A key Democratic panel voted Monday to suggest Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) to be the highest Democrat on the Home Agriculture Committee within the subsequent Congress, lending a giant increase to essentially the most junior lawmaker within the contest heading right into a deciding vote of the complete caucus on Tuesday.
Craig, a six-year veteran of Capitol Hill, is squaring off towards two different members of the Agriculture Committee: Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), the present rating member, and Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), the panel’s second-ranking Democrat.
In favoring Craig, members of the Democratic Steering and Coverage Committee — an influential panel that helps to information the occasion’s committee assignments — signaled that seniority shouldn’t be the deciding issue in the case of filling prime posts.
The steering panel’s advice shouldn’t be decisive. The complete Home Democratic Caucus will vote Tuesday to decide on between the three candidates. However the steering panel is actually handpicked by Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and the panel’s endorsements maintain outsized sway within the course of of selecting committee heads to work with occasion leaders.
Scott has been the highest Democrat on the Agriculture Committee since 2021, however he has suffered from well being troubles which have affected his mobility. Some lawmakers have expressed considerations that he merely doesn’t have the stamina to guide the panel, particularly heading into the second Trump administration and as conservatives vow to slash packages underneath the committee’s jurisdiction.
Scott, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), had additionally pissed off some CBC members final week when he declined to take part in an interview session the group performed with lawmakers vying for prime committee posts within the subsequent Congress.
Regional components may also have performed into the steering committee’s vote. The Democrats’ energy construction is dominated by lawmakers from the coasts — each on the management and committee stage — and Craig is the one one of many three candidates to characterize the Heartland, the place Democrats had been drubbed on this yr’s presidential contest.
The talk over seniority has been a contentious one throughout the Democratic caucus for years, as youthful lawmakers, searching for to rise extra rapidly into the ranks of energy, have clashed with extra veteran lawmakers who’ve touted the significance of getting skilled fingers within the prime committee seats. The problem has been much more pronounced in a yr when President Biden was nudged off of the poll by Democrats involved about his stamina and psychological acuity.
Nonetheless, virtually the entire Home committees shall be led subsequent yr by essentially the most senior members of the panels, suggesting the seniority system — which has guided the Democrats’ committee picks for many years — is alive and effectively within the decrease chamber.
