Expanding the 'Squad:' U.S. liberals challenge moderate Democrats to move party left

Record ID: 1437844

  • Title: Expanding the 'Squad:' U.S. liberals challenge moderate Democrats to move party left
  • Date: 21st October 2019
  • Summary: LAREDO, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE JESSICA CISNEROS, SAYING: "I mean, if me fighting for the stuff that I'm fighting for right now and the issues that I'm fighting for and putting the interests of my community first includes me as part of 'The Squad,' then I guess so, but I would be going to Washington to be an advocate for this community first of all because that's what we deserve down here." CISNEROS WALKING VARIOUS STREET SCENES (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHAEL GUERRERO, A 21-YEAR-OLD COLLEGE STUDENT FROM LAREDO, SAYING: "She could do things better than here in Laredo, she can help make this place a little bit better than the way it is now." GUERRERO WAITING FOR BUS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOE AGUIRRE, 57, FROM LAREDO, SAYING: "I'll be honest, sounds like another Ocasio (Cortez). You know, the socialism, I don't think... my question is who's going to pay for it." VARIOUS STREET SCENES VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC PASSING THROUGH BORDER WITH MEXICO U.S. FLAG
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2019 09:48
  • Keywords: Democrats Congress Jessica Cisneros Henry Cuellar Squad Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Texas Laredo
  • Location: LAREDO, TEXAS AND WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES
  • City: LAREDO, TEXAS AND WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA003B222Z47
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Jessica Cisneros interned for U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar in 2014, and the congressman later wrote letters to help her get into law school.
    Now the 26-year-old immigration lawyer is gunning for her former boss' job, saying his values are out of touch with the sprawling south Texas district he has represented for 15 years.
    Cisneros calls Cuellar, an abortion opponent who got an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association, "Trump's favorite Democrat."
    She is one of a half-dozen progressive candidates around the country taking on moderate House Democratic incumbents and backed by the same political action committee that last year helped launch Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's political career.
    Ocasio-Cortez, who beat a top Democrat in New York in the 2018 midterm elections, has since become the face of the "Squad," freshman Democrats aiming to move the party farther left on issues such as healthcare and climate change.
    Justice Democrats, set up by former activists from Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, have vowed to expand the group's ranks in next year's election.
    Cuellar, 64, was their first target. His March 3 primary with Cisneros in Texas' 28th congressional district will be an early test of how far to the left Democratic voters have moved.
    "The myth that south Texas is conservative is just that, a myth," Cisneros said during an interview with Reuters this month in Laredo.
    The divide highlighted in the Texas race echoes a similar battle playing out in the Democratic presidential nominating contest, where moderates led by former Vice President Joe Biden tussle with progressives Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders over the vision for the party.
    Cisneros, who has won Warren's endorsement, embraces left-wing causes such as "Medicare for All," which would replace the current patchwork healthcare structure with a single-payer system, and the "Green New Deal" that would eliminate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions within a decade.
    Cisneros, the daughter of Mexican-American immigrants, said residents in the largely Hispanic district, which is centered in Laredo and stretches from the San Antonio suburbs to the U.S.-Mexico border, are warming to liberal policies. Hillary Clinton won the district in the 2016 presidential race by 20 percentage points.
    "I haven't had a single person disagree with me on the policies, once you start explaining them," Cisneros said, adding that "Medicare for All" resonates in a place where many people go into Mexico for cheaper medical care. The district's poverty rate is nearly double the national average.
    Cuellar, a member of the powerful House appropriations committee, blasted the group backing Cisneros as the "Justice Socialists."
    They are on a misguided mission that would not only backfire in the Texas district but also could hurt the party nationwide in 2020, said Cuellar, who has the backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Cheri Bustos, the chairwoman of the House Democrats' campaign arm.
    Cuellar warns the stances taken by progressives could make it easier for President Donald Trump to demonize the entire party as too extreme next year, when the Republican is up for re-election.
    "If we lose the independents because we are far left, then that election in November 2020 is going to go in a direction that we don't want," Cuellar said.
    (Production: Sandra Stojanovic/Jane Ross)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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