{"id":11106,"date":"2025-06-12T06:43:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T06:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=11106"},"modified":"2025-06-12T06:43:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T06:43:20","slug":"democrats-look-for-reinvention-and-a-new-playbook-against-trump-in-key-committee-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=11106","title":{"rendered":"Democrats look for reinvention and a new playbook against Trump in key committee race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON — <\/span>House Democrats are quietly engaged in a behind-the-scenes race for a key committee position, the second time in as many months that the party has had to fill one of the most prized positions in Congress.<\/p>\n

Four Democrats are running to be the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, an investigative panel with public clout, subpoena power and an expansive portfolio. The position is open due to the death last month of Rep. Gerry Connolly<\/a> of Virginia.<\/p>\n

While Democrats in the minority have little power to shape the committee\u2019s work, the ranking member position comes with an enormous platform \u2014 and the possibility of becoming chair if the party wins back the majority in next year’s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Whoever wins will immediately be squaring off against Republicans as they prepare for splashy hearings this summer on immigration enforcement<\/a>, LGBTQ rights and former President Joe Biden\u2019s age and mental condition<\/a> while in office.<\/p>\n

As they hear from the candidates, Democrats are weighing many of the factors that were in play late last year, when Connolly, a veteran member of the committee, fended off a challenge<\/a> from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. <\/p>\n

A look at how the race is shaping up:<\/p>\n

The debate over Biden\u2019s age coincides with a reckoning over seniority and generational change happening across the Democratic Party. <\/p>\n

Four House Democrats are running for the position: Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, the acting ranking member; Jasmine Crockett of Texas, a viral sensation; Robert Garcia, a former Los Angeles County mayor who has pitched colleagues on a government reform agenda; and Kweisi Mfume of Maryland, former president of the NAACP and civil rights advocate.<\/p>\n

While Lynch is the most senior of the four, Democrats broadly said they are more open to breaking from seniority than they were in December, when Connolly, then 74, beat out Ocasio-Cortez, 35, for the job.<\/p>\n

Democrats are interested in how the candidates would communicate with the public, how they would help support lawmakers in battleground districts \u2014 and of course, how they would challenge President Donald Trump and his administration.<\/p>\n

Crockett, 44, has pitched herself as the candidate best able to compete with Trump\u2019s pugnacious and attention-grabbing style. Democrats, Crockett has argued, often fail to connect with voters and explain why the president\u2019s actions may be harmful. She believes she can.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of bringing that in, having a hearing and making sure that we are translating it and amplifying it,\u201d Crockett told MSNBC in an interview. \u201cCommunications has to be a full-on strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia, 47, has focused on government reform and effectiveness, a key issue for Democrats after the Trump administration\u2019s blitz across federal agencies and mass firings of federal workers by billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency. <\/p>\n

Mfume, 76, has attracted support from members impressed by his longtime stewardship of the nation\u2019s oldest civil rights group. He returned to Congress after decades leading the NAACP following the death of a previous Democratic Oversight chair, the late Congressman Elijah Cummings, a fellow Baltimore Democrat.<\/p>\n

Lynch, 70, has styled himself as the acting chair and the lawmaker best positioned to take on the committee\u2019s chairman, Republican James Comer of Kentucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some members who speak to a very narrow audience, and that\u2019s great,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to be energized and animated. But that same person is not going to go to the Rust Belt with people that are farmers, moderates, conservatives,\u201d Lynch told The Associated Press. \u201cYou need different voices to appeal to different constituencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I have a better chance of bringing back the blue-collar working people, and I have less of a chance of appealing to very younger people who are intensely invested in social media,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n

The vote for Oversight ranking member is scheduled for June 24 and will be conducted by secret ballot. All four candidates are speaking before multiple caucuses this week, including the New Democrats and the progressive caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.<\/p>\n

While many Democrats are undecided, others have made up their mind. Some who are privately stumping for their candidate believe it will be a tight race. That makes the public forums and private pitches even more crucial in the run-up to the vote.<\/p>\n

House progressives are divided over their preferred choice. Three members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus \u2014 Crockett, Garcia and Mfume \u2014 are vying for the ranking member seat, which makes it unlikely the caucus will back a single candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for folks that could expose this kind of corruption and hold Trump and his billionaire donors accountable,\u201d said Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, the Progressive Caucus chair.<\/p>\n

Rep. Brad Schneider, chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, said he\u2019s weighing two factors: which candidate could best help Democrats win the 2026 midterm elections and whether they can successfully lead investigations into the Trump administration and \u201ctry to repair some of the damage that\u2019s been done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe committee can be a flash point, or it can be a very effective place for us to make our point, and we want to know who\u2019s going to do best in that role to make sure the committee works to help us secure 218 (members) next November,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n

Some Democratic caucuses have traditionally prized seniority as a clear and reliable way for lawmakers of color to rise through the ranks. There has never been a Hispanic Oversight chairman and only one Black chairman, Elijah Cummings. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe CBC has always stood for seniority,\u201d said Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia. But Johnson noted that the Black Caucus has at times \u201cdeviated\u201d from that norm. He said many in the caucus are open to a conversation about age.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, Steve Lynch, I think, is the next senior member. And but as I said, other factors have to be considered and I\u2019m sure that, along with myself, other CBC members are going through that process,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I\u2019ve been here, seniority has had weight,\u201d said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, who said he was undecided on which candidate to back. \u201cBut seniority is not the only thing. And there are times and circumstances where the person with the most seniority has not won. Whether that\u2019s one of these times or not is what we\u2019re going to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Leah Askarinam contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — House Democrats are quietly engaged in a behind-the-scenes race for a key committee position, the second time in as many months that the party has had to fill one of the most prized positions in Congress. Four Democrats are running to be the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, an investigative panel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11108,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11106\/revisions\/11108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}