Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) expressed frustration over the Democratic Party‘s aging leadership and complained that the party is “stuck in our old ways.”
The House Democratic caucus’ selection of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to be the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee was the most recent example of the party selecting age and seniority over newer ideas and options. Crockett, while on MSNBC Saturday, said she believes both members were qualified but argued that the decision does not send a good message.
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“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?” Crockett said.
The Texas congresswoman also said that the country is looking at Democrats to “show us you’re willing to shake it up if it means we can move this country forward,” alluding to Democrats’ bruising general election defeats.
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Connolly, a longtime member of the House Oversight Committee, recently had a cancer diagnosis, which heightened concerns by members who favored Ocasio-Cortez to be the lead Democrat on the powerful committee. Crockett did say she has confidence in Connolly leading Democrats on the committee.
Crockett, a Democratic firebrand, also argued that Democrats should consider new approaches to leadership, noting House Republicans have term limits with their leadership positions.
“I think that within the caucus, we will have 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 more, a lot more frequently than we do on the Democratic side,” Crockett said.
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The Texas Democrat was first elected in 2022 and had run a challenge to Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) for chairwoman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee but handily lost.
Crockett and Ocasio-Cortez’s challenges were some of the challenges to incumbent House Democratic leaders that progressives launched in the wake of the election.
