{"id":824,"date":"2026-07-08T10:39:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=824"},"modified":"2026-07-08T10:39:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:39:57","slug":"the-progressive-squad-is-about-to-get-a-lot-bigger-in-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=824","title":{"rendered":"The progressive \u201cSquad\u201d is about to get a lot bigger in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Left-wing House representatives may be setting themselves up to be an influential bloc in a potential Democratic House majority, thanks to a recent streak of primary victories, marked by progressives gaining momentum in other primaries around the country.<\/p>\n

Read more Democratic socialists aren\u2019t the only young, progressive Democrats dividing the\u00a0party<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2018, a Democratic blue wave brought with it four left-wing progressive members of the House: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., which would come to be known collectively as \u201cthe Squad.\u201d Nonetheless, with Democrats starting Congress that year with a 235-seat majority, the group maintained limited influence in the House.<\/p>\n

Now, however, it looks like these Democratic House representatives of this persuasion might be lining up to wield significantly more power in the House, owing first and foremost to increasing numbers. Following recent primary wins for progressives in New York and Colorado, it\u2019s becoming clear that the leftmost bloc of Democrats in Congress will see their ranks balloon in the next Congress.<\/p>\n

Calculating the size of this bloc depends on how it\u2019s counted, and for this, endorsements from the Justice Democrats, a group that helped elect the original Squad members in 2018, serve as a useful proxy. Currently, there are nine members of the House who were endorsed by the group in the 2024 election. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., also won the seat previously held by her late father, former Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who won his election in 2024 with the group\u2019s endorsements.<\/p>\n

Just counting Justice Democrats\u2019 endorsees, there are nine primary winners already in 2026 who are likely to win their general elections, including the three recent democratic socialists: Melat Kiros, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez. This would bring this bloc of progressive Democrats running in safe Democratic districts to 18, which represents the likely floor for this potential group in Congress.<\/p>\n

There are still more primaries over the next few months, which could net as many as three more primary wins for the group\u2019s endorsees, though not all of those seats would set the candidate up for a glide path to Congress.<\/p>\n

Also, some progressive candidates with similar politics to these candidates have won their primaries without backing from the group, like Rep. Analilia Mejia, D-N.J, former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and Randy Villegas, the Democratic nominee in California\u2019s 22nd District. Altogether, it appears that the proverbial \u201cSquad\u201d might have between 18 and 24 members in Jan. 2027, depending on how elections play out and what coalitions members form.<\/p>\n

\n

There are still more primaries over the next few months, which could net as many as three more primary wins for the group\u2019s endorsees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The second part of this group\u2019s power, however, will derive from the likelihood of a relatively slim Democratic majority in Congress. Given Republican gerrymandering and other late-in-the-game changes to election law by the Supreme Court, Democrats are probably looking at a smaller majority than they would have gained otherwise.<\/p>\n

Currently, Logan Phillips, the founder of the election forecasting site RaceToTheWH, projects that Democrats will hold the majority 229 to 206 after the 2026 midterms. While expectations for the House may evolve as the November election draws nearer, only 218 votes are needed for a legislative majority in the House.<\/p>\n

This means that even a conservative estimate of 18 Squad-style representatives in the next House would make the voting bloc a critical coalition for maintaining a legislative majority, giving them significant influence. Ocasio-Cortez referenced this arrangement in a recent interview with radio host Santita Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t tell them to get out and then, in a presidential cycle, tell them that they have an obligation to vote for you. We\u2019re either a team or we\u2019re not,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez said. \u201cAnd at the end of the day, we all need each other to our chagrin and to our disagreement and to our great inconvenience. All of us have to accept the reality that we need each other, whether we like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u201cStep aside\u201d: Sanders calls for Platner to drop out amid assault allegations<\/a><\/p>\n

Phillips, in an interview with Salon, said he saw the rise of these progressives as part of a global phenomenon of voters supporting candidates promoting change, and crediting their electoral successes as to both their affirmative vision for the party as well as a sort of \u201cthumbs down on the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re now seeing this trend being carried over to primaries. Historically, people don\u2019t like either party, but they love their congressman, and that\u2019s starting to change. I think they don\u2019t like their congressmen as much in some places,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n

Phillips pointed to Gov. Roy Cooper, D-N.C., a moderate running for Senate in North Carolina, as an example of a successful moderate dominating the polls in their state\u2019s primary. Similarly, he pointed to Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton\u2019s candidacy in Massachusetts as an example of where more conservative Democrats may benefit from a desire to depart from the status quo, with the state\u2019s incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., being one of the more liberal members of the Senate.<\/p>\n

The other big question regarding this incoming group of progressives is what they will do with their newfound influence in the House. Miles Coleman, the associate editor of Sabato\u2019s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia\u2019s Center for Politics, compared the current situation with the post-Tea Party elections for Republicans during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the longer-term consequences of that was basically the formation of the House Freedom Caucus. Most of these DSA types are in very safe seats, so they\u2019re going to get elected. Do they join the Congressional Progressive Caucus? I\u2019m sure they do, but do they also make their own offshoot or something?\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n

Coleman said that the most obvious way they could throw their weight around is by either attempting to deny Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the speakership or by extracting concessions in exchange for supporting his speakership, which would be a situation similar to what former Rep. Kevin McCarthy faced following the 2022 midterms. However, while some of these left-wing Democrats have openly opposed Jeffries\u2019 leadership, this isn\u2019t a uniform position across the group.<\/p>\n

Coleman also compared the situation with the Congress following the 1974 elections and the Watergate scandal, in which new Democratic members pushed for changes in how the caucus operated by ousting committee chairs and changing caucus rules. This included changes to the seniority system for House committee membership and some changes towards transparency.<\/p>\n

With that being said, the incoming class of progressives will be limited in the sort of legislation that they\u2019re able to push for because, even in a best-case scenario where Democrats take the House and Senate, President Donald Trump will remain in the White House, shutting down any prospect of successfully passing the sort of tentpole legislation, like \u201cMedicare for All,\u201d that these candidates have run on.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Salon, Usamah Andrabi, the communications director for the Justice Democrats, said that conversations about what this bloc should do with its newfound influence are still in the \u201cearly stages\u201d but have included topics like what legislation to try and force Trump to veto and what investigations to prioritize.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be pushing this party if we have a majority in both chambers of Congress; we should be organizing and pushing this party to pass things like Medicare for All, or raising taxes on billionaires, or ending corporate super PACs, and we can be a party that challenges Donald Trump to veto legislation that is overwhelmingly popular,\u201d Andrabi said.<\/p>\n

Andrabi added that part of the priority will be in pushing the progressive vision for the Democratic Party into the public eye, as well as fighting against Trump\u2019s agenda, which, in his analysis, are two reasons for the success of progressives in this year\u2019s election cycle.<\/p>\n

Read more Ken Paxton vowed to crack down on \u201cillegal voting.\u201d He may have violated Texas election law<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With recent primary victories, progressives will wield unprecedented power in Congress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1153,869,870,450,133,980,268,1156],"class_list":["post-824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-claire-valdez","tag-darializa-avila-chevalier","tag-democratic-primaries","tag-elections","tag-melat-kiros","tag-politics","tag-the-squad"],"yoast_head":"\nThe progressive \u201cSquad\u201d is about to get a lot bigger in Congress - Relocation Across America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=824\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The progressive \u201cSquad\u201d is about to get a lot bigger in Congress - 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