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 enhance 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 in opposition to 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 celebration’s committee assignments — signaled that seniority isn’t the deciding issue in the case of filling high posts.
The steering panel’s advice isn’t 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 celebration 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 steer 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 annoyed some CBC members final week when he declined to take part in an interview session the group carried out with lawmakers vying for high committee posts within the subsequent Congress.
Regional components may additionally 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 degree — and Craig is the one one of many three candidates to characterize the Heartland, the place Democrats had been drubbed on this 12 months’s presidential contest.
The controversy over seniority has been a contentious one inside the Democratic caucus for years, as youthful lawmakers, looking for to rise extra rapidly into the ranks of energy, have clashed with extra veteran lawmakers who’ve touted the significance of getting skilled palms within the high committee seats. The difficulty has been much more pronounced in a 12 months when President Biden was nudged off of the poll by Democrats involved about his stamina and psychological acuity.
Nonetheless, virtually all the Home committees will likely be led subsequent 12 months 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 nicely within the decrease chamber.
