Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez launches bid to steer Democrats on Home Oversight Committee

Washington — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York launched her bid Friday to be the highest Democrat on the Home Oversight Committee because the social gathering seems to be to substitute its veteran leaders on a number of key panels. 

“This isn’t a place I search frivolously. The accountability of main Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee throughout Donald Trump’s second time period within the White Home is a profound and consequential one,” the New York Democrat wrote in a letter to colleagues on Friday. 

“Within the 119th Congress, Oversight Committee Democrats will face an necessary job: we should steadiness our concentrate on the incoming president’s corrosive actions and corruption with a tangible struggle to make life simpler for America’s working class,” she added. 

Whereas Democrats will stay within the minority when the brand new Congress convenes subsequent month, a victory would place Ocasio-Cortez in line to chair the highly effective Oversight Committee if Democrats retake the Home in 2026, midway by way of President-elect Donald Trump’s time period. The committee led quite a few investigations into the primary Trump administration after Democrats gained the Home in 2018. 

Her candidacy units up a problem towards Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, who can also be looking for to fill Rep. Jamie Raskin’s place. Raskin, of Maryland, is leaving the publish and angling to be the highest Democrat on the Home Judiciary Committee. 

Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the longtime Democratic chief of the Judiciary Committee, ended his bid to proceed main the panel after Raskin introduced his problem. 

There’s additionally an effort to switch the getting old Democrats atop the Home Agriculture Committee and the Home Pure Sources Committee.

Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries of New York hasn’t given a public endorsement or condemnation of the committee shakeups, however instructed reporters Friday that “the caucus is working its will, and we’re doing it in a cordial trend.” 

contributed to this report.