According to multiple reports on Tuesday, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) defeated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to become the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
Ocasio-Cortez's stinging defeat is a victory for the establishment, which is tightly controlled by party leaders who are often at odds with the lawmaker's anti-establishment views.
Ocasio-Cortez tried to win over members of the Democratic establishment last cycle by vocally defending the Biden family from Republican investigations into their business dealings, but her political savvy went unrewarded. It seems like it was.
Democrats flatly rejected her bid to become the top Democrat on the oversight committee in a 131-84 vote on the House floor, according to multiple reports.
Connolly, 74, defeated Ocasio-Cortez, 35, despite battling cancer.
The committee assignment process is highly political. Executives from the Democratic and Republican steering committees assign Members serve on committees at the beginning of each Congress. A brief resolution selecting members for committee assignments is then introduced and agreed to on the House floor.
Factors that may contribute to winning a mandate include party influence, favoritism, and past funding. Ocasio-Cortez has only recently begun transferring the money she raises to Democrats, which could hurt her chances of negotiating with party leaders.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) appeared last week to support Ocasio-Cortez's efforts to remain the top Democrat on the committee.
The endorsement appears to be a jab at current Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is running for the top spot on the Judiciary Committee and is likely to leave the Oversight Committee. .
Raskin and Comer have not had a strong working relationship on the Oversight Committee, and as Comer said, Ocasio-Cortez replacing Raskin would be a welcome change.
“I didn't have a good relationship with Jamie,” Comer said. “I don't think it's a secret. When the press asks about the ranking member race, I say this: After having the Jamie you want for the past four years, the Democrats have nowhere to go but up.”
I’m a big fan of AOC,” Comer said.
“I'm really looking forward to working with the next ranking member, and if that person is AOC, I think we'll have a good working relationship,” Comer said. said CNN. “Obviously there's going to be a lot of disagreement on policy, but I think she's the right person for the Democratic Party to serve in that position, and I think she's a well-spoken person.”
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter for Breitbart News and a former RNC war room analyst. He is the author of The Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell “×” @WendellHusebø or society of truth @WendellHusebo.
