\n<\/p>\n
The impending Democratic opening at the top of the House Oversight committee has reopened rifts between the party establishment and its younger insurgent wing.<\/p>\n
Back in December, then 74-year-old Gerry Connolly<\/strong>\u2014who was being treated for esophageal cancer\u2014was elected ranking member of the powerful watchdog panel over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/strong>, the 35-year-old progressive who has emerged as one of the party\u2019s most dynamic stars. The snub seemed, at the time, a reflection of a deeper issue<\/a> for Democrats: that the party\u2019s aging old guard was too reluctant to abandon its power, and valued seniority and longevity over the kind of change that Democrats\u2019 2024 losses seemed to call for.<\/p>\n Six months later, with Donald Trump<\/strong> running roughshod over democracy, Connolly will be stepping down from his leadership role<\/a> due to a reemergence of his cancer. But AOC, who had been said to be considering another run for the Oversight post, ultimately decided against throwing her hat into the ring: \u201cIt\u2019s actually clear to me,\u201d she told reporters<\/a> Monday, \u201cthat the underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s decision leaves an open lane for other younger Democrats to make a run at the position, including Jasmine Crockett<\/strong>, Maxwell Frost<\/strong>, and Robert Garcia<\/strong>. But it could also make the path for 70-year-old Massachusetts Representative Stephen Lynch<\/strong>\u2014who has been endorsed by Connolly and some other more establishment figures\u2014all the clearer.<\/p>\n To be sure, the divide isn\u2019t just about age, as Pennsylvania progressive Summer Lee<\/strong>\u2014one of the younger members of the Oversight Committee\u2014told me. \u201cI know some old folks who got fire still, and maybe are more ideologically connected to me,\u201d the 37-year-old said. But, Lee suggested, some of the younger Democrats are better able to rise up to these \u201cunprecedented times\u201d because they are able to see them more clearly, without the fog of nostalgia.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are, quite frankly, people who were here at a time when bipartisanship existed. I\u2019ve never seen it. There are people who were here before the Tea Party and before Trump as a politician existed, and they have a nostalgia for the institution as it existed then,\u201d Lee said. But \u201cwe are in times that take different tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n The fight over Oversight is, of course, a proxy fight for a bigger battle among Democrats. Many of its leaders have faced criticism\u2014within the conference and among the base\u2014for taking a perhaps too careful<\/a>, sometimes anemic<\/a>, occasionally helpless<\/a> approach to Trump\u2019s all-out assault on America\u2019s democratic system.<\/p>\n Some have downplayed interparty divides: Representative Wesley Bell<\/strong>, a 50-year-old Oversight member, told me that any differences among Democrats are \u201cboutique\u201d issues compared with the unified front they are presenting against the Trump administration. \u201cI think there’s a great dynamic of young people with energy and bringing a different perspective, but then also folks who are veterans, who have the experience and wisdom,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI think Democrats are doing everything that we possibly can to push back.\u201d<\/p>\n But the base\u2014already frustrated with a party that, in sticking with a senescent Joe Biden<\/strong> last year until it was too late, has lost two out of the last three elections to Trump\u2014has shown an appetite for a more aggressive approach to fighting the current administration: \u201cWe don\u2019t need [an Oversight leader]\u2026who\u2019s going to be sending, like, strongly worded letters,\u201d said Santiago Mayer<\/strong>, founder of Voters of Tomorrow, the Democratic-aligned Gen Z political group. \u201cI think we\u2019re now in a moment where we need that energy and we need that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n There have been some signs of a changing of the Democratic guard; just in the past two weeks, two prominent lawmakers\u2014Senator Dick Durbin<\/strong>, the minority whip, and fellow Illinoisan Jan Schakowsky<\/strong>, who has served in the House since 1999\u2014announced that they would not seek reelection, with both 80-year-olds citing a desire to pass the torch in their decisions. Meanwhile, a growing number of long-serving members are expected to face primary fights<\/a> from younger challengers\u2014a movement that has the backing of David Hogg<\/strong>, a 25-year-old vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. (Hogg\u2019s active support of primary challenges to incumbent Democrats has been controversial, drawing a rebuke from DNC Chair Ken Martin<\/strong>: \u201cNo DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger,\u201d he said<\/a> last month.) At the very least, Lee suggested to me, there is a \u201cmore robust conversation\u201d underway about the party\u2019s leadership and approach.<\/p>\n The question is what that conversation will mean for Oversight, where the next leader will be tasked with bringing together what Lee called a \u201cconstellation\u201d of stars working to provide some check on Trump: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of tension between what direction we\u2019re going in\u201d as a party, Lee told me. \u201cThe Oversight committee obviously epitomizes that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n