Outgoing Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, who was defeated in the Democratic primary along with fellow progressive firebrand New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, told Politico in an interview published on Wednesday that she and her fellow "Squad" members weren’t going to back down despite the latest defeats.
“Anyone who underestimates our power is severely mistaken, because we aren’t going anywhere,” she said. “And I will always be Squad. I’m not going far.”
She insisted that the Squad will keep fighting.
"First of all, the Squad is big. And I know we want to make the Squad just out to be a few people, but we don’t do this work by ourselves."
The congresswoman said that even though "the numbers will be lower for the 119th Congress ... [the Squad] will keep fighting for people who have the greatest need. They’re not going to change their priorities and what they believe. The number of people in Congress on the team will just be smaller. But they’ve never been silent."
Bush said she he is open to running again for office in the future.
"The possibilities are endless," she said. "All I know right now is that I am not going anywhere. I’m going to keep fighting for the issues that I fought for before I ever entered Congress, and since I’ve been in Congress."
Bush declared that "running for office again is not off the table at all. I did not expect to only be in Congress for four years, and so I do believe at some point I will run again, whether it’s for Congress or something else, I don’t know. I don’t have any plans right now, but it’s not off the table."
Bush said that most of the Squad members "had in common entering Congress was to be authentically ourselves and to be that regular everyday person from our communities, because we felt like those voices were missing in the Congress.
"The voices of, for me, being the nurse, Jamaal being the principal, Alex being a bartender. I think that the difference is us wanting to remember who we are fighting for. I don’t think that will change."