House Democrats have 30 days to choose between their longstanding tradition of seniority or picking someone fresh for one of the most prominent roles opposing President Donald Trump and his most MAGA-branded Republicans.
It’s a sensitive conversation for an aging party in the midst of a post-election media walloping over how Democrats covered up the declining mental state of then-President Joe Biden, 82.
Just six months ago, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) was chosen over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), 35, as ranking member on the Oversight committee. AOC’s boosters hoped she’d help usher in a post-Biden reckoning about aging leadership.
Seniority won out. Then Connolly, 75, died of cancer Wednesday.
“We just lost a presidential election because of deference to age and seniority in the face of all available evidence before our eyes,” said Aaron Regunberg, who helped lead a Democratic group urging then-President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid last summer. “And then in the wake of that, we gave this completely important position of Oversight to someone who was clearly dying, because of deference to seniority.”
Connolly was the third House Democrat to die so far this year, after 70-year-old freshman Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) and 77-year-old Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), both of whom also had cancer. Democrats are in a delicate situation, mourning their colleagues while grappling with why all three ran with the party’s backing less than a year ago.
Many members don’t want to see the Oversight race as a referendum on seniority or age, preferring instead to focus on the candidates being floated. But it’s hard to ignore the dynamics as Democrats deal with an influx of revelations about Biden’s fitness to run for a second term.
The most senior of the likely candidates is Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), 70, who voted against the Affordable Care Act and was anti-abortion until 2019. Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), 76, is a former civil rights leader and the next-most senior member on Oversight. At the other pole is Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), 44, a progressive firebrand and frequent subject of Trump’s ire.
Between all of them is former Long Beach mayor Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), 47.He’s picked up support from both the progressive and centrist wings of the party. One member of the moderate New Democrat Coalition I spoke with this week hopes Garcia, who was elected freshman class president his first term and is now Democratic Caucus leadership representative, can unite the caucus.
The Congressional Black Caucus, which includes some of the longest-serving House Democrats, sees the seniority system as a way to ensure minorities aren’t passed over for key roles. Only two weeks before Connolly’s death, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), 84, put it this way: “Are you looking for a 35-year-old to hold office, or are you looking to make headway?”
But some of the CBC’s newest members see the tide turning.
“I see some value in the seniority system when it comes down to legacy Black members and Latino members who’ve traditionally not been able to get into these positions,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), who at 28 is the youngest member of Congress, told me earlier this month.
“But also, times are changing, and I think there’s more avenues for young Black people and Latinos to be able to get there,” he added.
Whoever wins will likely hold the spot as long as they want. Unlike Republicans, who limit their members to three terms atop a committee, Democrats can — and often do — stay in the jobs until they leave Congress. Democrats’ oldest ranking member, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Financial Services, is 86 and on her fifth term as panel leader.
But Waters hasn’t faced the same calls to pack it up as some of her younger colleagues. She showcased her stamina at the panel’s reconciliation markup earlier this month, reading for roughly 45 minutes from a New York Times investigative article and using other stall tactics to draw negotiations over the six-page bill portion well past other panels’ meetings.
When Democrats ask “are our leaders too old to fight Trump?” it’s not purely a question of age.
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