Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will not be a candidate for the top Democratic position on the Oversight Committee, she announced Monday. The New York congresswoman says her party would rather have a more senior member in the position. 

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez first ran for the Oversight Committee ranking member slot in December, after Congressman Jamie Raskin resigned from the post to serve as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. She lost the ranking member race to Congressman Gerry Connolly, a 74-year-old Virginia lawmaker who is now stepping back due to a cancer diagnosis. 

“It’s actually clear to me that the underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told reporters at the Capitol on Monday evening. After Mr. Connolly announced he would step down from the position, she expressed interest in running again.  

After losing the Oversight ranking member race to Mr. Connolly last year, she won a spot on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. Because of the expansive nature of that panel’s work, lawmakers who are appointed to that committee do not serve on any other committees concurrently. 

When he announced that he would step back from his Oversight Committee duties in April, Mr. Connolly said he would appoint Congressman Stephen Lynch to serve as his replacement on an interim basis. Mr. Connolly says he will do the job when he is available, though Mr. Lynch will now shoulder most of the responsibilities. 

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s admission on Monday that her caucus is more focused on “seniority” than she would have preferred is likely a shot at Mr. Lynch, who has served in the House since 2001. He is considered one of the more conservative Democrats in the chamber, considering his previous opposition to the Affordable Care Act and his past opposition to unconstrained abortion rights. 

Mr. Lynch is likely to run for his party’s top spot on the Oversight Committee. He previously ran for the position, though he lost to Mr. Raskin in 2022. Other Democrats have said they could run, including Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett — a liberal firebrand from Houston who likely will not win much support given that she has been in the House only since 2023. 

Democrats have been widely criticized for their “gerontocracy” problem in recent years, especially in the wake of President Biden’s decision to run for re-election even though he was declining mentally and physically. 

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Correction: “Gerontocracy” is a problem for which Democrats have faced criticism. An earlier version misspelled the term.