Minutes to Progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was projected to be the winner of a Democratic primary, where she was completely outraised by one of her modern challengers, took fellow “Squad” member Rep. Rashida Talib to Twitter to celebrate.
“Our squad is great!” wrote the congresswoman from Detroit, who just a week earlier defeated a formidable primary challenger in Michigan’s primary in another game that grabbed Omar’s national attention.
Omar’s victory essentially guarantees that the quartet of first-term progressive Democratic congresswomen of color will return to Capitol Hill in January. And thanks to a string of progressive upsets so far this primary season, it’s likely that Squad’s membership will grow.
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Omar beat her main rival, Antone Melton-Meaux, by a wide bilingual margin.
“In Minnesota, we know that organized people will always hit organized money,” the congresswoman insisted on Twitter after her victory. “Last night, our movement did not just win. We deserve a mandate for change. Despite outside efforts to defeat us, we have broken records again. Despite the attacks, our support has only grown.”
One week earlier, Tlaib President Detroit City Council Brenda Jones had a two-on-one margin.
Fellow “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez faced a well-funded Democratic primary challenger in New York State’s primary June. Former CNBC correspondent and anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera has raised about $ 2 million for the game. But Ocasio-Cortez dramatically beat her rival and devastated Caruso-Cabrera and other challengers in the match.
The fourth member of “The Squad” – Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who represents Massachusetts’ 7th Congress District – does not face a Democratic primary challenge in the state’s primary Sept. 1. And she may not be able to run against a Republican in the November general election because no one qualified to put her name on the primary ballot.
The victories of “Squad” are far from the only ones the left is enjoying this primary season.
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Progressive challenger Cori Bush defeated a long-standing rep last week. William Lacy Clay in a high-profile Democratic primary rematch in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District – a race that grabbed national attention as a party fixture and member of Congress Black Caucus tried to overthrow a younger activist who came through the Black movement Lives Matter.
The 10-term Clay defends a seat that has been represented by his family for more than half a century. The innkeeper succeeded his father – the late Rep. William Clay Sr. – who holds the seat of St. Louis area had more than 30 years and one of the founders was of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In New York, progressive trainer Jamaal Bowman fired rep. Eliot Engel, the powerful chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has served in Congress for more than three decades. Bowman’s victory was compared to Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 blockbuster primary overthrow of the longtime Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley and Pressley’s sister of Veteran Rep. Michael Capuano a few months later, who made both political shock waves.
Progressive candidate Mondaire Jones won a three-way primary in the race for longtime Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey succeeds in the 17th Congress District of New York, which includes parts of suburbs of Westchester and Rockland counties. Another progressive, New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres, won the Democratic primary for a seat on the Bronx to replace Democratic Rep. To replace Jose Serrano.
In March, progressive candidate Marie Newman took long-time moderate Democratic rep. Dan Lipinski del in the 3rd Congressional District of Illinois. Lipinski and his father have represented the Chicago area for nearly four decades.
While candidates on the left have enjoyed an exaggeration of high-profile victories, there are plenty of cases where progressives have fallen short this year.
Through founding support Amy McGrath this summer broke a serious threat back from progressive candidate and state Rep. Charles Booker in the primary Democratic Senate of Kentucky.
Longtime Democratic reps. New York’s Yvette Clarke and Carolyn Maloney defeated fierce progressive primary challengers. That’s what Veteran Reps did. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jim Costa of California, Joyce Beatty of Ohio, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.
