Congress

The Squad 2.0 is coming — and they’re ready to frustrate Hakeem Jeffries

Published

1 month ago

June 24, 2026

Hakeem Jeffries has met his nightmare scenario: The Squad 2.0 is coming to Capitol Hill.

A trio of hard-left Democrats who won House primaries Tuesday in New York City boast among them eight protest-related arrests, three endorsements from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, two Democratic Socialist of America memberships, an average age of 41 and just one commitment to vote for Jeffries as the next speaker.

That adds up to a major governing challenge emerging for the House Democratic leader next year, when he will have to come to grips with a brash and emboldened faction of his caucus who believe they have a mandate to yank their party leftward.

”I know we all share very fierce values on things like guaranteed health care, raising wages, expanding union rights, and so I think our hope is that we use our ability in the majority to change people’s lives and make their lives better,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday, reacting to the primary night earthquake in her hometown.

Eight years ago it was Ocasio-Cortez who was shaking up a hidebound Democratic leadership, sending the sitting No. 3 party leader into retirement and inaugurating a tight-knit “Squad” of unabashed progressives.

Now the left-wing bloc is expanding and on the cusp of asserting real power. It’s a function of the tight margin Democrats are likely to have if they can eke out a majority in November, coupled with Jeffries’ relative inexperience as top leader as compared with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the obvious progressive lurch of the party’s voting base on display Tuesday night.

Brad Lander, a longtime New York City official, walloped incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman. State legislator Claire Valdez trounced a Democratic opponent who ran with establishment support to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez. And, in the biggest upset of the night, activist Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair.

Jeffries and fellow House Democratic leaders have shrugged off the prospect of future caucus infighting. He told reporters this week that while he disagreed strongly with Mamdani’s endorsements, “a handful of primaries that go in one direction or the other in a given state or two aren’t going to reshape who we are as House Democrats.”

“We’ve been very clear,” Jeffries said. “What brings us together is a focus on driving down the high cost of living, fixing our broken health care systems, and cleaning up corruption.”

But the existing cadre of left-leaning House Democrats said Wednesday they are excited to have backup — even if some identify with the fractious DSA, which has been openly at odds with national Democratic Party leaders.

“Whether it’s DSA or progressive Democrats, we will have more power and more leverage,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former Congressional Progressive Caucus chair.

“We shouldn’t be moderating,” she added. “Having that ability to form a voting bloc, a bigger voting bloc, and a stronger voting bloc … allows us to continue to push for truly transformational policies that lift working people.”

The New Yorkers are all contesting deep-blue districts and are all but guaranteed victory in November, and they won’t be alone in beefing up the hard-left faction next year. Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania and Daniel Biss of Illinois are on track to join them, along with Rep. Analilia Mejia, who won a New Jersey special election earlier this year.

That’s in addition to the original squad members, Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ocasio-Cortez.

“Our team of progressive champions is growing,” Lander said during his Tuesday night victory speech. “I believe it will continue to grow in the months ahead.”

That could spell trouble for Jeffries, who has spent the past year-and-a-half cajoling his caucus into a unified message around lowering costs and accountability for the Trump administration. The new class of progressives threaten to unravel that work, using their platforms to force Democrats into uncomfortable — and politically precarious — conversations about support for Israel, Green New Deal environmental policies, defunding the police and the ethical bounds of immigration enforcement.

Avila Chevalier has emerged as a particular flashpoint. She has argued in recent interviews that all deportations are wrong, including for people convicted of breaking U.S. laws. Her deleted social media posts — later unearthed by CNN — express a deep disdain for the Democratic establishment including one reading, “Fuck Kamala Harris.”

Avila Chevalier and Valdez have not committed to backing Jeffries as speaker should Democrats take the majority. While they have said little publicly about him, they have also done little to dispel animosity among their supporters for their fellow New Yorker.

At Valdez’ Election Night party, supporters booed Jeffries and chanted, “You’re next.”

If Democrats win a slim majority, these progressives could wield considerable power. Much as the House Freedom Caucus has rocked the Republican Conference by withholding its votes on party priorities, the new progressives will have similar leverage. The AOC-centric “Squad” mostly avoided those tactics in the four years they had the majority — in part because they didn’t have the requisite numbers.

Valdez suggested she would not hesitate to deploy hardball tactics, criticizing her main primary opponent, Antonio Reynoso, on the campaign trail for not being aggressive enough. The person who represents her district in Congress, she recently told The New York Times, should “have real moral courage and conviction.”

More moderate Democrats are warning a clash is inevitable — and worrying about the political price the party as a whole could pay. House Republicans spent their morning caucus meeting salivating over the opportunity to paint their Democratic opponents as Marxists.

“I hope Jeffries is ready for the fight, because he’s got himself one now,” said one Democratic centrist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “If it’s a tight majority, you’re going to see a huge tug of war between more moderate Democrats and people who want to get stuff done, and bomb throwers who are just trying to disrupt.”

Rep. Vicente Gonzales (D-Texas) said he had a “huge concern” about having to defend against attacks based on statements and positions taken by hard-left members.

“A lot of these policies that obviously I don’t agree with, and would be very difficult for me to sell to people in South Texas, and I don’t intend to sell them, because I don’t believe in most of them myself,” he said.

The progressives won’t be alone in the new class of incoming Democrats. More moderate candidates such as former Rep. Ben McAdams of Utah and Cait Conley of New York also won House primaries Tuesday. If Democrats take the majority, it will be in part because of a cadre of centrists who will be intent on beating back the left.

Those who were around for the rise of the original Squad said they were confident the vast ideological differences would eventually get bridged.

“It will be nothing special,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic Caucus chair. “We’ll talk with them about their hopes and their aspirations to represent their districts and what committees they want to serve on. … We look forward to building a relationship.”

Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez had to weather a similar storm after the class of 2018 was sworn in. After months of crossfire on social media and the House floor, the two eventually reached a public détente. Ocasio-Cortez, notably, did not endorse any of the New York progressives, who were running against incumbents or candidates with leadership backing.

“AOC has been part of our caucus for a long time,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said. “You know what representative government is? It represents. It means that every voice is represented.”

Yet by the time Ocasio-Cortez came to Congress, Pelosi was 16 years into her leadership of House Democrats, had four years as speaker under her belt and decades of experience as a cold-blooded political operator.

Jeffries does not have that level of seasoning, nor is he politically rooted in the progressive wing of the caucus as Pelosi was. He built his power base through the Congressional Black Caucus and ties to New York business interests and once co-led a PAC to protect incumbents from progressive challengers.

But veterans of the Democratic left said they expect him to make peace with the incoming insurgents by any means necessary.

“I’m sure he will do what Pelosi did,” Jayapal said, “which is cajole, bribe, make deals with, get to know, build a relationship with all of these new members, and that’s going to be a big part of his task as he comes in.”

Ali Bianco contributed to this report.

Congress

Scalise will kick off August campaign sprint in marquee Nebraska House race

Published

1 hour ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.

Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.

Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.

After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.

He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.

Congress

Trump needles Cornyn as Blanche remains blocked

Published

5 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.

Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.

“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.

Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.

“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”

On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.

“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.

Congress

Capitol agenda: The Senate’s fly-out agenda takes shape

Published

6 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans are prepping a jam-packed — if somewhat optimistic — agenda for their final week before summer recess.

Majority Leader John Thune wants to move stopgap funding through Dec. 11, bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation and a bloc of nominees — perhaps including attorney general pick Todd Blanche.

He’s also under pressure from President Donald Trump, administration officials and many of his GOP colleagues to adopt a budget resolution — the first step in unlocking another party-line spending bill.

Leaders are prioritizing the stopgap, though. Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) expects continuing resolution text to be unveiled later today, she told reporters Thursday, and an initial vote is expected Monday evening.

Still TBD: Collins wants to use the funding patch to block the Trump administration from putting political appointees in charge of approving grants — a demand Democratic senators are also making.

The decision is in Thune’s hands. He acknowledged a “handful of issues” are still under consideration with the CR, and said he’s “hoping both sides can come together and figure” them out.

As for the sanctions bill, leaders of both parties are still trying to work out a deal to fast-track the legislation amid concerns from some Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that it gives Trump too much tariff power.

In addition to the nominees package, Thune also hasn’t ruled out an initial vote on the landmark cryptocurrency bill both parties have spent months negotiating or teeing up a bipartisan college sports overhaul now in final stages of talks.

But the big question is whether Republicans can take a major step toward another reconciliation bill by advancing a budget resolution.

Thune met Thursday with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he was “optimistic in terms of how things are kind of coming together.”

Republicans anticipate giving a number of Senate committees instructions for the bill, setting up a lengthy and politically painful process ahead of adoption despite pushes for urgency from the White House.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was the latest official to head to Capitol Hill to try and light a fire under top Republicans. But GOP senators don’t necessarily see the urgency.

“The hard part is the president wants to be able to move fast, like an executive can move, and we’re a legislative branch,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “It doesn’t move that fast.”

What else we’re watching:

— BLANCHE TEETERING: Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general isn’t dead yet. But it’s certainly on life support. The acting AG met with Cornyn and Tillis Thursday at NRSC headquarters, and one person familiar with the discussion said the group was “working collaboratively now.” But it would now be difficult to confirm him before August recess under Senate rules.

— FARM BILL TEXT: Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman said his farm bill legislative text — originally expected Thursday — could come Friday or Saturday. The bill, which is expected to include language allowing year-round E15 sales and a potential compromise on postponing GOP-led cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is set to be marked up Thursday.

Jordain Carney and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.