Freshman Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., is a proud new member of the so-called “Squad” in Congress made up of a handful of the most liberal members in the party. “We put forth the boldest priorities and we fight for them, and we show other people them how to fight for them,” she told NPR in a recent interview, “So it’s not a pejorative to me at all.”
While criticism of the Squad most often comes from conservatives, in the 2024 primaries forces normally aligned with the Democratic Party are working to defeat Lee and other Squad members over their critical position on Israel in the ongoing war with Hamas.
“What we have right now is a representative who has aligned herself with a small minority of the Democratic Party and has taken a lot of votes, I would say, that are not with the majority of Democrats in Congress,” said Bhavini Patel, who is challenging Lee in the upcoming April 23 Pennsylvania primary.
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