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Every member of the “Squad,” an informal left-wing congressional caucus, has endorsed Abdul El-Sayed ahead of Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, according to his campaign website.
The Squad is made up of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Summer Lee, D-Pa., Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., and Greg Casar, D-Texas.
Many of the squad’s current and former members have past or ongoing affiliations with the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization El-Sayed is attempting to distance himself from as he attempts to moderate ahead of a swing-state general election.
The unified endorsements sharpen the ideological stakes of the Tuesday primary, linking El-Sayed to the party’s most prominent progressive bloc even as he rejects the socialist label and seeks to present himself as a viable candidate in a battleground state. The support also gives Republicans an early line of attack should El-Sayed defeat the more centrist Stevens and advance to the general election.
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“The entire Squad has now endorsed Abdul El-Sayed to carry on its radical, socialist, anti-American agenda in the U.S. Senate, and they will be rejected by Michiganders at the ballot box,” National Republican Senatorial Committee regional press secretary Samantha Cantrell told Fox News Digital.
Casar was the most recent Squad member to endorse El-Sayed, throwing his support behind him Thursday.
“Abdul El-Sayed is showing what it means to run a bold, pro-working class campaign,” Casar said. “House progressives need strong partners in the Senate in order to put money in your pocket, get money out of politics, and win Medicare for All. I’m proud to endorse Abdul.”
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Casar, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Lee all have current or former Democratic Socialists of America affiliations. El-Sayed at one point even appeared at a Democratic Socialists of America event alongside Tlaib.
El-Sayed headlined that event, a fundraiser that brought in roughly $10,000 for the Detroit Democratic Socialists of America, and was photographed next to Tlaib behind a table with a poster on it depicting a hand labeled “DSA” choking a snake labeled “capitalism.”
The Michigan Senate hopeful attended and spoke at six Democratic Socialists of America events between 2017 and 2020, Fox News Digital previously reported. Organizers affiliated with the socialist organization have described El-Sayed as “a longtime friend of Detroit DSA.”
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Despite pulling in endorsements from socialists and his long-time association with the Democratic Socialists of America, El-Sayed rejects the socialist label and has distanced himself from the group.
“I’m not technically or practically DSA,” El-Sayed told The Wall Street Journal in early July.
In an interview with CNN, he said that “I am not somebody who is a socialist. I believe in capitalism, I just believe that capitalism has to be regulated.”
El-Sayed faces off against Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary Tuesday. Stevens is widely viewed as the more centrist of the two. Polls generally show El-Sayed leading Stevens by a comfortable margin, according to the New York Times.
The El-Sayed campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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