Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) beat out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to become the next Democratic leader of the powerful House Oversight Committee. AOC lost the House Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee vote to Connolly and while the full caucus still needs to vote, the steering committee is rarely overruled.
Axios’s Andrew Solender reported on Friday that the contest between Connolly, a centrist Democrat, and progressive stalwart AOC was “becoming an ideological – in addition to generational – proxy fight.”
Connolly scored the endorsement of the powerful New Democrat Coalition on Friday, which is the Democrats’ largest caucus with some 100 members.
“New Dems are proud to endorse our colleague, friend, and fellow New Dem Rep. Gerry Connolly for Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Rep. Connolly is a strong and talented communicator and a dedicated workhorse prepared to expertly lead the committee in defending our Democratic priorities and standing up to the Trump administration’s extremist actions. He is the right choice to advance the interests of our full caucus,” said the coalition in a statement.
“Throughout his sixteen years on the Committee, Rep. Connolly has been a courageous and formidable force fighting against extremist GOP conspiracy theories and advancing thoughtful, commonsense legislation. As we prepare for the new Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress, the Oversight Committee Democrats will play a critical role in protecting our democratic institutions and pushing back on bad faith actors. We are fully confident that Rep. Connolly will lead the committee with a no-nonsense approach and a steady hand,” the statement added.
AOC in turn was endorsed by the Progressive Caucus, which also has nearly 100 members.
Punchbowl News reported on Thursday that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was actively working to shoot down Ocasio-Cortez’s bid.
“Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is actively working to tank Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee,” wrote Punchbowl, adding:
Pelosi is making calls on behalf of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who is running against AOC to be ranking member of Oversight.
Pelosi has made her support for Connolly publicly known. But her behind-the-scenes maneuvering shows the amount of political capital Pelosi’s willing to put into the contest, which will be decided next week.
Pelosi is using her remaining political capital to try and reposition the Democratic Party to what she sees as a winning posture for future elections and clearly has no faith in progressive stalwart Ocasio-Cortez to broaden the party’s appeal.
