She joins four others who have also been elected to serve in the 119th Congress that meets in January: Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts ran unopposed in her Boston-area district; and Reps. Greg Casar of Texas, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Delia Ramirez of Illinois, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan beat their Republican opponents.
“The heart of Texas — from San Antonio to Austin — has a history of standing up for workers and civil rights,” Casar wrote in an X post Tuesday night after AP called his race against Republican Steven Wright, a retired deputy sheriff,. “No matter what comes next tonight, I’ll fight for working families and against the billionaires + the coward politicians that serve them.”
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Earlier this year, more moderate Democratic challengers defeated Reps. Jamaal Bowman in New York and Cori Bush in Missouri as the party split over the Israel-Hamas War. Both squad members had criticized U.S. support for Israel and were the target of special interest spending by the super PAC American Israel Public Affairs Committee, more commonly known as AIPAC.
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Their primary losses amounted to declining influence for the progressive faction made up of Black and Brown lawmakers that has garnered significant attention since its initial founding in 2019 during the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Ocasio-Cortez and Reps. Tlaib, Omar, and Pressley are considered the group’s original members. The Squad has since grown to include Bowman, Bush, Casar, Lee, and Ramirez.
One of the group’s de-facto leaders, Ocasio-Cortez, 35, has been a force for Democrats nationally. She defended President Joe Biden during his reelection campaign but shifted her support to Kamala Harris when Democrats changed up who was atop their ticket earlier this summer.
Reach Rachel Barber at rbarber@usatoday.com and follow her on X @rachelbarber_