The Squad Just Got Bigger
The Squad Just Got Bigger
Welcome, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman.
The Squad is back — with two new members.
On Sunday, the 117th Congress was sworn in, making progressive Democratic representatives Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman a more official part of the congressional Squad made up of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.
Bush shared a photo of herself with Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar, Bowman, and Pressley, writing, "Squad up."
Bush's fellow Squad members also retweeted and shared the photo with their reminder that the "Squad is big," with Omar adding, "Unbought and unbossed."
Bush, who defeated a longtime incumbent in her district last year, was elected as the first Black congresswoman in Missouri. The Black Lives Matter activist and former registered nurse will represent the first congressional district, where she led protests against the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson. She was also featured alongside Ocasio-Cortez in the 2019 Netflix documentary Knock Down the House.
"I’ve survived sexual assault, police abuse, domestic violence, and being unhoused and uninsured," she wrote on Sunday alongside a photo of herself wearing her new congressional lapel pin. "That's not a unique pain I carry. It's one that so many of us live with each day. Today, I take my seat in Congress to fight for a world where nobody has to endure that pain."
Bowman, a former middle-school principal, defeated a 16-term incumbent to represent New York's 16th district.
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When asked by journalist Arun Venugopal about his thoughts on joining the Squad, Bowman responded, "Our squad is the unseen and the unheard and the ignored and the marginalized and the neglected. We fight for them and as much as we can, we fight and speak on their behalf."
The original Squad's wins have been dismissed by pundits in the past as "flukes," but with all four winning their re-elections last year as well as Bush and Bowman's elections, the progressive representatives have proven their staying power.