2 days Ago By Andrew Solender
Rep. Gerry Connolly's (D-Va.) shock announcement that he plans to step down as the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee is set to open yet another front in Democrats' intergenerational war.
Why it matters: The party's grassroots base is virtually in open revolt against its older establishment. Now the old guard is preparing for a last stand against their younger, social media-savvy colleagues.Left-wing critics heaped scorn on House Democrats for electing Connolly — a 75-year-old with esophageal cancer — to lead their party on a panel that runs investigations into the Trump administration.
Some Democrats are sensitive to that blowback and want to elevate a successor who meets President Trump's brutal shock-and-awe tactics in kind. Others are ready to push back.Driving the news: Rep.
Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), 70, told Axios he plans to run for the role and is clear-eyed about the outside pressure bearing down on his colleagues to choose a younger lawmaker."The base is responding to social media, so they're pushing the people that they see on social media," he said.
"I get that."But, Lynch argued, "there is a job to be done — and as an attorney, this is an investigations committee, and so it's serious business. It's not going to be run in the press.
"What they're saying: Some veteran lawmakers are already lining up behind Lynch, who is third in seniority on the panel after Connolly and 87-year-old Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.
)."I have a preference for seniority, assuming ability, and I think Lynch is surely able," said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.
), the former House majority leader.Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.
) pointed to Connolly endorsing Lynch to replace him: "It's going to be hard for me and probably many others to do anything contrary to the current ranking member."Between the lines: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), 44, is expected to throw her hat in the ring.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.
), 35, who lost the role to Connolly last December and subsequently left Oversight, is mulling a bid to return to the panel as ranking member.Both lawmakers have large social media followings and are considered superstars by the Democrats' liberal base.Reps.
Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), age 46; Ro Khanna (D-Calif.
), 48; Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), 47; and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), 28, also have been floated as potential youth standard-bearers — particularly if Ocasio-Cortez opts not to run.
What we're hearing: Some House Democrats believe the months of upheaval within the grassroots base since Connolly's election could help swing things in favor of the younger wing of the party.One lawmaker, who supports Ocasio-Cortez, told Axios they spoke with a roughly 65-year-old colleague who expressed regrets about voting for Connolly in December.Said another, who favors Garcia: "I think that seniority culture here is beginning to significantly shift from this assumption that automatically the person that is next on the committee becomes ranking member.
"Said a third: "The only reason you go to that committee, largely, is to message, right? So you want someone who has good social media skills. In many ways, AOC is kind of the perfect person."Yes, but: Others cautioned not to overweigh the importance of external factors on House Democratic elections.
A fourth House Democrat told Axios on the condition of anonymity: "I don't think that what folks say on Twitter has a huge effect on how these elections happen. The members here know each other pretty well.""I think it really will come down to who makes the strongest pitch for members around managing a committee staff and pushing back against Musk-Trump abuses," the lawmaker added.
A fifth House Democrat told Axios that "those personal relationships ...
make a big difference," though they said that dynamic may still favor someone like Ocasio-Cortez over Lynch.State of play: Lynch has been tapped by Connolly as the interim ranking member until Connolly formally relinquishes the job.Lynch told Axios it is the "preference of leadership not to have [an election] going on right now" while Democrats are fighting against Republicans' budget reconciliation bill.
He predicted it would be "a number of weeks" before House Democrats vote on a permanent replacement for Connolly.The bottom line: Cleaver said of younger Democrats trying to push out older ones, "I think sometimes they take it too far.""We have a large number of young people in the Democratic caucus, and I would challenge anybody .
.. [to] stand toe-to-toe with Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Jim Clyburn, Steny Hoyer, all in their mid or above mid-80s," he said.
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