Ocasio-Cortez passes on top Oversight Committee position bid

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Monday she will not run for the top Democratic spot on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, passing on the opportunity as Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the current ranking member of the panel, prepares to step down from the post.

Ocasio-Cortez, who was seen as a potential successor to Connolly, suggested she was opting out of the race because the caucus tends to value seniority when selecting top committee posts, which was evident in her loss to Connolly for the job late last year.

“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, and so I believe I’ll be staying put at Energy and Commerce,” she told reporters.

When asked by NBC News how she came to that decision, the 35-year-old Ocasio-Cortez once again pointed to the seniority dynamic in the House Democratic Caucus.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations across the caucus, and I’ve been very grateful for the support that’s been extended, but at the end of the day, a lot of this has to do with the dynamics around seniority in the caucus. And I just, from a lot of the conversations that I’ve had, I just think that those dynamics would not be fundamentally changed in the race at this time,” she responded.

Ocasio-Cortez’s decision comes months after the four-term New York Democrat unsuccessfully ran for the top Democratic spot on the Oversight Committee, losing to Connolly, a 75-year-old, nine-term lawmaker, in a 131-84 vote.

The position is poised to open back up; Connolly announced last week that he would step down from the ranking member position, citing the return of his esophageal cancer. It remains unclear when Connolly plans to formally leave the position. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), a 70-year-old who’s been in office since 2001, was selected by Connolly to serve as interim ranking member for the indefinite future.

Ocasio-Cortez was seen as a potential candidate for the job, despite the fact that she no longer sits on the Oversight Committee. Without Ocasio-Cortez in the running, progressives may look to Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) as possible successors to Connolly.