All the members of the Democratic Party’s progressive ‘squad’ have been reelected to the United States House of Representatives. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) won their respective seats after seeing off tough competition from GOP candidates in Tuesday’s vote.
The four democratic representatives are widely known for their strong position on climate change, health care for all Americans and other progressive courses. Their advocacy drew racist remarks and harsh criticism from President Donald Trump and other conservative leaders.
Tlaib took a 54 percent vote lead over leading Republican challenger David Dudenhoefer with 54 percent of the vote tallied in Michigan’s 13th congressional district while Omar secured 64% of the vote against GOP’s Lacy Johnson, who polled 26 percent of the vote.
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Pressley scored a landslide victory, polling 87 points over Independent Roy Owens’ 12 percent while Ocasio-Cortez, better known by her initials AOC, secured 68 percent of the vote and triumphing over Republican John Cummings.
“Our sisterhood is resilient,” Omar wrote on Twitter following the victory of the incumbent representatives, who are all women of color.
“Serving New York-14 and fighting for working-class families in Congress has been the greatest honor, privilege and responsibility of my life,” AOC said. “Thank you to the Bronx and Queens for re-electing me to the House despite the millions spent against us, and trusting me to represent you once more.”
“I won’t comment much on tonight’s results as they are evolving and ongoing, but I will say we’ve been sounding the alarm about Dem vulnerabilities w/ Latinos for a long, long time. There is a strategy and a path, but the necessary effort simply hasn’t been put in.”
“Together, we have fought for our shared humanity. We have organized,” Pressley said in a statement to her supporters. “We have mobilized. We have legislated our values. I am so proud to be your congresswoman and your partner in the work. I believe in the power of us. And we’re just getting started.”
Trump and GOP officials have constantly criticized the four congresswomen. Before Tuesday’s vote, Trump lopped xenophobic attacks at Omar, who fled civil war in Somalia to the US when she was only 12 years old, accusing her of telling “us how to run our country.”
Also, Illinois Republicans shared a movie poster depicting the four congresswomen as “The Jihad Squad” on a Facebook page.
“Political Jihad is their game. If you don’t agree with their socialist ideology, you’re racist,” reads the satirical tagline about the congresswomen.
