[Five new members-elect are taking cues from the liberal squad,
ready to bypass the limits of being a first-term lawmaker and use
their voices to turn the party leftward.]
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LARGER SQUAD? HOW THE HILL’S NEWEST PROGRESSIVES PLAN TO WIELD
POWER.  
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Nicholas Wu
December 28, 2022
Politico
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_ Five new members-elect are taking cues from the liberal squad,
ready to bypass the limits of being a first-term lawmaker and use
their voices to turn the party leftward. _

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Even as House Democrats shrink into the minority, the voices of
progressive lawmakers — inspired by the so-called squad — are set
to grow only louder.

An optimistic crop of liberal first-year lawmakers is confident they
can pry back the majority from Republicans in two years. In the
meantime, add another five members, aligned with the
[[link removed]] liberal
Working Families Party, to the ever-expanding list of those vowing to
push President Joe Biden’s administration to the left on priorities
like workers’ rights, climate change and immigration.

And they’re already tuned in to a cliché critical to commanding
Congress: There’s power in numbers. While several soon-to-be members
had already come together on the campaign trail and grew closer as
they descended on Washington, they’ve also forged alliances with
other incoming lawmakers they met for the first time at orientation.

“I think that as legislators, our job is to agenda-set. It’s to
govern, it’s to create policy, but it’s also to put forth that
best case, and bring people over to us,” said Rep.-elect Summer Lee
(D-Pa.), one of two Justice Democrat-backed candidates to win a
general election. “That’s what progressives have to do, whether
we’re in the majority or the minority. … That’s going to be
where a lot of power is: in expanding the realm of what’s
possible.”

They’re all set to join a Democratic Caucus that’s becoming
younger, more diverse and more liberal. It’s potentially more
hospitable terrain than what the “squad” faced four years ago,
when the original group of four progressive lawmakers became a favored
target for Republicans — and even some moderate Democrats. Lee and
other lawmakers are looking to the group of six as an example of the
power those with similar values can wield, despite being relatively
junior legislators with little concrete congressional influence.

It’s potentially more hospitable terrain than what the “squad”
faced four years ago, when the original group of four progressive
lawmakers became a favored target for Republicans — and even some
moderate Democrats. | Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images

“So much of my class and all of orientation, people have felt really
inspired because we know that odds are we will retake the House and
will be in the majority in two years,” Rep.-elect Greg Casar
(D-Texas), the other Justice Democrat-backed candidate to win last
month, said in a recent interview. “The progressive energy,
especially among people of color, working-class communities, young
people — that’s what we bring.”

The group of new members, which includes Reps.-elect Delia Ramirez
(D-Ill.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Lee, and
Casar, has a text thread in which they discuss everything from news
articles and policy ideas to memes and puppies. They jokingly call
Rep.-elect Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the first openly LGBTQ immigrant
elected to Congress, “Mr. President” and they’ve already got a
bourbon supplier in Rep.-elect Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.).

They’re also helping each other find affordable housing, with
Ramirez and Lee planning to room together to save money in the
expensive D.C. area. Mirroring squad members’ penchant for talking
about their own everyday hardships in life, Ramirez spoke plainly
about her financial struggles that made a roommate necessary, even
with a six-figure congressional salary. She listed off credit card
debt, medical debt from two recent miscarriages, her husband working
as a freelancer and a mortgage back home.

“I don’t want to feel embarrassed, but damn, that’s not the
reality, or something that many of my colleagues have to ever worry
about,” said Ramirez, the self-described “housing legislator.”
Ramirez said she and her husband made the tough decision for him to
stay back in Illinois and visit D.C. occasionally.

They're also helping each other find affordable housing, with Delia
Ramirez, shown above, and Summer Lee planning to room together to save
money in the expensive D.C. area. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

While there’s not a formal process to join the squad, many of the
members-elect cited the progressive group as a model for how they
hoped to govern. They praised the example set by members like
first-term Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who last year slept overnight on
the steps of the Capitol to protest the end of an eviction moratorium
imposed during the pandemic. Days after she started her protest, the
Biden administration announced it would continue the moratorium in
most of the U.S.

“I just appreciate her honesty, how authentic she is, but also how
intentional she is about how to move the needle, even if it means
outside of the legislative process,” said Ramirez, who said her
one-on-one with Bush during orientation was one of her “most
profound conversations.” The Illinoisian also said she was
squad-member Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s (D-Mass.) “biggest fan, and
she knows this.”

The incoming liberals know legislation that addresses their goals will
be next to impossible with a GOP-controlled House. Instead, they’re
ready to whip out a different tool at their disposal: pushing the
Biden administration to enact priorities through executive actions, no
matter how short-lived they could prove to be.

“We need to push and work with the Biden administration to get as
much as we can done,” Casar said, citing stronger overtime rules and
labor protections as some of his top priorities. He’s set to wield
power as the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Whip in the upcoming
term.

Casar is used to butting heads with the GOP and finding creative
workarounds. His stint on the Democratic City Council in Austin, Texas
was marked by statewide
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constant efforts to preempt much of their local legislation, such as
when the Legislature passed a law that forced local governments to
allow law enforcement to ask suspects about their immigration status.
Casar said the city found a way to implement the legislation that
effectively neutered the GOP-led law.

Additionally, the group is ready to use the time in the minority to
shape Democratic priorities, looking to force tough intraparty
conversations immediately. Lee, for example, said she wants to address
efforts to shun progressive lawmakers through outside spending in
elections. She personally faced a deluge of spending from outside
entities in her race, including from the pro-Israel group AIPAC, that
made her bid for a seat President Joe Biden won by 20 points
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competitive.

The influx of money, she said, “oftentimes impacts particularly
progressives, but [also] Black and Brown folks and women as we are
trying to break into a system that is already very hard and difficult
for us to get into in the first place. So it stacks disadvantages.”

“We have to prioritize money in politics,” she added. “The
progressive wing of the party is absolutely under attack.”

_Nicholas Wu (Twitter
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is a congressional reporter at POLITICO. He's covered the
congressional response to the coronavirus pandemic, former President
Trump's impeachment trials and the debate over President Joe Biden's
legislative agenda, among many other issues on the Hill._

_He previously worked as a Congressional Reporter and a breaking
political news reporter at USA TODAY and as a fellow at National
Journal. A native of Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, he currently
lives in Washington, D.C. He’s an avid cyclist and also bakes in his
free time._

_He graduated from Princeton University, having majored in the School
of Public and International Affairs and minored in East Asian Studies
and American Studies. As an undergraduate, he served as the head
Opinion editor of The Daily Princetonian and the managing editor of
China Hands Magazine._

_POLITICO [[link removed]] is the global authority
on the intersection of politics, policy, and power. It is the most
robust news operation and information service in the world
specializing in politics and policy, which informs the most
influential audience in the world with insight, edge, and authority.
Founded in 2007, POLITICO has grown to a team of 700 working across
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Europe, its seven-year-old European edition has grown to nearly 200
employees. In October, 2021, POLITICO was acquired by, and is a
subsidiary of, Axel Springer SE [[link removed]]._

* Congress
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* Politics
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* elections
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* The Squad
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* Summer Lee
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* Greg Cesar
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* Maxwell Frost
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* Delia Ramirez
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* Becca Balint
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