Galvanized by President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping second-term agenda, a new generation of progressive Democrats is working to redefine the party’s future.<\/p>\n
The original ‘Squad,’ a group of young, left-wing lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 as a referendum on Trump\u2019s first term. <\/p>\n
Now, with Trump back in the Oval Office and Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, a new wave of progressive candidates is emerging across the country.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic primary win shocked the political establishment in June when the self-identified democratic socialist handily defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s mayoral primary.<\/p>\n
The New York assemblyman has centered his campaign around affordability, successfully using social media to build a broad coalition of support among New Yorkers. <\/p>\n
Mamdani’s platform includes ambitious campaign promises like freezing the rent, free childcare, fast and free buses, city-run grocery stores, raising the minimum wage and ‘Trump-proofing’ New York City. <\/p>\n
He plans to pay for his ambitious campaign promises by raising taxes on corporations and the top 1% of New Yorkers. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Mamdani has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. <\/p>\n
Trump has labeled Mamdani a ‘100% Communist Lunatic’ and ‘My Little Communist,’ but Mamdani has maintained that he is a democratic socialist. <\/p>\n
Dubbed the ‘Mamdani of Minneapolis,’ Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh is running for Minneapolis mayor this year. <\/p>\n
Like Mamdani, Fateh is a self-identified democratic socialist and has been endorsed by the DSA. <\/p>\n
Fateh, the son of immigrant parents<\/u> from Somalia, has committed to raising the city’s minimum wage, increasing the supply of affordable housing and combating what he calls police violence. <\/p>\n
Similar to Mamdani, Fateh has called for replacing some of the police department’s duties with community-led alternatives. He also wants to issue legal IDs to illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n
Kat Abughazaleh, 26, is the progressive Gen Z candidate running for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District next year. <\/p>\n
A viral video of an ICE agent<\/u> shoving Abughazaleh to the ground outside the Broadview U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on Sept. 19 has become a flash point in the divisive debate over Trump’s deportation rollout. <\/p>\n
Abughazaleh is a former journalist and activist who frequents protests outside the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. <\/p>\n
She recently accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of perpetrating ‘crimes against humanity.’<\/p>\n
Abughazaleh garnered national attention earlier this year for questioning why it’s controversial<\/u> that illegal immigrants should have access to taxpayer-funded healthcare. <\/p>\n
‘I don’t have health insurance, and I’m running for Congress,’ the young progressive’s campaign website reads. <\/p>\n
Aftyn Behn, a former healthcare community organizer and current Democrat state representative, on Tuesday secured the Democratic nomination to represent Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District.<\/p>\n
The Dickson County Democratic Party described Behn as ‘our very own AOC of TN,’ referring to ‘Squad’ member Ocasio-Cortez, according to The Tennessee Star.<\/p>\n
On her campaign website, Behn describes herself as a ‘pissed-off social worker,’ who was inspired to run for the House of Representatives after Congress passed Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this year. <\/p>\n
Behn is running in the special election to replace Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., who retired from Congress earlier this year. <\/p>\n
Mallory McMorrow has long been considered a rising star in the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
She announced her bid<\/u> for U.S. Senate in Michigan earlier this year, framing herself as an outsider and calling for a new generation of leaders in Washington ahead of next year’s midterm elections. <\/p>\n
McMorrow has said she would not vote <\/u>for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer<\/u>, D-N.Y., to continue as the party leader, adding that it is time for him to step back.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old Michigan state senator garnered national attention for her viral speech<\/u> to the Michigan state Senate in 2022, where she pushed back on allegations from a Republican lawmaker that she was ‘grooming’ and ‘sexualizing’ children. <\/p>\n
‘I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme,’ McMorrow said, calling out Republican state Sen. Lana Theis for invoking her name in a fundraising email. ‘We will not let hate win.’<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic National Committee, Mamdani, Fateh, Abughazaleh, Behn and McMorrow but did not receive responses. <\/p>\n
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Galvanized by President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping second-term agenda, a new generation of progressive Democrats is working to redefine the party’s future. The original ‘Squad,’ a group of young, left-wing lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 as a referendum on Trump\u2019s first term. Now, with Trump…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}