Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t content being just a run of the mill member of the House of Representatives.
Ocasio-Cortez has her eyes on a bigger prize.
And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants one new job that is giving Democrats heartburn.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seeks major promotion
Ocasio-Cortez sees the Democrat Party reduced to rubble following Donald Trump’s landslide victory.
The party is rudderless and seeking new leadership and a new direction.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sees her chance to flex her muscle and put her stamp on the party.
Ocasio-Cortez sent a letter to her fellow Democrats announcing she was ignoring the seniority system and challenging Gerry Connolly of Virginia – who just won re-election to his ninth term in the House – for the ranking member spot on the House Oversight Committee.
In her letter, Ocasio-Cortez tried to frame her decision as learning the lesson of the 2024 election as Democrats needed to deliver for the working class.
“We must balance our focus on the incoming president’s corrosive actions and corruption with a tangible fight to make life easier for America’s working class,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
It was ironic that Ocasio-Cortez claimed Republicans’ agenda was disastrous for the working class when no Congressional District in America shifted further to the Right this year than Ocasio-Cortez’s.
“I know firsthand how the Majority uses their chaos to confuse, disorient, and distract the public’s attention away from their disastrous agenda. We cannot and will not allow that to happen. I will lead by example by always keeping the lives of everyday Americans at the center of our work,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
Ocasio-Cortez added that she will return the “focus on the Committee’s strong history of both holding administrations accountable and taking on the economic precarity and inequality that is challenging the American way of life.”
No lessons learned
For his part, Connolly tried to put on a brave front.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is a beat I know well, and right now we need an expert who can parry the worst Republican attacks on our institutions and deliver reform where it is necessary and needed,” Connolly wrote in response to Ocasio-Cortez’s challenge.
Elevating Ocasio-Cortez would show that Democrats haven’t learned anything.
The first major stance Ocasio-Cortez took after the election was opposing a transgender bathroom ban instituted by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
A biological male calling himself “Sarah McBride” won election to the House in November.
Johnson announced McBride would have to use the men’s bathroom since McBride was born a male.
Ocasio-Cortez claimed this was outrageous and claimed a biological male like McBride should be able to use the women’s bathroom in the Capitol.
“If a woman doesn’t look woman enough to a Republican, they want to be able to inspect her genitals to use a bathroom?” Ocasio-Cortez declared. “No matter how you may feel about this issue, [you] should reject it completely.”
Elevating Ocasio-Cortez to a ranking member position on the House Oversight Committee would signal to the voters that House Democrats still live in fear of their woke base and that identity politics rules the day.
