The Squad
The Squad (United States Congress) - Wikipedia
The Squad is a group of eight Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
It was initially composed of four women elected in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
They have since been joined by Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri following the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections, and Greg Casar of Texas and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania following the 2022 elections.
The Squad is well known for being among the most progressive and left-wing members of the United States Congress.
All were elected under the age of 50,[1] have been supported by the Justice Democrats political action committee, and are on the left wing of the Democratic Party.[2][3]
Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, Bush and Bowman were initially elected to Congress after unseating incumbents in primary challenges.
All but Lee represent safe seats with Cook Partisan Voting Index scores of at least D+20.
The Squad has been said to represent the advocacy of progressive policies by the younger political generation,
such as Medicare for All,
the Green New Deal,
full student loan debt cancellation,
expansion of the United States Supreme Court, and
the Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act,
which have sometimes clashed with their party's leadership.[4][5][6][7]
Ocasio-Cortez coined the "Squad" name in an Instagram post a week after the 2018 election.
The photo, taken at a VoteRunLead event where the four founding members spoke, subsequently went viral.[8]
Name
The colloquial use of the word "squad" arose from East Coast hip hop culture and describes "a self-chosen group of people that you want to identify with".
Its use by Ocasio-Cortez signaled familiarity with millennial slang[9] as a playful reference to youth social cliques.[3]
Ocasio-Cortez's home borough of The Bronx was the origin of hip hop.
Musical acts with "Squad" in their name and lyrics existed from the 1990s to the present.[10]
The New York Times considers the Squad to be sui generis, not fitting neatly into the usual types of congressional groups:
the gang (a bipartisan group focused on particular legislation) or
the caucus (a pressure group based on special interests).
It notes that the term, with a militaristic connotation, conveys values of self-defense, allegiance, and having "something important to protect".[10]
The moniker has been used pejoratively by some Republicans, but the four original women use the term self-referentially to express solidarity among themselves and with supporters.[9]
For example, the Justice Democrats tweeted a quote from Pressley saying: "We are more than four people... Our squad includes any person committed to creating a more equitable and just world."[11]
The average age of the Squad was 38.3 years as of mid-2019, nearly two decades younger than the overall House average age of 57.6 years.[10]