AOC launch­es bid for Over­sight Com­mit­tee rank­ing mem­ber in lat­est gen­er­a­tional fight

After a week of spec­u­la­tion and con­fir­ma­tion from the New York con­gress­woman that she would “soon” be mak­ing a deci­sion on whether to run for lead­er­ship, Oca­sio-Cortez announced Fri­day that she is offi­cial­ly launch­ing a bid to become rank­ing mem­ber of the pow­er­ful com­mit­tee that led Repub­li­cans’ inves­ti­ga­tions into Pres­i­dent Joe Biden and his fam­i­ly.

“This is not a posi­tion I seek light­ly,” Oca­sio-Cortez said in a “Dear Col­league” let­ter obtained by the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er.

“Now, more than ever, we must focus on the Committee’s strong his­to­ry of both hold­ing admin­is­tra­tions account­able and tak­ing on the eco­nom­ic pre­car­i­ty and inequal­i­ty that is chal­leng­ing the Amer­i­can way of life,” the con­gress­woman con­tin­ued.

Oca­sio-Cortez and Con­nol­ly are the only expect­ed mem­bers to jock­ey for the rank­ing mem­ber posi­tion after cur­rent rank­ing mem­ber Rep. Jamie Raskin (D‑MD) announced he is run­ning to be the top Demo­c­rat on the House Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee.

Rep. Jer­ry Nadler (D‑NY), who has been the top Demo­c­rat on the Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee since 2019, announced Wednes­day he would not seek anoth­er term in the posi­tion, clear­ing the path­way for Raskin.

At 35, Oca­sio-Cortez is one of the youngest mem­bers of Con­gress and would be one of the youngest com­mit­tee lead­ers in the 119th Con­gress should she replace Raskin as rank­ing mem­ber. Before her offi­cial announce­ment, she said she had spo­ken to sev­er­al law­mak­ers, includ­ing those on lead­er­ship, about her inter­est in the posi­tion.

Ahead of her announce­ment, the con­gress­woman told the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er that she received sup­port from sev­er­al mem­bers, and hoped to receive the back­ing from many of her fel­low pro­gres­sives that sit on the com­mit­tee in the race against Con­nol­ly.

The bat­tle for the next rank­ing mem­ber of House Over­sight is just one of sev­er­al occur­ring before the 119th Con­gress is sworn in. The results of the 2024 elec­tion high­light­ed a gen­er­a­tional divide between the old­er estab­lish­ment of the par­ty and the new­er gen­er­a­tion of law­mak­ers like Oca­sio-Cortez, who are well-versed in social media and unafraid to go toe to toe with their col­leagues both across the aisle and with­in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty.

The House Agri­cul­ture Com­mit­tee is also expe­ri­enc­ing a senior­i­ty chal­lenge, with Reps. Jim Cos­ta (D‑CA) and Ang­ie Craig (D‑MN) run­ning to unseat Rep. David Scott (D‑GA) as the top Demo­c­rat on the pan­el.

Rep. Jared Huff­man (D‑CA) launched a bid to replace Nat­ur­al Resources Com­mit­tee rank­ing mem­ber Raúl Gri­jal­va (D‑AZ), but Gri­jal­va elect­ed to bow out. Huff­man will have a clear path to be the high­est Demo­c­rat on the Nat­ur­al Resources Com­mit­tee unless Rep. Melanie Stans­bury (D‑NM) decides to hop into the race. 

At his week­ly press con­fer­ence, House Minor­i­ty Leader Hakeem Jef­fries (D‑NY) said he has “no reflec­tion” on the trend of senior mem­bers bow­ing out of lead­er­ship or younger-termed law­mak­ers chal­leng­ing their elder col­leagues, “oth­er than that the cau­cus is work­ing its will and we’re doing it in a cor­dial fash­ion.”

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“We have enor­mous tal­ent spread through­out the con­fer­ence,” Jef­fries said.

“That includes both more sea­soned mem­bers who bring great expe­ri­ence, as well as new­er mem­bers who’ve got a lot of ener­gy and capac­i­ty and abil­i­ty, and we wel­come their entry onto the play­ing field,” the leader added.