The House of Representatives’ socialist “Squad” could soon start looking more like a platoon.
With a wave of far-left candidates winning recent Democratic primaries across the country, the radical group is certain to expand — and wield far greater influence — after the November elections, critics say.
The Squad will likely go from seven current members to 14.
Two virtually guaranteed additions after the midterms are, like “Squad” founder AOC, from the Big Apple.
Claire Valdez — who vowed to implement nationwide rent control if elected to Congress — easily won the primary in June for New York’s 7th House District and the general election is considered a formality in the blue district that includes Bushwick and other parts Brooklyn being labeled the “Commie Corridor.”
Darializa Chevalier, 32, is a radical who attended an anti-Israel rally the day after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. She has said the US committed worse atrocities than Hamas and echoed Kremlin talking points that blamed the US for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
She won her primary in June and is considered a shoo-in to win New York’s 10th Congressional District, which represents Harlem.
Elsewhere across the country, other prospective “Squad” members include:
- Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old Gen Z socialist who knocked off a 15-term establishment Democrat in Colorado — reminiscent of AOC’s defeat of longtime Queens incumbent Joe Crowley.
- Adam Hamawy, an AOC-endorsed Princeton plastic surgeon, who won his primary in an overwhelmingly Democratic New Jersey district. Hamawy, 56, who’s backed by Justice Democrats, the group that helped launch AOC, traveled with Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh” convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot, when he was a medical student.
- Frederick Haynes, a 65-year-old pastor from Texas, who easily won his March primary. He has positioned himself to the left of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex.) and also was endorsed by Justice Democrats.
- Chris Rabb, a 56-year-old self-described Democratic Socialist who trounced establishment-backed rivals in the nation’s bluest congressional district. Rabb, who has described himself as a “radical” and “rabble-rouser,” was backed by AOC, the DSA and Justice Democrats, and has championed government-run grocery stores. With no Republican running, he is assured of taking the Philadelphia seat in November.
- William Lawrence, a 36-year-old Michigan activist who co-founded the radical Sunrise Movement and once gushed over Hasan Piker, telling the controversial streamer “You’re the man!” He clinched the primary though unlike the others, his chance of winning his swing district is a toss-up.
Traders on Polymarket put the odds of Democrats regaining control of the house at 88%. That means a “Super-Squad” could have huge influence to pass — or tank — legislation, like a bill to abolish ICE or articles of impeachment against President Trump, like the OG Squad did in 2019.
“They will not compromise,” said one former House leadership aide.
And the Democratic Party will shift further left.
“It’s becoming a bigger part of the party,” longtime GOP consultant Doug Heye told The Post. “They will be the loudest voices pushing for impeachment,” he said of the radical group.
The “Squad” moniker first emerged after the midterms eight years ago, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted a photo on Instagram after meeting Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) during freshman orientation, along with the caption “Squad.”
The label stuck. After the group famously got into a spat with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over Omar comparing the United States and Israel to the Taliban, President Trump regularly harnessed the nickname in his frequent rants against the gang.
“The ‘Squad’ is a very racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart. They are pulling the once great Democrat Party far left,” he wrote in one series of tweets that June.
AOC has long been seen as the group’s de facto gatekeeper — jokingly welcoming 82-year-old New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell into the Squad in 2019 after an Onion piece about it — but the Squad is not a formal caucus, meaning there are no official rules or leadership structure to keep its members together, so ultimately, they just have to get along.
