Democrats have had their “Squad” since the 2018 elections. Republican conservative women believe they now have a response with a new group aptly named the “Conservative Squad.”

And an Alabama congressional hopeful is leading the effort.

Prattville businesswoman and attorney Jessica Taylor, one of seven Republicans running in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional district race next year, spearheaded the effort to bring together four conservative women running for Congress during the 2020 elections. The Conservative Squad was revealed Thursday during a “Fox and Friends” segment on the Fox News Network.

“We need a new generation of conservatives,” said Taylor, during the interview segment. “Folks who can go toe-to-toe with (Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez of New York) and her Squad.”

Taylor, a 35-year-old political novice, is joined by three other Republican women with much deeper political resumes:

-Nancy Mace, a state representative in South Carolina who is running for the GOP nomination in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District. The congressional seat is currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham. She is the first woman to graduate from The Citadel

-Beth Van Duyne, former mayor of Irvine, Texas, from 2011-2017, is running for the GOP nomination in the Texas 24 Congressional District. She was appointed in 2017 by President Donald Trump as a regional administration for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), overseeing Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana.

-Michelle Fischbach, the former Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, is running to represent Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District. The seat is currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson. Fischbach was a longtime member of the Minnesota state Senate and became the first woman to serve as the chamber’s president.

Taylor founded the consulting firm Azimuth in 2010, to help non-profits become stronger in their communities and help them with grant writing. She began her career writing grants while working in the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

“I am honored to be joining forces with these great conservative leaders,” Taylor said.

She first sparked the idea of a “Conservative Squad” during her introductory campaign video released in October, in which she took a shot at the existing “Squad” that is named after four Democratic progressive congresswoman: Ocasio-Cortez (AOC, for short), Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All four were elected during the 2018 congressional elections in which a wave of progressive women were elected to the House.

In her campaign video, Taylor said she has “zero interest in being a professional politician,” but that she was “tired of arrogant socialists like AOC.” She accused politicians like Ocasio-Cortez of a lack of business experience – “who have never even run a lemonade stand” – telling “us how we should live in Alabama.”

At the end of the clip, Taylor says, “Conservatives like us need a squad of our own and I’ll build it.”

The campaign commercial generated the interest from Fox News, and Taylor was first interviewed on “Fox & Friends” in late October. Since then, she personally reached out to Mace, Van Duyne and Fischbach and asked if they would be interested in forming a new group. The women now have a conservativesquad.com website in which they are seeking donations to support their campaigns.

The four conservatives represent a small, but growing number of Republican women running for Congress in 2020. According to a USA Today report, utilizing data from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, 170 Republican women are planning to run or are likely to run for Congress in 2020. Ahead of the 2018 elections, that number was 67.

Republican women remain underrepresented in Congress, holding only 21 of a possible 536 total seats or less than 4%.

Taylor has the backing of at least one national group dedicated to getting more conservative women elected. Late last month, she received an endorsement from Value In Electing Women (VIEW) PAC.

Taylor is running for the Republican nomination in a district that is considered reliably Republican, and is rated a +16 for the GOP by the Cook Political Report. The district’s future, however, remains somewhat uncertain due to the possibility of Alabama losing a congressional seat following the 2020 U.S. Census count.

The Republican primary is a crowded one, and the winner will be the heavy favorite to replace U.S. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, who announced she was not running for re-election. The district includes Montgomery and encompasses much of southeastern Alabama including cities like Troy, Dothan, Andalusia, Greenville and Enterprise.

Taylor is one of seven people running for the GOP nomination. Also running is former Alabama State Attorney General Troy King, former Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise, business executive Jeff Coleman, electrician and former law enforcement officer Bob Roger, Terri Hasdorff, and Thomas Brown Jr.