WASHINGTON — A powerful panel of congressional Democrats on Monday recommended Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York for the top Democratic post on the House Oversight Committee, favoring a much more senior member of the party’s caucus to take on the second Trump administration.
The closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which is closely aligned with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., yielded 34 votes for Connolly and 27 for Ocasio-Cortez, according to a member of the panel. The position opened up after the top Democrat on Oversight, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., challenged Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., for a similar post on the Judiciary Committee, prompting Nadler to bow out.
In an upset, the Steering panel on Monday recommended Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota to be the top Democrat of the Agriculture Committee. She secured 34 votes and beat out two much more senior rivals — California Rep. Jim Costa, who got 22 votes, and Georgia Rep. David Scott, who received just five votes and has held the top Agriculture job since 2021 — on the first ballot.
For the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, the Steering panel recommended senior Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., over more junior Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M. The vote was 44 to 17.
The full Democratic Caucus is expected to vote on the Steering panel’s recommendations Tuesday morning. While the caucus typically adopts the committee’s recommendations, there have been instances where the full caucus overruled the panel’s votes and picked someone else.
