House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Monday that fellow New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) would be a potent candidate to lead the Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Jeffries stopped short of endorsing Ocasio-Cortez for the seat, saying there would be a number of highly qualified Democrats who would seek the position. And he quickly emphasized that the seat is not vacant because the current ranking member, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), still holds the spot even as he’s stepped back from his daily duties during treatment for esophageal cancer.
Still, Jeffries’s remarks are the strongest suggestion to date that the Democratic leader would not stand in the way of Ocasio-Cortez if she sought to fill it once it becomes vacant — a move that would require a waiver because Ocasio-Cortez is not a member of the Oversight panel.
“We’ll see what decisions Gerry Connolly makes moving forward. We’re praying for him. He’s in the battle of his life, as he has indicated, and we’ll see what decisions he makes moving forward,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.
“If there’s a vacancy at some point, which we know there will be based on the fact that Rep. Connolly has said he’s not seeking reelection, then there will be a number of strong candidates who will move forward,” he continued. “Rep. Ocasio-Cortez will, of course, be a very compelling candidate, were she to make that decision to run.”
After being elected to a fourth term last November, Ocasio-Cortez had challenged the more senior Connolly, now in his ninth term, to become the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee — an influential position, especially for the minority party fighting to shine a light on the many controversies swirling around the Trump administration. The seat had opened up after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member in the last Congress, jumped to the Judiciary Committee.
Connolly won the closed-ballot contest easily, and afterward, Ocasio-Cortez opted to move off of the Oversight panel to join the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over a number of issues — including environmental protection — that Ocasio-Cortez has prioritized since coming to Capitol Hill.
Still, after Connolly announced last week his health was forcing him to pull back from his Oversight responsibilities, Ocasio-Cortez did not rule out the option of seeking a waiver that would allow her to run for the seat if Connolly were to leave permanently before the end of the Congress.
The contest would be well-contested. Connolly has already tapped another senior member of the Oversight panel, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), to serve as the interim ranking member for the indefinite future. And Lynch has made clear that he wants to fill the seat permanently when the time comes — and that Connolly is ready to endorse him publicly.
Other, more junior members of the committee are also eyeing a bid, including Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).
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