Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) took purpose at Democrats for selecting Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to be the highest Democrat on the Home Oversight and Accountability Committee within the upcoming Congress.
“While I think both are absolutely qualified, I do think that within the Democratic Caucus, we are really stuck in our old ways of doing things, which is you get there by seniority. And so, if you’ve been there longer, you get the post, and I don’t think we fully sit there and say, ‘Who may be best equipped for this moment?'” Crocket mentioned on MSNBC on Saturday, as highlighted by Mediaite.
Crocket, a member of the committee, added that whereas she does not essentially assume Connolly is not outfitted to steer the committee at the moment, she believes that Democratic voters are on the lookout for leaders in Congress to be open to new strikes.
“I think they are saying, ‘We are looking towards y’all to show us that you’re willing to shake it up if it means we can move this country forward,'” Crockett mentioned.
Connolly beat Ocasio-Cortez for the highest spot for Democrats on the committee in a vote earlier this month. Connolly’s win was the anticipated outcome after Monday, when the Democratic Steering and Coverage Committee, headed by Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), voted to suggest the Virginian for the position.
Connolly had additionally been endorsed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who lobbied on his behalf.
Through the interview, Crockett additionally instructed that Democrats ought to take into consideration adopting closing dates for committee management positions — a method that will align with the Republican Convention’s rule of limiting chairs and rating members to serving not more than three consecutive phrases.
“I think that within the caucus we will have some conversations about how we do leadership because on the Republican side they have term limits and so you can’t sit in those posts very long, so they end up shipping out their leadership a lot more frequently than we do on the Democratic side,” Crockett mentioned.
