The Squad is an informal progressive and left-wing coalition in the U.S. House of Representatives forming part of the Democratic Caucus.
All but Omar, Pressley, and Ramirez are currently or formerly affiliated with Democratic Socialists of America,[citation needed] with Bowman, Tlaib, and Bush currently endorsed by the organization.[when?]
[11] The colloquial use of the word "squad" arose from East Coast hip hop culture and describes "a self-chosen group of people that hope you want to identify with them".
[12] For example, the Justice Democrats quoted Pressley saying: "We are more than four people... Our squad includes any person committed to creating a more equitable and just world.
Omar won the seat previously held by Democrat Keith Ellison, who retired from the House to successfully run for Attorney General of Minnesota, and Tlaib won the seat once held by Dean of the House John Conyers, who resigned in 2017 after nearly 53 years in Congress.
During that event a week after Election Day, on November 12, 2018, all four Squad members participated in a livestreamed interview with Jodi Jacobson from Rewire.News, organized by VoteRunLead, and took a group picture.
[13] The next day, they had already attracted negative attention in conservative media, as Laura Ingraham of Fox News called them "the four horsewomen of the apocalypse".
[19] On July 14, 2019, President Donald Trump tweeted that the members of the Squad should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.
[2][20] The insinuation that people of color are foreign was widely viewed as racist; three of the four are American-born and the fourth (Omar) became a naturalized citizen in her youth.
[29] In a New York Times opinion piece the historian Barbara Ransby wrote, "The squad has tilled new ground in reanimating a fighting spirit within the Democratic Party and revived its left flank.
"[30] In July 2019, the Illinois Republican County Chairmen's Association called the four women the "Jihad Squad" in a Facebook post that was later deleted.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider condemned "evoking race or religion as the basis for political disagreement".
[31] In August 2019, Israel blocked Omar and Tlaib from visiting the country, a reversal of Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer's July statement that "any member of Congress" would be allowed in.
A spokesman for Israeli Interior Minister Arye Deri attributed the ban to Omar and Tlaib's support for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions).
[33][34] Trump applauded the ban while continuing his criticism of Omar and Tlaib, calling them "the face of the Democrat Party, and they HATE Israel".
Omar faced significant opposition from establishment-oriented local officials in her district, most notably Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
[3] However, it was noted that both had vulnerabilities that the other seven did not, such as Bowman's censure for knowingly activating a false fire alarm in Congress and Bush's alleged misuse of federal security money.
[1] Squad members generally hold political views considered to be on the left, on subjects such as immigration detention facilities, Islamophobia, universal health care, human rights, the Israel–Palestine conflict, and climate change.
In November 2020, the Squad protested outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters[55] because then President-elect Joe Biden did not support the Green New Deal.
[68][69] After the outbreak of war, some Squad members criticized the Israeli government; Tlaib called Israel an "apartheid state".
[71][72][73] On October 16, 2023, after Israeli strikes in Gaza killed 3,000,[74] Squad members introduced a resolution calling for "an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine" to save as many lives as possible.
The resolution was endorsed by groups including IfNotNow, the Institute for Middle East Understanding, and Jewish Voices for Peace.
[75] On July 10, 2024, the National Political Committee (NPC) of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) withdrew its endorsement of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
[80] During a 2024 House Oversight Committee Democrats Discussion on Supreme Court Ethics[81] convened by Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Jamie Raskin, Ocasio-Cortez said that the U.S. Supreme Court had been "captured and corrupted by money and extremism", causing a "crisis of legitimacy" that threatened the stability of U.S. democracy, and that "House Democrats are committed to informing the public about why the court's conservative super majority is rolling back critical economic freedoms, civil rights, and environmental protections, and what we can do about it".
They have supported efforts to overturn the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision and "bar corporations from political spending for ten years after being convicted of a crime".