Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced late Monday she won’t run for a key congressional post even after she won a big boost Monday when House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called her a “very compelling candidate” to fill the spot.
The progressive lawmaker said she doesn’t believe she could win enough support from establishment Democrats who will determine the new ranking member in the oversight committee, a post that Rep. Gerry Connolly says he will quit after his cancer diagnosis.
“The underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary, so I believe I’ll be staying put,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Capitol Hill.
The announcement came hours after Jeffries name-checked Ocasio-Cortez when asked about the post.
“There would be a number of strong candidates,” Jeffries said at a Washington D.C. press conference. “Rep. Ocasio-Cortez would of course be a very compelling candidate were she to decide to run.”
Ocasio-Cortez last week said she was “weighing” a run to replace Connolly for the post that could give her a much more potent and visible platform opposing the agenda of President Trump.
She ran a strong race against Connolly last fall but lost in a vote of the Democratic caucus after the party leadership lined up behind the more experienced veteran Virginia lawmaker. Connolly recently said he won’t run for reelection and will step aside from the committee post to battle cancer.
Many Democrats, especially progressives and younger activists, see Ocasio-Cortez as a hugely effective communicator and want the party to give her a much more visible role.
The fourth-term lawmaker, a charismatic former waitress, has even fanned 2028 presidential buzz with a successful joint tour of rallies in deep red Western states with Sen. Bernie Sanders.
But members of the party’s powerful and aging establishment are wary that her outspoken style and left-wing politics could hurt the party in swing seats.
The Democratic oversight post came open after the 2024 election because Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) quit the post to move the the judciary committee, where he ousted Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York) as Democratic leader of that panel.
