21:54

Members of the press got a first chance to meet the incoming class of progressive Democrats at a member orientation in Washington DC.

“This isn’t your mother or father’s progressive caucus,” said congressman Mark Pocan, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), introducing the newest members.

The group included upstarts like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Also among them were the first Muslim women – Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota – and one of the two Native American women elected to Congress, Debra Haaland of New Mexico.

“What we see is the people’s house is much more reflective today of the country,” said Pramila Jayapal, a co-chair of the caucus.

She credited their progressive candidacies for helping energize the party’s base voters and driving up turnout among young people, people of color and women.

“When you look at the wins that we’ve gotten across the country what you see that it is also the progressive movement across the country that helped elect no only these individuals but also a number of members who are joining the democratic caucus,” she said.

The caucus has not taken a position on whether they will support Nancy Pelosi for House speaker later this month and several of the new members did not say how they would individually vote.

CPC’s co-chairs said they plan to leverage their numbers – now upwards of 90 with a number of House races yet to be called – to push the party leftward.

And in a question on everyone’s mind Ocasio-Cortez told reporters she has not yet found a place to live in Washington DC but that it was by choice.

“I don’t know need to move to DC until work starts anyway so I’m really taking this time to relish the last couple of months that I have full time with my communities in the Bronx and Queens,” she said.