Recent Scandals Threaten To Break Up ‘The Squad’

What’s happening: Members of the “squad” — an informal group of far-left Democrats — are facing numerous scandals that are threatening their re-election chances.

• Misappropriating funds?: Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), a Democrat who became known for her calls to “defund the police,” is under investigation for allegedly using campaign funds to hire security for her husband.

• Disgrace: Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is receiving backlash for publicly endorsing Norman Finkelstein— a disgraced anti-Israel scholar who was famously denied tenure at Chicago’s DePaul University — who has denied the existence of evidence Hamas committed violent sexual assaults against women in the Oct. 7 attacks.

• Scandal first?: Rep. Ilhan Omar recently made comments at a rally expressing a vow to protect Somalian interests while in Congress, declaring herself as a “Somalian first.” This scandal isn’t her first — she has been criticized for her past antisemitic comments.

They are scrambling: Recent aggressive funding efforts indicate they think the political threats they face are serious. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) managed to raise $3.7 million for her re-election campaign by the end of 2023.

For context: Rep. Tlaib’s fundraising comes in the wake of being censored by the House of Representatives over her comments regarding the Israel-Hamas war. The state she represents has recently been declared as the home of the “Jihad Capital” of the U.S.

Why it matters: Far-left policymakers have been incurring more backlash as a result of their radical stances, revealing a Democrat Party that has isolated the squad from the mainstream of the party.

Democrat challengers: A Democrat challenger to Rep. Bowman has already stepped forth, adding to the trend of growing pro-Israel, Democrat voices. Many of them have received support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has provided a substantial amount of donor support to compete with anti-Israel incumbents.