MI-13, MN-05: The 'squad' gears up for two tough primaries

[RandySF]

DETROIT – The day after her 44th birthday, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) gathered supporters and volunteers at a juice bar in her district for a socially distanced party. Rashida-for-Congress sanitary wipes shared table space with birthday cake. A tracker snuck in and was quickly ushered out by the congresswoman herself. When it came time to speak, Tlaib choked up, reflecting on how her district had come together to protest police brutality and stand with Black Lives Matter.

“This is the only place that ever truly embraced everything about me, including that little edge, and that little rawness that I have,” Tlaib said. “All the different colors of rainbow are out there, marching, and saying black lives matter. And they know that it's not only about who killed George Floyd, and police brutality; it's about the systems that set up George Floyd to be killed in that way.”

In nine days, Tlaib will defend her seat against Brenda Jones, the Detroit City Council president she defeated by just 900 votes in the 2018 primary. Last time, the district's mostly black electorate splintered behind other candidates. This time, her opponents united behind one opponent.

One week later, fellow squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) of Minnesota will face challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, who rocketed from obscurity to raise $3.7 million by arguing that the congresswoman is too “divisive” to represent Minneapolis. Omar, who won easily in 2018, is feeling the backlash from comments she made about pro-Israel donor influence and from a trio of campaign finance controversies, all of it thrown back at her in millions of dollars of ads.
In the first primaries of this year, as the presidential contest wound down, the resurgent left that elected Tlaib and Omar was mostly focused on expansion. Campaign organizations that had helped elect the “squad” – Tlaib, Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) – ousted more conservative Democratic incumbents in Illinois and New York. There are a few more targets on the calendar, such as activist Cori Bush's rematch with Rep. William Lacy Clay of Missouri, and a challenge to House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal in western Massachusetts.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/26/trailer-squad-gears-up-two-tough-primaries/

[Gothmog]

1. I have been following both races

These will be interesting contests

[MineralMan]

2. I'm following the MN-05 primary race closely.

Melton-Meux is doing a helluva lot of advertising, but it's very non-specific with regard to ideas. It's an anti-Trump campaign, almost exclusively, and he has avoided any mention of Omar.

It's going to be a tough pull for him to defeat her in the primary, but there's a chance that it could happen. I just don't know much about him, and it's not my district.

[mshasta]

3. Can we atop calling it squad----

is Congresswoman..