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By Wendell Husebo
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) soundly defeated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to become ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, multiple reports indicated Tuesday.
Ocasio-Cortez’s bitter defeat is a win for the establishment, which is tightly controlled by party bosses who are often at odds with the congresswoman’s anti-establishment views.
Ocasio-Cortez tried to become an accepted member of the Democrat establishment during the last cycle by vocally defending the Biden family from Republican probes into its business dealings, but her political tact did not appear to pay off.
Democrats roundly rejected her attempt to become the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee by a vote of 131-84 on the House floor, according to multiple reports.
Connolly, 74, defeated Ocasio-Cortez, 35, despite battling cancer.
The process for committee assignments is very political. Democrat and Republican party bosses on their respective steering committees assign members to serve on committees at the start of every Congress. Then a simple resolution is introduced and agreed to on the House floor that elects members to committee assignments.
Some factors that may contribute to winning an assignment include party clout, returned favors, and past fundraising. Ocasio-Cortez has only recently begun to transfer the funds she raised to the Democrat party, which might hurt her chances with party bosses.
I asked Republican members who’d they prefer as ranking of Oversight and the sentiment was broadly pro-AOC
“I hope it’s AOC. We will win the midterms with her as chair,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told me. https://t.co/R66TELPP85
— Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) December 17, 2024
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) appeared supportive last week of Ocasio-Cortez’s bid to hold the Democrat’s top spot on his panel.
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 will likely depart the oversight panel.
Raskin and Comer did not have a strong working relationship on the oversight committee, and Ocasio-Cortez’s bid to replace Raskin, as Comer said, would be a welcome change.
“I did not have a good relationship with Jamie,” Comer said. “I don’t think that’s any secret. I tell the press when they ask about the race for ranking member: The Democrats have nowhere to go but up after having Jamie you’re asking for the last four years.”
I’m a big AOC fan,” Comer said.
“I certainly look forward to working with the next ranking member, and if it’s AOC, I think we’ll have a good working relationship,” Comer told CNN. “We’ll obviously have a lot of differences on policy, but I think she’s a good, well-spoken person for the Democrats to serve that position.”
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
