, not the Democratic Doyle.

“I am not just some piker who decided to run for office because my name happened to be Mike Doyle,” said the Republican nominee from Plum.

For his part, the Democratic Doyle of Forest Hills says, “I didn’t all of a sudden decide to switch parties.”

The Democratic Doyle said he is encouraging voters to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, “including the 12th Congressional District.” He said he’ll be voting for Democrat Chris Deluzio in the 17th Congressional District, where he now lives after the districts were redrawn earlier this year.

The newly redrawn 12th Congressional District includes Pittsburgh and many of Allegheny County’s eastern and southern suburbs, along with Westmoreland County communities such as Murrysville, North Huntingdon, Penn Township, Sewickley Township, Jeannette and parts of Hempfield.

In June, the elections analysis website Cook Political Report changed its outlook on the 12th District race from solid Democrat to Likely Democrat — in part, because of the name issue. Cook also pointed to the district becoming more Republican with the addition of the Westmoreland County communities and the progressive views of Lee.

The district remains heavily Democratic, with about 59% of voters registered as Democrats, 27% as Republicans and 14% as something else, according to Pennsylvania Department of State figures as of Sept. 29.

Lee’s campaign manager, Abigail Gardner, said confusion over the Doyle name is the “No. 1 conversation” campaign staffers are having with voters while knocking on doors in the district.

“We have heard a lot of confusion when we’re talking to voters about the fact that Summer’s opponent is named Mike Doyle,” Gardner said. “We have no doubt Summer will win on Election Day, but voters need to get the correct information so they can make an informed decision in the voting booth.”

Gardner accused the Republican Doyle’s campaign of trying to maximize confusion. She said the Republican Doyle doesn’t identify his party on his logo, campaign website or yard signs.

She also claimed that the Republican Doyle also has declined forums and interviews to further sow confusion.

The Republican Doyle, a Plum councilman, said he hasn’t been asked to attend any forums and isn’t reluctant to talk about the issues — including his name.

“As far as debates go, I will debate (Lee) every week until Election Day,” the Republican Doyle said.

As for him not clearly identifying as Republican on his campaign website or yard signs, the Republican Doyle fired back at Lee’s campaign by noting that she “doesn’t have socialist on her campaign (website or materials) either.” He also pointed out that Lee has said she wants to “dismantle the Democratic Party,” which her primary opponents attacked her for in ads in the spring.

Lee, of Swissvale, is supported by progressive politicians such as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and formerly was affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. She was endorsed by the group in 2018 when she successfully ran for state representative, but later had a falling out with the group. The Democratic Socialists of America did not endorse Lee this year.

Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University, said she was intrigued by how name confusion might impact the race. She said name recognition is typically the second-most important thing in U.S. House elections.

She said the most important thing is partisanship.

President Joe Biden won what is now the 12th District by 20 percentage points in 2020, and Cook gives the district a rating of D+8 — meaning, on average, it has voted 8 percentage points more Democratic in presidential elections than the nation as a whole.

Dagnes said she expects Lee to win the race, but she’ll be following it closely. She joked that it reminds her of the 1992 comedy, “The Distinguished Gentlemen,” in which a con man portrayed by Eddie Murphy runs for a Florida congressional seat by campaigning under the same name as a longtime congressman who recently died.

After waiting 30 years, Dagnes said, “I love the idea that we are going to have a real-life ‘Distinguished Gentleman.’”