'The Squad' launches fundraising committee

They'll use it to back their re-election campaigns and political action committees, which can provide support to other candidates.

July 4, 2020 at 9:54PM
FILE-- From left: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) during a hearing where Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 27, 2019. Six months into the new House Democratic majority, long-simmering tensions between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the squad — Rep. Ilan Omar (D-Minn.), Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley — have boiled over in the most public of ways
FILE-- From left: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) during a hearing where Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 27, 2019. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and the other three members of the group known as "the Squad" launched a joint fundraising committee to support their re-elections.

Omar, along with U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, recently announced they are creating the Squad Victory Fund. They'll use it to back their re-election campaigns and political action committees, which can provide support to other candidates.

The first-term Democratic congresswomen quickly gained widespread name recognition for championing progressive policies and because they have been the frequent targets of President Donald Trump and other Republicans.

The four, all women of color, said in a news release that their re-election is critical as the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and struggles with racial injustice. They also endorsed one another's campaigns.

"While GOP and corporate donors fight to silence us, we are building a multiracial grassroots movement to take on entrenched systems of inequality," Omar said in a statement. Both she and Ocasio-Cortez have been particularly strong fundraisers.

Omar will compete with four challengers in the August primary: Antone Melton-Meaux, Les Lester, John Mason and Daniel Patrick McCarthy.

about the writer

about the writer

Jessie Van Berkel

Reporter

Jessie Van Berkel is the Star Tribune’s social services reporter. She writes about Minnesota’s most vulnerable populations and the systems and policies that affect them. Topics she covers include disability services, mental health, addiction, poverty, elder care and child protection.

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