Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced late Monday she received’t run for a key congressional publish even after she received an enormous increase Monday when Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries known as her a “very compelling candidate” to fill the spot.
The progressive lawmaker mentioned she doesn’t imagine she might win sufficient help from institution Democrats who will decide the brand new rating member within the oversight committee, a publish that Rep. Gerry Connolly says he’ll stop after his most cancers prognosis.
“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 advised reporters on Capitol Hill.
The announcement got here hours after Jeffries name-checked Ocasio-Cortez when requested in regards to the publish.
“There would be a number of strong candidates,” Jeffries mentioned at a Washington D.C. press convention. “Rep. Ocasio-Cortez would of course be a very compelling candidate were she to decide to run.”
Ocasio-Cortez final week mentioned she was “weighing” a run to interchange Connolly for the publish that would give her a way more potent and visual platform opposing the agenda of President Trump.
She ran a powerful race towards Connolly final fall however misplaced in a vote of the Democratic caucus after the get together management lined up behind the extra skilled veteran Virginia lawmaker. Connolly lately mentioned he received’t run for reelection and can step other than the committee publish to battle most cancers.
Many Democrats, particularly progressives and youthful activists, see Ocasio-Cortez as a vastly efficient communicator and need the get together to offer her a way more seen function.
The fourth-term lawmaker, a charismatic former waitress, has even fanned 2028 presidential buzz with a profitable joint tour of rallies in deep pink Western states with Sen. Bernie Sanders.
However members of the get together’s highly effective and ageing institution are cautious that her outspoken type and left-wing politics might harm the get together in swing seats.
The Democratic oversight publish got here open after the 2024 election as a result of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) stop the publish to maneuver the the judciary committee, the place he ousted Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York) as Democratic chief of that panel.
