The next wave of band-style progressive Democrats is emerging across America

Galvanized by the president Donald Trump Despite the sweeping second-term agenda, a new generation of progressive Democrats is working to redefine the party’s future.

The original “squad,” a group of young left-wing lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezDN.Y was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018 in a referendum on Trump’s first term.

Now, with Trump back in the Oval Office and Republicans in control of the House and Senate, a new wave of progressive candidates is emerging across the country.

The next generation of progressive leaders includes some well-known names, such as mayoral candidates Zahran Mamdani, Mamdani Minneapolis Omar Fateh, US Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow, and progressive congressional candidates Kat Abu Ghazaleh and AOC of Tennessee Aftin Behn.

Squad 2.0: Meet America’s next wave of radical Democrats shaping the future of the party

Others, like Saikat Chakrabarti, Dr. Abdul Sayed, and Justin Pearson, are gaining national attention as discontent among young Democrats grows with each day of the Trump administration’s second term.

Young progressives see Zahran Mamdani, AOC as the future of the Democratic Party — on one condition

Saikat Chakrabarti

Saikat Chakrabarti arrived on the political scene during the rise of the First Squad, running Ocasio-Cortez’s successful 2018 congressional campaign and then serving as her chief of staff.

The progressive met Ocasio-Cortez when he launched Justice Democrats, a political action committee committed to recruiting a new generation of leaders.

Now, Chakrabarti has become a generational candidate himself, challenging House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi for her San Francisco district next year — a seat she has held since 1987.

After 38 years in Congress, Chakrabarti said Pelosi “no longer has the strength for the current fight,” and it’s time for “entirely new leadership” in Washington, D.C.

for him Includes policy platform A long list of progressive promises, including Medicare for All, a wealth tax on the super-rich, million-dollar housing units, a congressional stock trading ban, and ending military funding for Israel.

During a phone interview, Chakrabarti told Fox News Digital that his primary focus is fixing the “fundamental economic concerns that most Americans face” — the same “bold, sweeping economic change plan” that returned Trump to the White House last year.

Chakrabarty said a new generation of candidates, like himself, were inspired to run since they witnessed “the complete failure of the democratic political establishment.”

“I think people feel that the Democratic Party, the establishment, is just kind of weak and slow-moving and unable to meet the moment,” he added.

Chakrabarti’s first election commitment, according to his website, is to stop Trump’s “authoritarian coup.”

The congressional candidate called Trump’s ICE-led deportation order “a blatant violation of our constitutional rights, free speech, and everything we hold dear in this country.”

When asked if the party was moving left in response to Trump’s second term, he said: “It’s not really a struggle between left and right.”

“I think people are looking for real solutions to problems. People are looking for regime change, and I don’t think Donald Trump is doing that, but that’s what Donald Trump expressed in his campaign.”

Overall, Chakrabarty said voters are “very sick and tired of corruption” and the “old guard” who he described as only caring about themselves, not their constituents.

D. Abdul Sayed

Dr. Abdel Sayed is one of several progressive candidates vying for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat next year.

“Abdul literally wrote the book on Medicare for All,” he says To his campaign website. He wrote “Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide,” explaining how the U.S. health care system can provide affordable care to all Americans.

He led the Detroit Health Department out of bankruptcy and restructured the Wayne County Department of Health, Human Services and Veterans Affairs. In 2020, President Joe Biden helped craft policies to help lower prescription drug prices.

He believes in eliminating medical debt and that students deserve debt- and tuition-free two-year apprenticeship programs or a four-year college education.

Justin Pearson

Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson gained national attention in 2023, just months after taking office, when he was kicked out of his Republican-led legislature for protesting a mass shooting in Nashville that left three 9-year-olds and three adults dead.

Pearson was fired along with state representatives Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson, who became known as the “Tennessee Three.” Voters re-elected Pearson weeks later with 94% of the vote.

He co-founded the Memphis Community Against Pollution, a climate justice non-profit organization.

Pearson was endorsed by fellow congressional candidate Chakrabarti’s former PAC, Justice Democrats, in his campaign for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District.

Pearson also received an endorsement from Leaders We Deserve, a super PAC founded by former Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman David Hogg, who created a rift in the Democratic Party when he pledged to invest millions to support young progressives challenging incumbent older Democrats who he said were “asleep at the wheel.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Mr. and Pearson, but did not immediately receive a response. A Pelosi spokesman declined to comment.