Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday hailed decisive primary victories by members of the “squad,” a group of freshman progressive congresswomen.
The New York Democrat quote-tweeted filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who noted Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) Tuesday victory against primary challenger Antone Melton-Meaux.
“All that energy and all those dollars wasted, ‘cause these ladies aren’t going anywhere,” DuVernay tweeted.
“Tens of millions in big money was targeted to unseat 3 of us as ‘safe’ Dems – almost unheard of,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “This is what happens you deeply challenge systems of power and corruption. But the people triumphed.”
Omar herself expressed similar sentiments, tweeting “Despite being outspent by 400%, we: -increased our margin of victory by 9.23% over 2018; Received 92,443 votes — 27,206 more than our 2018 victory; saw 25,000 more voters in #MN05 than in 2018; all with an average donation of $19.18. Organized people beat organized money.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) both easily beat back primary challengers by double-digit margins earlier in the summer. The fourth “squad” member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), did not have a primary challenger.
In addition to those three victories, the primary season has seen multiple cases of political newcomers mounting successful challenges against longtime Democratic incumbents, the same trajectory Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley followed in 2018.
Jamaal Bowman, a former middle-school principal, defeated Rep. Elliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the 16-term chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in July. Meanwhile, in August, Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush defeated Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), whose family has held his St. Louis-area seat for five decades.