The decision by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) to step back as ranking member of the Oversight Committee could soon create a vacancy on one of the most coveted seats for the minority Democrats — one that’s sure to launch an animated contest to find a replacement.
But it won’t happen immediately.
While Connolly has stepped away from the daily rigors of the ranking membership amid a fight with esophageal cancer, he hasn’t stepped down from the position altogether. Instead, he’s tapped Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), another senior member of the Oversight Committee, to serve as interim ranking member for the indefinite future.
That move places Lynch as the top Democrat on the panel, but without the formalities — including a vote of the full caucus — required to seat a permanent ranking member.
Lynch said that decision was partly based on local politics, since Connolly represents a large number of federal employees and wants to remain engaged in the fight against President Trump’s efforts to gut the federal government.
But the decisions surrounding the transition were also strategic, Lynch added.
With Republicans battling over the emerging details of Trump’s “big beautiful bill” — a massive proposal featuring tax cuts and other Republican domestic priorities — Democrats want to keep the public focus on the infighting across the aisle in hopes of sinking the legislation altogether. A potentially messy battle among Democrats to name a permanent ranking member on Oversight could distract from that effort, Lynch suggested.
“Leadership was asking — and Gerry mentioned this to me — that with the reconciliation process ongoing, they want to kind of — let’s get [the GOP fight] out of the way before we have any kind of leadership race,” Lynch said Tuesday.
Democratic leaders haven’t been so blunt, but they’re emphasizing that there’s no contest to replace Connolly because Connolly is still officially the ranking member.
“He will be stepping aside. We will be conducting ourselves in a way that … he and the committee desire, and that is for leadership to step up and help run the meetings,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters Tuesday in the Capitol.
“But there’s no vacancy at the committee.”
Still, the prospect that Connolly will vacate the seat eventually has sparked early moves from some members of the committee who are already gauging their prospects as a replacement.
Lynch is among them. He said he expects a more formal process later in the year, and that Connolly has already endorsed him to fill the seat permanently.
“He told me he’s publicly supporting me,” Lynch said. “I’ve worked with him for almost 25 years. We’ve travelled together in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ve done investigations — Walter Reed Army Hospital. We’ve worked on a whole bunch of stuff together, so there’s a friendship there.”
Others are interested, as well. Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) are weighing a run for the high-profile seat, according to various reports.
And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who had challenged Connolly unsuccessfully for the top Oversight spot late last year, also appears to be weighing another run at the seat.
While Ocasio-Cortez left the Oversight panel after her loss to Connolly and now sits on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, there are pathways she can pursue allowing her to hop back to the Oversight panel. So far, though, she’s not showing her hand.
“I’m not going to break any news right now,” Ocasio-Cortez told NewsNation’s Joe Khalil on Tuesday. “Of course I’m supportive of us having a dynamic caucus and a dynamic leadership. But we will make this decision as a team, and as a caucus.”
The race to replace Connolly on the powerful panel — if and when it happens — is sure to rekindle the prickly Democratic debate over age, seniority, and whether party leaders are doing enough to empower a younger generation of lawmakers with more influence over policy and messaging decisions.
That discussion was front-and-center during the race between Connolly and Ocasio-Cortez last December. And it’s sure to resurface again on an Oversight Committee where a significant number of members are in just their first or second terms.
Lynch, for one, acknowledged the generational debate, but also suggested it doesn’t have to be antagonistic. He’s advocating the need to mix the experience of veteran lawmakers with the fresh ideas and media savvy of the younger members.
“I am interested in putting our younger members in a position where they can have an impact,” Lynch said. “You can only imagine, if we did take back the House, what the Oversight Committee would be engaged in, right? There’d be a lot of important things coming through that committee, and I would be trying to share those opportunities with our younger members.
“They’re much better on social media than I ever will be.”