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Galvanized by President Donald Trump’s 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’s first term.
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.
The next generation of progressive leaders includes some recognizable names, like mayoral candidates Zohran Mamdani, the “Mamdani of Minneapolis” Omar Fateh, U.S. Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow and progressive congressional candidates Kat Abughazaleh and the “AOC of Tennessee” Aftyn Behn.
SQUAD 2.0: MEET AMERICA’S NEXT WAVE OF RADICAL DEMOCRATS SHAPING THE PARTY’S FUTURE
Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., leaves a news conference on Monday, July 15, 2019, as her former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, follows. (Photo Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Others, such as Saikat Chakrabarti, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Justin Pearson, are gaining national attention as discontent among young Democrats grows with each day of the Trump administration’s second act.
YOUNG PROGRESSIVES LOOK TO ZOHRAN MAMDANI, AOC AS FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY – UNDER ONE CONDITION
Saikat Chakrabarti
Saikat Chakrabarti arrived on the political scene during the rise of the first “Squad,” running Ocasio-Cortez’s successful 2018 congressional campaign and then serving as her chief of staff.
The progressive met Ocasio-Cortez when he launched “Justice Democrats,” a political action committee committed to recruiting a new generation of leaders.
Now, Chakrabarti has become the generational candidate himself, challenging House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi for her congressional district in San Francisco next year — a seat she has held since 1987.
Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attended a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday, July 15, 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
After 38 years in Congress, Chakrabarti said Pelosi “no longer has the strength for the current fight,” and it’s time for “totally new leadership” in Washington, D.C.
His policy platform includes a long list of progressive promises, including Medicare-for-all, a wealth tax on the ultra-rich, millions of units of housing, a ban on congressional stock trading, and an end military funding to Israel.
During a phone interview, Chakrabarti told Fox News Digital that his main focus is fixing the “underlying economic anxieties that most Americans are facing” — the same “plan for bold, sweeping economic change” that landed Trump back in the White House last year.
Chakrabarti’s said a new generation of candidates, like himself, have been inspired to run since witnessing “the complete failure of the Democratic political establishment.”
“I think the people are feeling that the Democratic Party, the establishment, is just sort of weak and slow moving and unable to face the moment,” he added.
House Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference on Nov. 19, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Chakrabarti’s first campaign commitment, according to his website, is to stop Trump’s “authoritarian coup.”
The congressional candidate described Trump’s deportation mandate led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “a flagrant violation of our constitutional rights and the freedom of speech and everything we hold dear in this country.”
When asked if the party is moving to the left in response to Trump’s second term, he said, “It’s not really a left versus right thing.”
“I think people are looking for real solutions to the problems. People are looking for a change to the system, and I don’t think Donald Trump is doing it, but that’s what Donald Trump articulated in his campaign.”
Overall, Chakrabarti said voters are “very sick and tired of corruption” and the “old guard” that he described as only looking out for themselves, rather than their constituents.
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is one of several progressive candidates vying for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat next year.
“Abdul literally wrote the book on Medicare for All,” according to his campaign website. He wrote “Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide,” explaining how the U.S. healthcare system can provide affordable care to all Americans.
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed delivered remarks during a coronavirus public health roundtable with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Monday, March 9, 2020. (Erin Kirkland/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
El-Sayed led Detroit’s Health Department after its bankruptcy and restructured Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services. In 2020, he helped President Joe Biden craft policies to help lower prescription drug prices.
He believes in abolishing medical debt and that students deserve debt-free and tuition-free two-year apprenticeship programs or a four-year college education.
Justin Pearson
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson garnered national attention in 2023, just months after taking office, when he was expelled from his Republican-led legislature for protesting a mass shooting in Nashville that killed three 9-year-olds and three adults.
Pearson was expelled alongside state Reps. Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson, who became known as the “Tennessee Three.” Voters re-elected Pearson weeks later with 94% of the vote.
He co-founded Memphis Community Against Pollution, a climate justice non-profit.
From left to right, Tennessee state Reps. Justin Pearson, Gloria Johnson and Justin Jones depart the White House after meeting with President Joe Biden on April 24, 2023. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Pearson has been endorsed by fellow congressional candidate Chakrabarti’s former PAC, “Justice Democrats,” in his campaign for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District.
Pearson also secured an endorsement from “Leaders We Deserve,” a super PAC founded by former DNC vice chair David Hogg, who created a rift in the Democratic Party when he vowed to invest millions to support young, progressives challenging older, incumbent Democrats he said were “asleep at the wheel.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, El-Sayed and Pearson but did not immediately receive a response. A Pelosi spokesperson declined to comment.
