Forget The Squad. Meet The Bloc.
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
First it was the Squad. Now it’s “The Bloc,” and the name tells you everything about how these Democrats operate. They move in lockstep, funded and organized by the Democratic Socialists of America, and they just swept a string of primaries that were supposed to be safe for the party’s establishment.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-backed candidates who swept a string of Democrat primaries this year have a new name, meet “The Bloc.” NEW in @playbookdc DC had The Squad, it's about to get The Bloc Thats what some calling the core incoming insurgent Dems: Melat Kiros, Adam Hamawy, Chris Rabb, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, Donavan McKinney How the group is strategizing to take on DC and Jeffries: pic.twitter.com/yhPt4lJPPc “ The Bloc ” is the younger, more ambitious, and even more openly socialist successor to the progressive Squad.
It currently includes a loose collection of DSA-backed politicians and candidates from across the country who share a commitment to pushing the Democrat Party further Left. Its ranks include Melat Kiros (CO-01), Darializa Avila Chevalier (NY-13), Claire Valdez (NY-07), Adam Hamawy (NJ-12), Donavan McKinney (MI-13), and Chris Rabb (PA-03).
Each member represents a different strain of left-wing extremism. Kiros called the Sept. 11 attacks “inevitable.” Avila Chevalier backs abolishing the police, prisons, and borders, and has reposted the claim that “all deportation is wrong.” Valdez wants to abandon Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Hamawy was a close friend of the Blind Sheik, the terrorist tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. McKinney wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And Rabb, who calls himself a “proud troublemaker,” is running on Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
This new coalition could prove even more consequential, and far more dangerous, than the Squad. While the Squad still largely operates within the boundaries of conventional Democratic politics , appealing to mainstream Democrat voters and working with the party’s congressional establishment when it serves its interests.
The Bloc appears poised to take progressivism a step further, not merely as its loudest voice, but as the tip of the far-left spear in Congress. The coalition’s message to so-called moderate Democrats is especially blunt: They must “either listen to them or be forced to listen to them." And they have taken quite the victory lap in the meantime, accusing the establishment Democrats of bowing to their demands in the run up to the 2026 midterms. "These so-called 'moderate' Democrats can call themselves whatever they want, but they're taking their marching orders from the Bloc.
Abolish ICE , abolish police, and 9/11 was 'inevitable.' " NRCC Spokesman Mike Marinella said. "If you vote for a 'moderate' Democrat in November, you're voting for the Bloc."
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
First it was the Squad. Now it’s “The Bloc,” and the name tells you everything about how these Democrats operate. They move in lockstep, funded and organized by the Democratic Socialists of America, and they just swept a string of primaries that were supposed to be safe for the party’s establishment. This isn’t a fringe annoyance. This is the future of the Democratic Party, no matter how hard the old guard pretends otherwise.
The Squad at least had personalities. The Bloc is something else: a coordinated faction with a shared agenda and no interest in compromise. These aren’t pragmatic moderates who happen to lean left. They want Medicare for All, defunded police, open borders, and a wholesale rewrite of the American economy. They’re not hiding it, either. Every primary win is another brick in the wall, and call it what it is: the Democrats are being taken over from the inside. The party that once claimed to speak for working families is now taking orders from activists who see capitalism itself as the enemy.
Republicans should take this seriously. It’s tempting to laugh at the Democrats practically eating themselves, and there’s some sport in watching AOC’s heirs push the party past the point of electability. But that confidence would be a mistake. The Bloc is patient, organized, and motivated. They lost on Biden’s watch, but they’re playing the long game for the next realignment. The American people can still reject them, but only if we treat this as a warning instead of a punchline. The left isn’t drifting. It’s marching. We’d better be ready to meet it.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.