AOC loses in secret ballot for seat on House Energy and Commerce Committee after feud with moderate Dems
New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who won her re-election bid after she defeated Republican challenger John Cummings by a considerably large margin last month, had to face defeat in a race for a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee as her Democratic colleagues voted mainly for fellow NY Representative Kathleen Rice in a secret ballot.
According to a report in Politico on Thursday, December 17, the two Demoratic Congresswomen were battling behind the scenes for weeks to secure one of the few open seats on the powerful House committee that oversees everything from issues like healthcare and climate. Tensions over the race were plainly visible in a private meeting of the Steering and Policy Committee on Thursday, December 17, where the Dems were forced to choose between the two women leaders in a “tense and awkward” secret ballot vote, the report added.
Fifty-five-year-old Rice has been serving as the representative of New York’s 4th district since 2015 while the 14th district’s Ocasio-Cortez, 31, won her first bid in 2018 to become the youngest Congresswoman.
During the Steering and Policy Committee meeting where the secret ballot saw Rice winning by 46-13, the Democrats called out AOC for backing progressive primary challengers and not House incumbents, the Politico report stated. The firebrand leader was also chided for her refusal to pay party campaign dues and found herself at the receiving end after seeking a 'new leadership' in the party.
AOC at odds with her own party
AOC has been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons of late. Recently, she questioned the administrative team that President-elect Joe Biden has picked, saying the agenda is not clear. The moderate wing of the party is peeved with progressives like AOC as they feel their radical agenda is not doing the party any good and believe that this behavior may have cost the blue party quite a few seats in the recent House elections. They have also slammed the ‘defund the police’ slogan which has been backed by leaders like AOC, for not being 'realistic'. The self-styled socialist leader was also mired in an open feud with West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.
The progressives inside and outside the Capitol felt it was necessary to have the ‘Squad’ leader on the Energy and Commerce Committee to help influence key policies that the Biden administration formulates in its early days. But some senior members of the party, including those on the panel, were not comfortable with AOC getting a seat. According to some, AOC, who backs ideas like the “New Green Deal” and “Medicare for All”, could create problems for the Congress in its attempt to draft bipartisan health and climate policies in the days to come, the news report added.
Most senior Democrats were reluctant to get involved in the contest between AOC and Rice and they included members of the NY delegation who signed letters of support for both the state Congresswomen and did not want to get identified as biased. AOC, despite her loss, received support from some senior Democrats, including Jerry Nadler, the representative from NY’s 10th district and the chair of the House Judiciary Committee who also serves as the dean of the Empire State’s delegation and signed her letter of support but not Rice’s, mentioned the report on Politico. It was another point of contention between the two contenders, with AOC brandishing Nadler’s signature to argue that she alone had the delegation’s support.
Rice was among the five Democrats who ultimately won a slot on the exclusive panel, apart from Minnesota Representative Angie Craig, Washington Representative Kim Schrier, Massachusetts Representative Lori Trahan and Texas Representative Lizzie Fletcher. Ten Democrats were vying for places on the panel though many eventually withdrew.