Ocasio-Cortez seeks top Democratic position on House Oversight Committee

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, announced Friday that she is running to be her party’s ranking member on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, becoming the latest Democrat to challenge a more senior member for a leadership role in the new Congress.

As the party moves to shake up its leadership in the next term, some Democrats are making efforts to turn over an aging cohort of leaders. In recent days, the caucus’ ranking members on the Judiciary and Natural Resources committees have stepped aside after younger colleagues mounted challenges to them.

On the Oversight Committee an open race for the influential role began after ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said he would step aside to seek the top slot on the Judiciary Committee. The move by Ocasio-Cortez sets her up to face Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who has long wanted the post and was bested by Raskin for the position two years ago.

“This is not a position I seek lightly,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a Friday letter to Democratic colleagues. “The responsibility of leading Democrats on the House Oversight Committee during Donald Trump’s second term in the White House is a profound and consequential one.”

Ocasio-Cortez, who has served this year as the committee’s vice ranking member, pointed to her record, including her role in questioning Michael Cohen, President-elect Donald Trump’s former fixer, which “led to a $355 million fraud verdict against the Trump Organization’s businesses in New York.”

She said the committee would be tasked with combating Trump’s “corrosive actions and corruption” while also making life easier for working Americans.

“I know firsthand how the (Republican) Majority uses their chaos to confuse, disorient, and distract the public’s attention away from their disastrous agenda,” she wrote. “We cannot and will not allow that to happen. I will lead by example by always keeping the lives of everyday Americans at the center of our work.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., deflected questions Friday about Ocasio-Cortez and other junior members challenging older, more experienced colleagues for the top Democratic spots on those committees.

“I have no reflection other than the caucus is working its will, and we’re doing it in a cordial fashion, having internal discussions and deliberations about how to make sure we’re in the strongest possible position moving forward to deal with the excesses of the incoming Trump administration,” he told reporters at his weekly news conference.

In the other cases, House Democrats have challenged sitting ranking members who had faced concerns about their health: Rep. Jared Huffman (California) challenged Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Arizona) on the Natural Resources Committee, who stepped aside and backed Rep. Melanie Stansbury (New Mexico). Reps. Angie Craig (Minnesota) and Jim Costa (California) have challenged Rep. David Scott (Georgia), the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee.

Raskin mounted a challenge to Rep. Jerry Nadler (New York) for the party’s top slot on the House Judiciary Committee, leading Nadler to bow out this week.

Asked about Ocasio-Cortez’s bid for the Oversight role, Connolly told the Washington Post he believed competition was healthy and that the caucus would choose between “two talents.” He pointed to his 16 years of service on the committee.

In a letter to colleagues this week, Connolly said his party’s Oversight Committee members must “be an aggressive team focused on defending American democracy from President Trump” and articulate an agenda that shows constituents that Democrats will fight for their priorities.

Connolly, who has previously served as vice ranking member of the committee, pledged to “elevate the talent and diversity of our caucus” as ranking member.

“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is a beat I know well, and right now we need an expert who can parry the worst Republican attacks on our institutions and deliver reform where it is necessary and needed,” he wrote in the letter, which was published by Politico.

On Friday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) threw her support behind Connolly.

“I myself am supporting Gerry,” she said. “Because when he ran before, he was leapfrogged by Jamie. I said (to Connolly), ‘Yeah, I understand you should be this, and you will be one day.’ And so I respect him, and he knows the territory very well.”

The former House speaker said that Ocasio-Cortez spoke to her about the bid to succeed Raskin, and she did not dissuade her from trying to make the jump to the top of the dais.

“She has a legitimate reason to run. I’ve never discouraged anybody from running,” Pelosi said, noting the third-term lawmaker’s role as Raskin’s understudy on the panel.