A group of left-wing Democratic House nominees that some in Washington have taken to calling "the Bloc" is preparing to use its votes, starting with the election of a speaker, to push the party leftward if Democrats win the House on November 3. Politico, whose late-September report is the earliest use of the name found, and Axios put six nominees at its core: Melat Kiros of Colorado, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez of New York, Adam Hamawy of New Jersey, Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania and Donavan McKinney of Michigan, all running in safely Democratic districts. Five were endorsed by local chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America. Their leverage depends on a Democratic majority and on how narrow it is. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has said DSA-backed winners will be part of a "broad caucus" while rejecting some DSA positions; centrist Democrats say they are preparing to act as a counterweight; and the National Republican Congressional Committee has made "the Bloc" a campaign attack on Democrats generally.
Who they are, and where the name came from
Three beat incumbents in their primaries. Kiros, a former lawyer, defeated Rep. Diana DeGette in Denver. Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old community organizer and DSA member, unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat in upper Manhattan; he was the sixth House incumbent to lose renomination this cycle at the time, NBC News reported in June. McKinney, a state representative, beat two-term Rep. Shri Thanedar in Detroit in August, Axios reported. Valdez, a state Assembly member and DSA member, won the open Brooklyn and Queens seat of retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez. In These Times reports that all but Hamawy were endorsed by local DSA chapters; Hamawy was backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The name surfaced in Politico's Playbook at the end of September; a Playbook podcast episode posted September 29 was titled "Congress had the Squad. Soon it will have the Bloc." Politico's own wording is that "some are calling them" that. The coverage reviewed for this article does not show the six adopting the name themselves.
What they say they will do
The Congressional Progressive Caucus brought incumbent and incoming members to Washington in September for a retreat run by its chair, Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, to settle what Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois called "non-negotiables," Politico reported on October 29. Ramirez is mentoring Avila Chevalier, Valdez and Kiros, all of whom campaigned on ending U.S. aid to Israel, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and passing "Medicare for All." Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington described an "inside-outside strategy" built on points of leverage such as procedural votes and the caucus rules package; on Medicare for All, the group discussed pushing for a committee vote and a Congressional Budget Office cost estimate. Jayapal told Axios that restoring expired Affordable Care Act subsidies, the core of Jeffries's health agenda, is not enough: "We have to have a vision that is much more than just, 'restore the subsidies.'" Citing people familiar with the discussions who spoke anonymously because the talks are preliminary, Axios reported that concessions floated privately include prime committee assignments, resources for their districts, rule changes to "democratize" the House and votes on progressive bills. Ramirez told Axios the group will likely try to force a House vote on the Block the Bombs Act, which would restrict transfers of offensive weapons to Israel. "There's going to be some real tension, because we have to move," she told Politico.
The speaker vote is the first test. No alternative to Jeffries has emerged, but several nominees have withheld commitments. Asked in NY1 debates whether she supports Jeffries, Avila Chevalier said, "I'm open to speaking to my community about that," and Valdez said, "I'm not committed to voting yes or no." Kiros did not say in a Politico interview whether she would back him, but described a "wonderful" conversation with him about her priorities: Medicare for All, a moratorium on data centers and an arms embargo on Israel. Progressives have also pointed to common ground with moderates, such as raising the minimum wage.
How Democratic leaders and centrists are responding
On NBC's "Meet the Press" in August, Jeffries said he does not support defunding the police or abolishing the Senate, but that DSA-backed nominees who win would be welcome: "It's going to be a broad caucus. There will be progressives. There will be New Dems. There will be Blue Dogs." He has promised an "ironclad" focus on lowering costs. Asked by Spectrum News on October 24 whether DSA is a liability in swing districts such as New York's 17th, he sidestepped: "This is a race between a puppet, Mike Lawler, and an American patriot, Cait Conley." Lawler, the Republican incumbent, has cast the race as a contest between "capitalism and socialism."
Centrists are organizing too. Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey said he is eyeing "concrete steps to stop socialists trying to jam the extremist parts of their agenda," while adding that "there are plenty of issues, frankly, that most Democrats agree on." Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, who leads the New Democrat Coalition's campaign arm, said every candidate the group endorsed supports Jeffries for speaker. Moderates are counting on new members from Republican-leaning seats to outnumber the left. "The size of the majority will matter a lot," a senior moderate Democratic operative told Politico.
How Republicans are using it
Before the name took hold, House Republicans had already taken the left's primary wins to the floor. On September 1 the House adopted a resolution denouncing socialism "in all its forms," 220 to 192, with eight Democrats joining every Republican; GOP leaders scheduled it after Democratic primary voters embraced a number of democratic socialist candidates, CBS News reported. Avila Chevalier, Kiros and McKinney had all beaten incumbents by then. The resolution also endorsed President Trump's voting bill, the SAVE America Act, which CBS said had stalled for months in the Senate. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said of the Democratic Socialists of America: "Not only do we denounce socialism, but also the idea of people that aren't American citizens voting in our elections, because that's part of their platform." Jeffries said he would vote against the resolution because it endorsed the SAVE America Act. Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, who chairs the Democratic Caucus, noted that some Democrats had offered a separate resolution condemning socialism without the SAVE Act language, and said: "We're capitalists. We believe in a capitalist system and rules and laws. But what Republicans are seeking to do here is to just add in another talking point where they can talk about the SAVE Act."
The NRCC's October 1 release, "Meet the Bloc," attacked each nominee by name. "These so-called 'moderate' Democrats can call themselves whatever they want, but they're taking their marching orders from the Bloc," NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said. "If you vote for a 'moderate' Democrat in November, you're voting for the Bloc." The release also cited Kiros's description of the September 11 attacks as "inevitable." Asked by Denver's 9News in June whether the attacks were an "inevitable consequence" of U.S. foreign policy, she said: "Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place."
The release also said Hamawy "was a close friend of The Blind Sheik." Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind cleric, was convicted in 1995 of planning a bombing campaign against the United Nations and other New York landmarks; as the New Jersey Monitor notes, he was not convicted on charges stemming directly from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, though prosecutors said he and his codefendants were coconspirators of the men convicted in that attack.
Hamawy, a physician and former Army combat surgeon, testified for the defense at Abdel Rahman's trial. He told the New Jersey Monitor in May that he first encountered the cleric in 1991, when he was young, remembers carpooling with him and others on one occasion, and testified out of "a civic duty": "I was called as a witness, and I gave my testimony under oath, and then I walked out." Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, told the Monitor that the question he finds unresolved is "why somebody who talked about jihad all the time was somebody who he felt compelled to travel with." Hamawy maintains he had no relationship with Abdel Rahman, and he called similar attacks from a primary rival, Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, desperate and Islamophobic: "Any Muslim is going to be called a terrorist at some point, and these tropes are outdated and worn."
Democrats need to flip four Republican-held seats to win the House, Spectrum News reported. If they do, the size of their majority will decide how much a half-dozen votes are worth.
This article reflects reporting through Friday, October 30, 2026. Sources: Politico, October 29 (via Yahoo News), and its Playbook podcast, September 29; Axios, October 27, and Axios Detroit, August 5; Spectrum News, October 28; In These Times, October 27; NRCC and Townhall, October 1; Washington Examiner, August 17; NBC News and Gothamist, June 23; Fox News, June 29; the New Jersey Monitor, May 27; CBS News, September 1.
