Popular progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made her play. While he policy positions never changed, some noted that she seemed to push to the political middle during the campaign season. It was a move to seemingly curry favor with some of the party’s power brokers.
When she tried to play that chip on Tuesday for a powerful position on a House committee, it showed her progressive label still rankles in Washington. Even in her own party.
On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez lost her bid to lead the Oversight Committee to Gerry Connolly after Democratic leadership stated its preference for the 74-year-old from Virginia. The vote wasn’t even close, with Connolly winning 131 votes to Ocasio-Cortez’s 84 votes. The panel has broad powers and will help keep oversight of President-Elect Donald Trump
“I think the caucus, you know, has this process, made its decision,” she told The Independent after the vote. “I support ranking member-elect Connolly and I’m looking forward to doing the best we can.”
Tim Burchett, the conservative Republican from Tennessee who struck up an unlikely friendship with Ocasio-Cortez, said Democrats made a mistake.
“I’m happy for us, because the Democrats don’t realize that in their youth circle, she is a rock star,” he said.
Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t running against an incumbent but fellow representative, one who carried the weight of Democratic stalwart Nancy Pelosi. It was a setback for Ocasio-Cortez and showed that even by playing the ‘inside game’ in the halls of Congress, the progressive from New York is fighting an uphill battle for recognition among her fellow – more moderate – Democrats.
Ocasio-Cortez arrived in Washington in 2019 when she beat Joe Crowley, the chairman of the House Democratic caucus who was considered a potential future speaker and the classic retail politician. During her first days as a congresswoman-elect, she joined a demonstration in front of Nancy Pelosi’s office.
She would also endorsed her political mentor Bernie Sanders for president, which helped reinvigorate his 2020 campaign and spoke on his behalf at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. She and her fellow Squad mates were the only six Democrats to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill and led a protest against the end of an eviction moratorium on the steps of the Capitol in 2021. She voted against providing more aid to Israel and boycotted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress.
At the same time, Ocasio-Cortez showed herself to be willing to work within the system. She quickly voted to make Nancy Pelosi speaker shortly after her first-days demonstration. She emerged as one of the best-prepared questioner who figured out how to make the most of her time on the Oversight Committee.
When Harris became the Democratic nominee, Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent that other Democrats needed to protect her from racist and misogynistic attacks. During the first night of the Democratic National Convention, she gave a barn-burner of a speech where also said that Harris “is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home.”
That line rankled some progressives since they likely would have hoped she would have tried to influence the Harris campaign to support stronger measures against Israel, but it also showed that Ocasio-Cortez wanted to be someone who could work with a potential Harris administration. Ocasio-Cortez also campaigned for Harris in Pennsylvania and Nevada, states with large Latino populations.
All of this was in the service of showing how she could be a loyal Democrat to push for more progressive policies. She never shifted her policy positions. As late as last month, she told The Independent that she wanted Biden to commute more sentences, particularly for those on federal death row.
But Ocasio-Cortez’s coming up short shows the limits of her attempts to play an inside game.
Older Democrats were quick to downplay Ocasio-Cortez’s loss. South Carolina’s James Clyburn, the former House majority whip who helped make Biden president, called the race between Ocasio-Cortez and Connolly “just a regular intramural contest,” adding that these fights were based on “personalities.” Debbie Dingell of Michigan said she has a “long future” ahead of her.
Progressives were more sharply critical, with Becca Balint of Vermont telling reporters that Americans want members of Congress “to fight, for them to be focused entirely on their constituencies and not on, you know, relationships within the building.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is Ocasio-Cortez’s longtime friend and supporter, said “She ran a great race, and I know she’ll be able to work really well with Gerry Connolly.”
Despite playing the inside game, progressives will still have to climb an uphill battle to earn the respect of their peers and gain actual influence the way that fringe conservatives have taken over the Republican party.
