Democratic lawmakers fear AOC, vote secretly to exclude her from her chosen committee

There’s good and bad when a politician builds a reputation for bucking the system, breaking protocols, and doing essentially whatever they want. Party leadership usually doesn’t reward rabble-rousers, as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez learned today.

In her efforts to move up in party hierarchy and establish a platform through which to push her Green New Deal, the newly reelected Representative from New York applied to be on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. There were five open spots, four of which were directly assigned by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. But for the fifth spot, she left it up for grabs in a secret vote. It didn’t work out for AOC. According to Townhall:

Pelosi held a secret ballot vote to choose between two New York representatives interested in the job, Reps. Kathleen Rice and Ocasio-Cortez. Rice was the popular choice by far, winning in a lopsided vote of 46-13.

According to POLITICO, Rice and AOC have been fighting behind the scenes for weeks to nab a seat on the exclusive House Energy and Commerce Committee, which, according to its website, “has the broadest jurisdiction of any authorizing committee in Congress.” It would be a powerful position for the Democratic socialist to push her Green New Deal policies in the early days of a Biden-Harris administration.

Before the House voted to award the seat to Rice, several House Democrats aired grievances with Ocasio-Cortez and lobbied against her for the committee assignment.

Several Democrats took issue with AOC’s efforts to help liberal challengers take out incumbent Democrats as well as the congresswoman’s refusal to pay party campaign dues. Some Democrats privately voiced concerns that AOC landing the seat would cause headaches for Congress attempting to draft bipartisan legislation.

“I’m taking into account who works against other members in primaries and who doesn’t,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX said on the call, sources told POLITICO. Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Cuellar’s primary challenger, Jessica Cisneros.

Payback for bucking Democratic leadership is a lesson Rep. Rice, who was awarded the seat, also learned the hard way. Rice attempted to prevent Pelosi from leading House Democrats in the 116th Congress, only to then be denied her preferred seat on the House Judiciary Committee. Now, Rice has become a critical vote for Speaker Pelosi who must now contend with a smaller majority.

Axios attempted to blunt the blow against the radical progressive by noting, “Ocasio-Cortez lost the vote by the House Democratic Steering Committee because she didn’t personally ask for enough votes, and because some members fear she’ll support a primary against them from the left.”

The second part is correct, but our sources tell us AOC worked very hard to get the position and made a pitch to every member of the Steering Committee. Because it was a secret vote, nobody feared repercussions from the popular Democratic-Socialist. But Axios also notes that if the vote were public, fear of her wrath would have driven a win.

From the article:

One member told me Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “doesn’t have enough relationships. She needs to learn from this.”

Conscious of AOC’s power with progressives and online, the member said: “The vote would have been very different if it wasn’t secret.”

The trend of freshman or recently reelected members on Capitol Hill bucking party leadership started wholesale with the Tea Party’s attacks and primary runs against fellow Republicans during the Obama administration. And while there were some notable successes like Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Matt Gaetz, there have been many who were taken down such as former Congressman Tim Huelskamp and former Senator David Vitter.

But Ocasio-Cortez and “The Squad” have made it their entire brand to go against the Establishment. This has helped them achieve more notoriety than others in their class of 2018, but it came at a price. They have enemies, many of whom are scared of them.

This is a tug-of-war between the Democratic Establishment and Democratic-Socialists. And while this loss will hurt AOC a bit, her side has the momentum to take over the party in years, not decades.

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