Biden Is in Danger of Losing in 2024 if He Doesn’t Embrace ‘The Squad,’ Progressive Democrat Warns

A member of “The Squad” is warning that President Joe Biden needs to put the group of progressive lawmakers “front and center” in his reelection campaign not just to win in 2024, but to save democracy. 

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said he personally spoke to Biden about embracing The Squad, the small but high-profile — and at times controversial — group of progressive Democrats of color who began winning office in the 2018 elections, when he traveled with Biden on Air Force One and Marine One to a community college in his district in May. 

“I am not optimistic at this moment, and I think it is a missed opportunity if we do not take advantage of this,” Bowman told The Messenger in an interview. “This is critical because we obviously cannot have Donald Trump back in the White House [or] any Republican in the White House. If a Republican were to win the White House, it’s probably likely that they would do well in the House and the Senate as well.”

At issue isn’t just which party will control the White House and the two chambers of Congress in 2025, Bowman argued, but democracy itself, with Donald Trump the clear front-runner to win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.  

“I don’t want my kids to live in a dictatorship. We lose our democracy, we may not get it back,” Bowman said. “And Trump literally tried to facilitate a coup d’etat, man. The January 6 insurrection was the final straw. He had fake electors in eight states sign documents saying he won the election. What are we dealing with here? By all means necessary we gotta make sure we secure our democracy ‘cause that’s the only way to make it better the way we need to.”

The Squad is a subset of the larger Congressional Progressive Caucus, which boasts more than 100 members of the House Democratic Caucus. The Squad initially comprised Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts after the Democratic wave election of 2018. But it has since expanded to include Reps. Greg Casar of Texas, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Cori Bush of Missouri and Bowman. 

More publicly embracing the party’s most liberal members would carry significant risk for Biden. Despite their massive followings on social media, their presence on the national stage for Biden risks turning off more moderate or conservative voters that Democrats would like to win over.

Republicans have frequently invoked Ocasio-Cortez in efforts to drag down her Democratic colleagues in battleground districts, and fellow Squad members Omar and Tlaib have drawn criticism over their comments about Israel. House Republicans voted this year to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee over her past statements about the U.S. ally.

Bowman advised the Biden administration to do a better job communicating with Black lawmakers, arguing that White House officials should talk to everyone, not just House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, for example. 

Polls have shown that Biden’s standing among Black voters, a critical constituency for him in 2020, has slipped recently.

“You gotta also talk to Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush and Summer Lee and Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar to get our perspective as well, because I’m really concerned about the low voter turnout that occurs not just among Black people but among young people,” Bowman said, referring to his fellow progressive House members. “And I know for a fact that members of Congress like myself, Cori, Ayanna and others, we really inspire and engage young people across the country. When you look at what we’re trying to do in 2024, it’s imperative to make sure The Squad is front and center in that conversation. It has to be done.”

Representatives for other members of The Squad either didn’t respond to requests for comment or cited scheduling conflicts.

Biden’s relationship with progressives

A Biden aide would not address Bowman’s comments directly. But the aide said while it’s still early in the election cycle, the campaign is leveraging prominent progressives who have not only endorsed Biden but also serve on its National Advisory Board — including Reps. Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia of California and Maxwell Frost of Florida. The aide noted these lawmakers are doing media, fundraising and organizing work on behalf of the campaign. 

“We need to energize young progressives with a bold vision on climate and the Green New Deal, on free public college, on Medicare for All, and canceling student debt for working and middle class families,” Khanna told The Messenger. “I’ll be making that case out there and sharing what I believe must be the future of our party. That’s what will get young voters and progressives excited and build a broad coalition.”

The Biden aide also pointed to early endorsements from progressive groups like NextGen PAC, the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund and Sierra Club. 

Separately, a White House official highlighted that in the last year and a half, Biden and White House senior staff have participated in at least 11 different CPC member meetings, and in the last year, 16 members of the Cabinet or heads of agencies participated in CPC meetings. 

The official also said that since the end of March, the administration has enacted seven of the CPC’s executive action requests, including expanding health care coverage for DACA recipients, tightening standards on mercury pollution and emissions at coal power plants, and enhanced supervision of mid-size banks and for-profit colleges. 

Progressives in Congress lost a key ally in the White House when former chief of staff Ron Klain left the administration. He was succeeded in February by Jeff Zients. Bowman said he hasn’t spoken directly with Zients, “whereas we talked to Ron Klain quite frequently whether via text or telephone.”

A second White House official pushed back on the sentiment about Zients, saying, “The White House has robust engagement with members of The Squad and will continue to.” 

“Jeff’s door is always open,” the official said of Zients. “Regarding Jeff’s engagement in his past few months as the new chief [of staff], he has engaged with a broad range of members of Congress, including members of the CPC, and he will continue engaging with more members. He speaks regularly with progressive members of Congress from Rep. [Pramila] Jayapal to Ro Khanna and from Sen. [Elizabeth] Warren to Sen. [Bernie] Sanders — and more.” 

Warren and Sanders were the first senators Zients met with, aside from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, when he took over as chief of staff, according to sources familiar with the White House’s efforts to work with progressives.

Omar told Politico Playbook in May that the CPC has “not had a bad relationship since” Zients took over, adding that “access has been the same as to the previous chief of staff.”

Asked to clarify whether the same was true of The Squad’s access to the president’s top aide, Omar’s office declined to comment. 

Bowman said while he spoke to Biden about embracing The Squad when the president came to his district, he had a longer conversation about it with Biden’s staff on that trip. 

“He shared some of his speech with me to just get my thoughts and feedback on that,” Bowman recalled of Biden. “We talked a little bit then about this, but I spoke mostly with his team about this during that trip.”

Maximizing voter turnout

While the New York Democrat indicated more work needs to be done building relationships between progressives and Biden’s team, he praised his relationship with the Democratic National Committee, which held an organizing event in his district last month.

“Our work with the DNC, that has gotten off to a great start, but I worry about a disconnect between the DNC, the [Congressional Black Caucus], the White House and even the Senate,” he said. “How are we coordinating as a party toward transformational victories in 2024, and how is The Squad included in that? Because, again, The Squad, when you look at who in our party gets our country excited, it’s The Squad. There’s no argument there.”

Bowman suggested the White House is more focused on winning over white moderates in competitive battlegrounds than maximizing turnout among the party’s base nationwide and exciting Americans who may not have voted in past cycles.

“I understand the need for that, but what’s the young-people strategy?” he asked. “What’s the people-of-color strategy? What’s the Black-people strategy? What’s the Black-men strategy? What’s the disengaged-voter strategy? Inconsistent-voter strategy? We need that.”

Regardless of whether Biden embraces him as a surrogate, Bowman said he promotes the president and his policies as often as he can, from the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law to his appointment of Black judges, environmental justice initiative and work on guns and student loans. 

“I do it all the time anyway, and I will keep doing that ‘cause I know how important it is for us to win big in 2024,” he said. He also, however, lamented that some of his colleagues “who clearly are compromised” by Wall Street donors “are the ones out front and center as surrogates, whereas the people who are, in my opinion, the essence of the new American revolution, which is The Squad, are not put out front and center as we should be.”

“And it don’t even gotta be me,” Bowman concluded. “The other members of The Squad are incredibly brilliant, articulate, eloquent communicators. They really care deeply and love this country and humanity. They’re just great representations of what America is and should be. So use us.”