By Nicholas Fandos
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., built her reputation clashing with House Democratic leaders. Now, for the first time, she will take a shot at joining their ranks.
Ocasio-Cortez announced late last week that she would seek the coveted position of top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, challenging a more senior colleague to fill the vacancy.
If she succeeds and is chosen as the panel’s ranking member, the 35-year-old member of Congress would be by far the youngest Democrat to help lead a House committee. She would gain a platform not only to investigate President-elect Donald Trump’s administration but also to help her party chart a path back from electoral defeat.
“Democrats will face an important task: We must balance our focus on the incoming president’s corrosive actions and corruption with a tangible fight to make life easier for America’s working class,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a letter to colleagues. “I will lead by example by always keeping the lives of everyday Americans at the center of our work.”
But first she must contend with Rep. Gerald Connolly, 74, a pugnacious, well-liked eight-term incumbent from Virginia who has pitched himself as a more seasoned investigator.
The contest promises to be a significant test of just how far one of the brightest Democratic stars has moved toward the mainstream since crashing into Congress six years ago as a left-wing insurgent.
There is little doubt that Ocasio-Cortez, who joined a sit-in protest in the speaker’s suite before she had even been sworn in, has grown more comfortable working within her party’s power structure. She won a prime-time speaking slot at this year’s Democratic National Convention and served as a prominent surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, breaking with some fellow leftists along the way.
The question now is whether her colleagues are ready to return the embrace and elevate a sometimes confrontational leader of the left-wing “squad” to be one of Trump’s most visible foils.
“When you have a secret ballot vote, there are a lot of mixed motives,” said Henry Waxman, a retired California member of Congress known for his own leadership of the Oversight Committee and for challenging the House’s seniority system.
“She is so much in the minds of American voters as an example of the left wing of the Democratic Party,” he added. “Members of the caucus have to decide if it helps or hurts the party’s future if she becomes leader of that committee, especially since she would have absolute control over what agenda she wants to pursue.”
Connolly is likely to win support not just from proponents of Democrats’ seniority system, but also from members who fear that elevating Ocasio-Cortez, an outspoken democratic socialist and ardent critic of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, would delight Republicans and further alienate moderate voters.
“Hard work can and should be rewarded in the House of Representatives,” he wrote in a letter outlining his own bid this week. “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.”
Connolly faces his own challenges. He recently announced that he has esophageal cancer and he will have to reassure colleagues that he can lead the committee while undergoing treatment.
A third Democrat who had been considering a run, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, said he would support Ocasio-Cortez instead.
In calls to colleagues, Ocasio-Cortez has highlighted her experience. As the committee’s vice ranking member, she has worked closely with its current Democratic leader, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Videos of her sparring with witnesses and committee Republicans have often gone viral.
Allies said they believed she had a path to victory, although an uphill one, at a time when many Democrats are clamoring for generational change. The race will be decided in a private caucus vote this month.
The Oversight Committee position became available after Raskin, 61, successfully challenged Rep. Jerrold Nadler, 77, of New York for the top Democratic slot on the Judiciary Committee. Younger Democrats have also challenged the aging leaders of the Agriculture and Natural Resources committees.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top House Democrat, has indicated he intends to stay neutral. So has Raskin, who said in an interview that both candidates were “excellent members of the committee.”
The Oversight Committee is among the most storied, and partisan, bodies in Congress. Republicans and Democrats alike have long used it to antagonize the White House, while occasionally working together to pressure large corporations and even Major League Baseball to change their practices.
Republicans will control the committee gavel and subpoena power in the coming Congress, but the ranking member still oversees a large staff and has the power to initiate investigations and minority hearings to spotlight issues of their choice. The ranking member would also be in a position to lead the committee if Democrats retake the House majority in 2026.
In her pitch to colleagues Friday, Ocasio-Cortez called the responsibility of leading Democrats’ oversight of the incoming administration “profound and consequential.” She emphasized the need for the committee to work on multiple tracks, checking Trump’s attempts to remake the government, working across the aisle where possible and laying out an alternative policy vision to reach struggling Americans.
“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,” she wrote.
Ocasio has always been in the face of others. Mostly not really knowing what she means or talks about. At 86 years old, I can pretty much see thru a young, think I know it all, person with no respect for anyone. She might be P.R. but I lived in P.R. 22 years and raised 3 kids, 9 grandkids left in 2006. But each year I spend my vacation in Mayaguez and still keep up with the news on the Island. She should help with the roads etc. She is in Washington for more than 4 years now. What has she done for our Island? I can send her a list from San Juan to Cabo Rojo if she wants.…