Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
‘The Squad,’ with Representative Ilhan Omar at the podium, seen last summer at a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington
Last Friday afternoon, the four first-term congresswomen known as “The Squad” entered the Howard University Law School auditorium to a chorus of cheers from the activists and students who’d come out for what had been billed as the Rising Majority Town Hall. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) each reflected on their role in the new wave of progressivism that now stretches from the streets to the capital’s corridors of power.
“We are often characterized as being disruptive,” Pressley said. “If we were in Silicon Valley, we would be called innovators.” One innovation that is universally recognized is their use of and openness on social media, where their confidence and outspoken personalities are on full and frequent display.
For them and for many of their generational peers, Omar said, it was Trump’s election and “the hateful message he was delivering” that prompted their decision to throw themselves fully into the fray. “I know at that moment for many of us there was a decision we had to make … on whether to take and receive everything that was going to happen, or resist, restore, and reimagine what could be possible.”
This reimagination hasn’t been easy. Ocasio-Cortez recently told New York magazine that one year into her congressional career, she has no friends in Washington. Nor, though the House has passed about 140 bills, have there been any progressive victories, with the bills either dying in Mitch McConnell’s Senate or not even brought up for a vote in the House (the fate of AOC’s Green New Deal resolution).
“We are often characterized as being disruptive. If we were in Silicon Valley, we would be called innovators.”
“It’s a challenging balance, because on the inside the word is always just ‘compromise.’ And you have to decide what is a just compromise and what is compromising your identity,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I think that’s not just a question that we [the Squad] have to navigate individually, but questions we have to navigate as a movement, because we’re not used to winning in this way. And now we have a power that is somewhat novel electorally, and we have to learn how to wield that.”
The movement she’s referring to often butts up against not just the Republican Party but also the Democratic establishment. Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise victory against the 20-year incumbent Joe Crowley shocked many in Washington. Crowley had been characterized as a possible successor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and was a high-dollar fundraiser for fellow Democrats. By contrast, AOC and the rest of the Squad have sworn off major donors and high-priced fundraisers, like the Democratic presidential candidates they now endorse.
AOC, Omar, and Tlaib have all endorsed and held rallies with Senator Bernie Sanders. Ocasio-Cortez has given him credit for inspiring her to run for Congress and worked on his 2016 campaign. Pressley endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren, as did the Working Families Party, which co-hosted the Howard forum.
At the town hall, however, the Squad engaged in surprisingly little discussion of the 2020 presidential primary. Instead, the four members discussed their hopes and vision for deepening the Squad’s—and electoral politics’—relationship with grassroots organizing and movement building.
“We should aspire to run in a way where we are not necessary; it’s not like everything should hinge on each one of us as an individual occupying this seat,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We should aspire to … just be part of a footprint of this movement.”
