Of all the generational fights playing out within their party this week, many House Democrats saw the race for their top post on the Oversight Committee between Reps. Gerry Connolly and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be the truest test of seniority’s salience in their caucus.
In the week leading up to Tuesday’s caucus-wide vote, it seemed like the 35-year-old Ocasio-Cortez might just topple the 74-year-old Connolly. Her supporters urged their colleagues to turn the page on senior leadership by injecting Ocasio-Cortez’s spunk and virality into the party’s top brass, particularly atop the panel that serves as the most public-facing foil to the House Republicans.
But minutes after Connolly handily fended off Ocasio-Cortez’s insurgent bid in a 131 to 84 caucus-wide vote, Democrats’ takeaway was clear: Seniority still matters.
“You have to wait your turn around here,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur — a four-decade veteran of Capitol Hill — told NOTUS. “That’s just the way it works.”
Ocasio-Cortez was just one of a slew of junior Democrats who took on more senior leaders for ranking posts. In almost every case, those challenges were successful. The top Democrats on Natural Resources and Judiciary — Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Jerry Nadler — bowed out of their races, paving the way for Reps. Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin to take their places. Rep. Angie Craig beat Rep. David Scott for his ranking job on the Agriculture Committee, taking down the more senior Rep. Jim Costa in the process.
But several Democrats told NOTUS there was a reason seniority won out in Oversight. Connolly still has a sharp wit and willingness to throw a punch at Republicans, making it easier for Democrats to put a premium on his experience and relationships without fearing that he had lost a step — a fear in some of the other contests.
“We all get old at different rates. But Gerry’s a young 74, cancer notwithstanding,” Rep. Don Beyer told reporters, referencing Connolly’s recent esophageal cancer diagnosis.
A vindicated Connolly — who has spent the past week pushing back hard against press narratives that Democrats were ready to overlook his hard-fought experience — framed his win to reporters as a credit to his years spent on Capitol Hill paying dues and refining his political finesse rather than his years spent on earth.
“We’re looking at capability, we’re not looking at age. Is somebody capable — irrespective of how old they are? If they bring energy and enthusiasm — like Angie Craig — you get elected,” Connolly told reporters after his win.
“I think my colleagues were measuring their votes by who’s got experience, who is seasoned, who can be trusted, who’s capable and who’s got a record of productivity,” he said.
For her part, Ocasio-Cortez told NOTUS Tuesday afternoon: “The caucus made their decision and I accept those results.”
Connolly’s win hardly marked a resounding victory for all senior Democratic leaders — including Nancy Pelosi. Though the former speaker lobbied for Connolly behind the scenes, her efforts to elect Costa collapsed. While Pelosi’s finger on the scale for Connolly likely gave him a boost, even her longtime ally Rep. Jim Clyburn noted that her support wasn’t a deciding factor across the board.
“He won,” Clyburn said, with the caveat, “if my memory serves, she is supporting Costa, and he lost. So what’s the difference?”
The 84-year-old Pelosi has been widely credited for supporting generational change in her party by willingly giving up the speaker’s gavel and not-so-subtly nudging President Joe Biden out of his reelection campaign. But to her, and many others in the caucus, experience still matters.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, representing the other end of the spectrum as the youngest member of Congress, perhaps unsurprisingly backed Ocasio-Cortez.
“I was hoping the caucus would see what’s happened this last election and kind of learn from it,” he told NOTUS. “Some may say we have, and some may say we haven’t, but we’ll see where we go from here.”
Rep. Becca Balint told reporters she, too, was “personally disappointed” by the Oversight outcome, saying the party’s decision to elect Connolly was out of step with an electorate eager for fresh, younger voices in leadership.
“We still have real concerns within our caucus around seniority issues, and I think those of us who have come up more recently within the Congress understand that the American people have had it with seniority issues,” Balint said. “They have had it.”
Still, there was another concern that some Democrats said may have hamstrung Ocasio-Cortez’s candidacy. To many voters, she’s not just known as a spry, young member, she’s also the face of progressivism — an ideology that some in the party are eager to temper as it tacks to the center on issues like immigration.
Still, Balint was firm. The race was “not about ideology.”
“It was about seniority,” she said.
But to hear Kaptur — the fourth-most senior member of Congress — tell it, Ocasio-Cortez’s loss, in fact, wins her points with the rest of the caucus down the line. It’s a relationship-building, respect-earning battle scar she can boast next time around if she has the patience to try again when the time is right.
“I think that for a newer member, like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, that this is investment capital for her future.”
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Riley Rogerson is a reporter at NOTUS. Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.