When Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia defeated Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York for the ranking member position on the House Oversight Committee last year, I lamented it as a missed opportunity for congressional Democrats. Connolly, 75, announced last week that he’ll be stepping away from the role for health reasons, offering the caucus a fresh shot at promoting a younger voice to helm Democrats on the investigative panel. Unfortunately, it’s already looking like it will be another win for the old guard, as the party clings to a seniority system that no longer serves it.
Connolly has renewed the debate among Democrats of age and experience versus youth and energy in countering President Donald Trump’s agenda.
It is to Connolly’s credit that he won the role fair and square in a vote among House Democrats in December, defeating Ocasio-Cortez in a secret ballot vote of 131-84. The caucus’ powerful Steering Committee had thrown its support behind Connolly, as had Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the former House speaker. But as Politico reported at the time, the decision for many members was based less on who would be the most effective political messenger atop the party on the most overtly political committee than on time served.
In stepping aside, Connolly has renewed the debate among Democrats of age and experience versus youth and energy in countering President Donald Trump’s agenda. He’s tapped Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., the third-most-senior Democrat on the committee, to serve as the interim ranking member. Younger members like Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Robert Garcia of California have expressed interest in taking over the role — but so has the 70-year-old Lynch.
Tellingly, Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday that she wouldn’t be among those seeking the spot now that Connolly will be stepping down. “It’s actually clear to me that the underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary,” she told reporters, saying that she’ll instead “be staying put at Energy and Commerce.” It’s a savvy move for Ocasio-Cortez as Republicans on that panel plot how to cut Medicaid spending. The issue is primed to be one of the major issues heading into next year’s midterms, giving her a spotlight to shine directly on the GOP’s attempt to strip health care from millions.
She’s also right that the underlying dynamic doesn’t seem to have substantially shifted in the last several months. House Democrats have shown little sign of fully abandoning their current seniority system, which almost always rewards the longest-serving member in leadership races. The issue has been at the forefront of the members’ minds after last year’s debate over former President Joe Biden’s fitness to run for re-election. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, that dynamic is now playing out in an aging Congress on one side of the aisle more than the other:
Age is a bigger headache for Democrats than Republicans for one central reason: Democrats have a lot more old members. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have similar median ages. But of the 20 oldest House members elected in 2024, 16 were Democrats. In the Senate, where tensions over age are more subdued, nearly all of the oldest senators—11 of the 14 who were older than 75 at the start of this Congress—were Democrats.
A major hurdle for rejecting the status quo has long been the Congressional Black Caucus and, to a lesser extent, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “For CBC members, the power is seniority,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., told Politico back in 2014 when it seemed like Pelosi might be wavering on the tradition. “As committee assignments are doled out, seniority becomes very important. They stayed and played by the rules. They don’t want the rules to change when it’s now their turn to be in [charge], when you have real power and control of what’s going on.” (Meeks whipped support for Connolly over his fellow New Yorker Ocasio-Cortez in last year’s race.)
House Democrats have shown little sign of fully abandoning their current seniority system.
Cracks in that façade began to show during last year’s postelection reshuffling. NOTUS reported last year that “there’s a growing generational divide in the CBC about whether Democrats should continue treating tenure as the primary factor in who should lead committees.” The CHC likewise officially offered Ocasio-Cortez its endorsement in her bid for the Oversight position despite its continuing support for the seniority system.
The renewed Oversight race is already becoming a new proxy test for what direction the Democrats should take as an anti-incumbent groundswell has begun to grow among the base. Those questions will grow even louder should Garcia and/or Crockett officially seek to become ranking member over Lynch. But Connolly has yet to officially relinquish his position and hasn’t given a timeline for when that will happen, leaving the race to replace him frozen.
In the meantime, the Oversight Committee has been quiet — too quiet. The languid pace from the committee’s majority under chair James Comer, R-Ky., is unsurprising, as holding the current administration to account isn’t exactly its idea of a good time. There’s likewise been no shortage of opportunities for the panel’s Democrats to link their GOP counterparts with the White House’s illegality. Connolly needs to set a clear deadline for his exit to allow congressional Democrats a new shot at finding their voice in the new Trump era.