The group of new members, which includes Maxwell Frost has a text thread in which they discuss everything from news articles and policy ideas to memes and puppies.
Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)
“So much of my class and all of orientation, people have felt really inspired because we know that odds are we will retake the House and will be in the majority in two years,” Rep.-elect Greg Casar (D-Texas), the other Justice Democrat-backed candidate to win last month, said in a recent interview. “The progressive energy, especially among people of color, working-class communities, young people — that’s what we bring.”
The group of new members, which includes Reps.-elect Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Lee, and Casar, has a text thread in which they discuss everything from news articles and policy ideas to memes and puppies. They jokingly call Rep.-elect Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the first openly LGBTQ immigrant elected to Congress, “Mr. President” and they’ve already got a bourbon supplier in Rep.-elect Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.).
They’re also helping each other find affordable housing, with Ramirez and Lee planning to room together to save money in the expensive D.C. area. Mirroring squad members’ penchant for talking about their own everyday hardships in life, Ramirez spoke plainly about her financial struggles that made a roommate necessary, even with a six-figure congressional salary. She listed off credit card debt, medical debt from two recent miscarriages, her husband working as a freelancer and a mortgage back home.
“I don’t want to feel embarrassed, but damn, that’s not the reality, or something that many of my colleagues have to ever worry about,” said Ramirez, the self-described “housing legislator.” Ramirez said she and her husband made the tough decision for him to stay back in Illinois and visit D.C. occasionally.
They’re also helping each other find affordable housing, with Delia Ramirez and Summer Lee planning to room together to save money in the expensive D.C. area.