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The Hill
23-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Democrat battle over Connolly's Oversight seat comes down to wire
The high-stakes race to become the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee appears to be up for grabs. There's no clear front-runner just before House Democrats vote Tuesday to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the panel's ranking member who died last month after a battle with cancer. The field is a crowded one: Four members of the committee are gunning for Connolly's post. The candidates embody a microcosm of the broader caucus in diversity in age, gender, ethnicity and regional representation that makes the race both a referendum on the Democrats' long-held seniority system and a measure of how the party wants to broadcast its image heading into next year's midterm elections. It's a dynamic the candidates are quick to acknowledge. 'The Caucus will decide what it is they want to prioritize,' said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), 44, a second-term Democrat competing for the seat. 'There's someone in this race for everyone.' Crockett represents a younger generation of ambitious up-and-coming Democrats fighting to reshape the party's brand with an eye, not only on energizing the liberal base, but also winning over the younger voters who shifted towards Trump in 2024. In that mold, she's joined by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), 47, another second-term lawmaker vowing to revive the party's standing as support has eroded across a spectrum of demographics. On the other side of that coin is Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), 70, the most senior of the four candidates who is now serving as the interim ranking member. Lynch, a former ironworker and union leader, is touting his long experience of investigative work on the committee, The few weeks he's spent leading Democrats from the panel's dais have been viewed as an audition for what he hopes is a permanent role. Meanwhile, Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), 76, has pitched himself as someone who can bridge the generational gap — talking to colleagues about the need to draw from voices across the party — while vowing to shift the committee's focus away from the Republicans' targets, like Hunter Biden, which Democrats deemed to be trivial and over-politicized. 'We've got to restore the credibility of that committee,' Mfume said recently. 'The Republican Party has decimated the goals, the objectives, the mission and the mandate of Oversight as we have come to know it.' Identity politics could be a major factor in the race. Garcia is the lone member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The group has formally endorsed his bid, lending a huge boost from an influential faction boasting almost 40 House members. The Congressional Black Caucus is no less powerful, but because it has two members in the race — Mfume and Crockett — it won't be endorsing anyone, at least while both of them remain in the contest. 'We don't endorse, especially because we have two CBC candidates,' Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), head of the Black Caucus, said before the recess. Likewise, three of the candidates — Mfume, Crockett and Garcia — are members of the powerful Congressional Progressive Caucus, likely dividing allegiances within a group that boasts almost 100 members. Regional concerns could also play a role. The Democrats' power base has, for years, been consolidated on the coasts, and the party has long sought a strategy to build its appeal in the middle of the country, where voter sentiment has shifted steadily to the right. Crockett, the lone candidate not from the coasts, is advancing the idea that she could help Democrats win over those elusive voters. 'Southern Democrats are not represented in our elected leadership,' she said. 'When we're talking about winning states like Georgia, when we're talking about winning in North Carolina and Virginia and some of these other places, we may want to put some Southern states into the mix.' With subpoena power and broad jurisdiction over virtually every facet of the federal government, the Oversight Committee ranks among Capitol Hill's mightiest panels. Democrats don't have the power to set the panel's agenda or decide the target of investigations since they are in the minority. But the high-profile seat is still among the most important launching pads for Democratic messaging on Capitol Hill — a perch from where they're hoping to challenge the many controversial actions of President Trump. That includes decisions to discard due process rights in conducting deportations and openly use the office of the presidency to steer policies that enrich himself personally. 'It's a remarkably important position, especially at this moment,' said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who was the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee in the last Congress. 'We're living in an age of spectacular corruption throughout the federal government. I mean, we've seen nothing like this before in American history, with the opening up of the new crypto scam ventures and pay to play pardons and the transformation of the White House to a complete money-making operation,' he continued.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kweisi Mfume is pitching an old-school approach to one of House Democrats' highest-profile jobs
Frustrated by Democrats' seniority system, Kweisi Mfume fled the House three decades ago, saying he could do more to advance civil rights from the outside. Now he's back and trying to reap the benefits of seniority at a moment when many in his party are starting to openly question it. The Baltimore native last month surprised many House colleagues by entering the wide-open race to lead Democrats on the high-profile Oversight Committee, seeking to fill the spot vacated by the sudden death of Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly. Into the void jumped a pair of young, ambitious members — Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Robert Garcia of California — as well as a close Connolly ally, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. And then there's Mfume, who at 76 is making no bones about this being the capstone of a long career that included stints leading the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP — jobs he took back in the 1990s. 'I started a long time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth,' Mfume joked in an interview, before describing his old-school approach to legislative relations: 'The first thing you learn is how to count votes, which has never failed me yet,' he said, adding that he would be careful not to alienate colleagues 'by doing something that causes problems for them in their district.' Rather than detail a point-by-point agenda for taking on President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, Mfume said if elected he'd convene the committee's Democrats to decide a course of action. The party, he said, can only move forward with a 'consensus.' That style stands in sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive leadership and a more visible fight with Trump — something the other candidates are clearly heeding: Garcia has tangled with the Justice Department over his criticism of Elon Musk; Crockett has broached the prospect of a Trump impeachment inquiry; and Lynch, as the panel's interim top Democrat, attempted last week to subpoena Musk during a panel hearing. The race also threatens to become a proxy fight for broader questions about age and seniority inside the Democratic Party. House Democrats ousted several aging committee leaders at the end of last Congress as they girded for a fight with the Trump administration — and many in the base were disappointed when Connolly triumphed over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The winner is poised to lead efforts to investigate and thwart the Trump administration if Democrats can retake the House majority next year — and ride herd on a chaotic panel that in recent months has featured intense personal attacks between lawmakers and the display of nude photos. 'It's a street fight every day,' said Rep. Lateefah Simon of California when asked about the panel and what it takes to lead it. 'It's every single day being able to expose the hypocrisy of this administration and to tell the truth.' There was a time when Mfume would have been a natural choice for such a moment. First elected to Baltimore's City Council at the age of 30, he quickly butted heads with legendary Mayor William Donald Schaefer. After longtime Rep. Parren Mitchell retired, Mfume easily won the seat in 1986 and within a few years become a national figure due to his chairmanship of the CBC. Ascending to that role just as Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency, he became an important power broker, forcing key concessions in Clinton's 1993 budget and pushing the White House to restore ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. He also clashed with Clinton at times, including over his decision to pull the nomination of prominent Black legal scholar Lani Guinier to a top Justice Department post. But after Democrats lost their House majority in 1994 — and Mfume lost a quixotic bid to enter the party leadership — he decided two years later to forgo a long climb up the seniority ladder. He instead took the helm at the Baltimore-based NAACP, a job thought to better harness his skills at organizing and oratory. Former Maryland state Sen. Jill Carter said Mfume has long had the 'it factor' and 'charisma' that matters in politics. When Carter ran against Mfume in his 2020 House comeback bid, she got a reminder of how well her rival was known in the district and beyond: 'When some of my people did exit polling, they got the response, 'Oh, we love Jill but, come on, this is Kweisi.'' What's less clear is whether Mfume's reputation in Baltimore, burnished over 45 years in the public eye, makes him the man for the moment as far as his contemporary House colleagues are concerned. He's not known as a partisan brawler, and he said in the interview he doesn't intend to become one. 'There are always going to be fights and disagreements,' he said. 'It's kind of escalated in the last few years to a level that we haven't seen before. I think the main thing is to moderate and to manage the disagreements, because you're not going to cause any of them to go away. How you manage them and how they are perceived by the overall public is what makes a difference.' Mfume is leaning heavily, in fact, on the style and reputation of the man who filled the 7th District seat for the 24 years in between his House stints — the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who served as top Democrat and then chair of Oversight during Trump's first term and is still spoken of in reverent terms inside the caucus. Mfume concedes that Cummings might have been the better communicator — he 'had a little more preacher in him than I do' — but said they share a similar lofty approach to politics. Like Cummings, he suggested prescription drug prices might be a committee priority. What Mfume is unlikely to have is the official support of the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful force in intracaucus politics. With two members in the race — Crockett also belongs — Mfume said he does not expect a formal CBC endorsement after an interview process Wednesday. But he still expected to draw support from the bloc — especially its more senior members. Other factors complicate Mfume's candidacy. One is age: He is a year older than Connolly was when he was elected to lead Oversight Democrats last year. For those who prize seniority, Lynch has actually spent more time on the panel. And his 2004 departure from the NAACP was marred by controversy: The Baltimore Sun reported the executive committee of the group voted not to extend his contract under threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit; the NAACP later paid the woman who complained a $100,000 settlement. Mfume strenuously denied any wrongdoing, but while the episode has not emerged as a major issue in the Oversight race, some Democrats have privately expressed reservations about elevating a leader with personal baggage to potentially lead investigations of Trump. 'There's never been one person to corroborate that one allegation — not one,' Mfume said. About the payment, he said, 'I found out about it, quite frankly, after it happened.' Much of the Democratic Caucus remains undecided ahead of the June 24 secret-ballot vote. Candidates will first go before Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full caucus. 'I think that you have a situation where Mfume and Steve Lynch are getting support from folks who put seniority at top, and maybe the other two candidates would probably lean toward members who are newer, and then you got a whole host of folks that's in the middle. And I think that's where the battle is to see where they fall,' said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.). One younger member said he was swayed by Mfume's experience. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is 48 and had weighed his own bid, said that while other candidates were compelling, the Baltimorean had a 'leg up.' 'Kweisi shows me pictures of him with Nelson Mandela,' he said. 'I was like, I'm not going to run against Nelson Mandela's best friend.'
Politico
11-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
The GOP's latest megabill casualties
Presented by IN TODAY'S EDITION:— House GOP to ax some megabill proposals— Mfume now pro-seniority amid Oversight race— MAHA spat between GOP senators, RFK Jr. House Republicans will vote to make difficult changes to the GOP megabill today in an attempt to keep the bill on track in the Senate. The House Rules Committee teed up a provision Tuesday night that would scrub the House-passed bill of problems the Senate parliamentarian flagged as threats to the measure's filibuster-skirting power, our Jennifer Scholtes, Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Tully-McManus report. The proposals getting axed include: — Cracking down on the fraud-plagued employee retention tax credit created during the pandemic. House Republicans were relying on this for $6.3 billion in savings to offset spending in the bill. — $2 billion for Pentagon military intelligence programs and $500 million to develop missiles. Losing this particularly irked many House GOP lawmakers. — Allowing mining in a protected wilderness area in the Midwest. The contentious provision would have reversed then-President Joe Biden's move to protect the Boundary Waters area. — Part of the policy ending increased food aid for households that also qualify for heating and cooling assistance. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins previously complained about this. — Extending a policy requiring federal agencies to procure a certain amount of biofuels or bio-based products. By cutting these items, the bill retains its ability to pass the Senate with a simple majority, rather than 60 votes. While Senate Republicans are still mulling their own tweaks to the bill, and could seek to restore some of the measures now on the chopping block, these changes need to be fixed now before the Senate votes on it. More policies could get slashed. In the coming weeks, expect Senate Republicans to start getting their first 'Byrd bath' rulings from the parliamentarian on additional GOP proposals under challenge from Democrats. To help avoid a tough whip effort today, House GOP leaders are embedding the fixes in the procedural measure they're using to set up debate on the $9.4 billion rescissions package — legislation that even the most conservative Republicans support. That won't be the case when the bill comes back from the Senate in a few weeks, as leaders hope. GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING. We hope to see you all at the Congressional Baseball Game tonight! Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at and email your Inside Congress scribes at mmccarthy@ lkashinsky@ bleonard@ and crazor@ THE SKED The House is in session and voting on the rule for the rescissions package that includes special language to amend the reconciliation package at 4:15 p.m. — Democratic Leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer will have a news conference on the GOP megabill at 10 a.m. — Appropriations will have a full committee markup of the fiscal 2026 Agriculture-FDA bill at 10 a.m. — Agriculture will hear testimony from Secretary Brooke Rollins at 10 a.m. — Ways and Means will hear testimony from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at 10 a.m. — The Republican Study Committee will have its weekly lunch at 12:30 p.m. The Senate is in session and voting on ending debate on Billy Long's nomination to be IRS commissioner at noon, on proceeding with landmark cryptocurrency legislation at 2 p.m. and on discharging resolutions that block the sale of certain arms to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates around 4 p.m. — Environment and Public Works will have a hearing on Sean McMaster's nomination to be administrator of the Federal Highway Administration at 10 a.m. — Commerce will have a hearing on Bryan Bedford's nomination for FAA administrator at 10 a.m. — Energy and Natural Resources will have a hearing on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Interior Department at 10 a.m. — Appropriations will have subcommittee hearings on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Defense Department with testimony from Secretary Pete Hegseth at 10 a.m., for the Forest Service with testimony from Chief Tom Schultz at 10:30 a.m., for HUD with testimony from Secretary Scott Turner at 3:30 p.m. and for Treasury with testimony from Bessent at 4 p.m. — Republicans will have a conference meeting at 2:30 p.m. — The Congressional Baseball Game will start at 7:05 p.m. at Nationals Park. The rest of the week: The House will take up the rescissions package and the HALT Fentanyl Act. The Senate will work through Trump's nominations and landmark cryptocurrency legislation. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: MFUME EMBRACES SENIORITY — Kweisi Mfume fled the House three decades ago over frustrations with Democrats' seniority system. Now Mfume, 76, is banking on the age-old practice as he vies for the party's top slot on House Oversight, our Nicholas Wu, Hailey Fuchs and Ben Jacobs report this morning. Mfume's using an old-school sales pitch, too. Rather than provide a detailed agenda for taking on Trump and congressional Republicans, Mfume said he'll aim to build 'consensus' among panel Democrats on the best path forward. He wants to 'moderate' disagreements rather than brawl across the aisle. It's a sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive and younger leadership. Some complicating factors for Mfume: He's the oldest in a four-person field that includes two candidates in their forties. Rep. Stephen Lynch, 70, has more seniority on the panel. Rep. Robert Garcia won the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' endorsement. Mfume is unlikely to win official support from the Congressional Black Caucus because another member, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, is also in the race. And Mfume's 2004 departure from the NAACP was marred by sexual harassment allegations, though Mfume denies wrongdoing. Senior Republicans skipping Trump's military bash Top Republicans including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and the chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees won't be attending the president's multimillion-dollar military parade Saturday, Lisa, Calen and Mia report. In fact, among 50 Republicans we surveyed this week, only seven said they were staying in town to attend the Army's 250th birthday celebration (which is also Trump's 79th) — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Byron Donalds, Elise Stefanik, Cory Mills, Rich McCormick, John McGuire and Lisa McClain. The White House is shrugging off the absences; an official granted anonymity to discuss planning for the event said senior military leaders and at least 15 Cabinet secretaries are slated to attend. And GOP lawmakers broadly said they support the spectacle that could cost upwards of $40 million, though a few are balking at the price tag. Thune says Trump's tax promises are here to stay Thune said Tuesday that Trump's campaign-trail tax pledges will be included in the Senate's version of the megabill, even as some Republicans mull scaling back key provisions to help expand business tax incentives, our Jordain Carney reports. 'The president, as you know, campaigned hard on no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, social security, interest on car loans,' Thune told reporters. 'They were addressed in the House version of the bill and I expect they will be in the Senate, as well.' Thune also said he'll likely return to the White House for another megabill meeting with Trump before week's end. Meanwhile, as negotiations continue over the Senate's megabill changes, SALT Republicans are seeking a meeting with Thune over the state-and-local-tax deduction, which could happen as soon as today. House Freedom Caucus members Chip Roy and Scott Perry crossed the Capitol Tuesday to meet with fellow deficit hawks Sens. Mike Lee, Rick Scott and Ron Johnson, Jordain scooped. Scalise skeptical of Texas redistricting push Count Scalise among the Republicans unnerved by the White House's push for Texas lawmakers to redraw the state's 38 U.S. House districts. Scalise on Tuesday cautioned that the effort — pitched as a measure to preserve the GOP majority in the midterms — shouldn't inadvertently put incumbents at risk. 'You have to balance a lot of things,' he told reporters. Members of the Texas GOP House delegation didn't show much enthusiasm for the idea in their closed-door meeting Monday night, a person familiar with the discussions told Nicholas. They'll huddle with White House officials Thursday to discuss the redistricting plan further. Johnson backs Trump's military force in LA Speaker Mike Johnson is standing behind Trump's decision to dispatch both the National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles amid clashes between protestors and law enforcement over ICE. He said there's a 'clear distinction' between condemning violent protesters in California and Trump pardoning rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, though he declined to elaborate. Meanwhile, Collins broke with GOP leadership Tuesday over the issue. 'I would draw a distinction between the use of the National Guard and the use of the Marines,' Collins told reporters. 'Active duty forces are generally not to be involved in domestic law-enforcement operations.' POLICY RUNDOWN SCOOP: MAHA MEETING MELTDOWN — Key farm-state GOP senators had a tense meeting with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other Trump administration officials Tuesday over the Make America Healthy Again report, which criticized pesticide use, four people tell our Grace Yarrow. Senators in the meeting included Agriculture Chair John Boozman, Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee Chair John Hoeven, Chuck Grassley, Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Marshall, along with Kennedy adviser Calley Means. The three other people familiar with Tuesday's discussion described the tone as 'heated.' At one point, Kennedy pounded on the table, one individual said. 'If this was to try to calm people down, they failed miserably,' the person told Grace. SIMPSON BUCKS THE WHITE HOUSE — Rep. Mike Simpson, a senior appropriator, is pushing back on White House budget chief Russ Vought's enthusiasm for so-called 'pocket rescissions,' which would allow the Trump administration to make permanent cuts to federal spending without congressional approval, our Katherine Tully-McManus and Meredith report. 'I think it's a bad idea,' Simpson told reporters Tuesday. 'It undermines Congress' authority.' A pocket rescission refers to when the White House moves to claw back money already approved by Congress with fewer than 45 days left in the fiscal year, then withholds that funding through Sept. 30 in an attempt to cancel it permanently. SENATE GOP SNAPS BACK — Senate Republicans are finalizing a scaled-down plan to shift some federal food aid costs to states as a way to pay for their megabill, five people with direct knowledge of the negotiations told Meredith and Grace. The move to downsize the House-passed plan comes after intense pushback from Republican senators, including some of Trump's closest supporters. They're concerned that red states in particular would be hit with billions of dollars in new costs to administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps feed more than 40 million low-income Americans. The reworked Senate plan under consideration would force states with the highest payment error rates to pay 15 percent of SNAP benefits — a lower rate than the House's 25 percent proposal. It also would scale down the costs for states with lower error rates, allowing some of them to avoid footing any of the cost-share for benefits. REPUBLICANS BACK OFF MEDICARE CHANGES — Senate Republicans are bursting their own Medicare bubble after some lawmakers floated making changes to the program to help pay for their megabill, Jordain and Robert King report. Sen. Kevin Cramer, among the first lawmakers to raise the possibility of including Medicare changes in the party-line package, conceded in an interview the concept lacked political momentum: 'There aren't many of us courageous enough to talk about it.' Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E: CAMPAIGN STOP NORTON'S FLIP-FLOP — Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.'s nonvoting House delegate, said Tuesday she would seek reelection, only for her spokesperson to say hours later that the aging representative is 'in conversations' about retirement, Nicholas reports. Norton, who turns 88 this week, has faced increasing concern about her capacity to continue serving in Congress, particularly as D.C. faces a Congress-induced budget shortfall. SHERRILL ADVANCES IN N.J. GOV RACE — Rep. Mikie Sherrill clinched the Democratic nomination for New Jersey governor Tuesday night. The state's electorate leans blue, but the race between Sherrill and Trump-backed Republican Jack Ciattarelli is expected to be competitive. If Sherrill wins in November, there will be a special election to succeed her. Expect a crowded Democratic field there; her district favors Democrats, our Madison Fernandez writes in. Sherrill's the latest House Democrat elected in the party's 2018 wave to seek higher office. TUNNEL TALK DEMS HOPE TO AVOID ANOTHER SHELLACKING — Democrats are looking to break a four-game skid against Republicans in the Congressional Baseball Game tonight after getting blown out last year. It's been ugly: Republicans have outscored Democrats 70-29 in the past four games, including a 20-run victory last year. The game is played at Nationals Park and benefits charities, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. Names to watch: Rep. Greg Steube has been the GOP's ace pitcher and won the MVP last year for Republicans. Sen. Eric Schmitt and Reps. August Pfluger, Morgan Luttrel and Brad Finstad are all dangerous hitters. For the Democrats, Reps. Chris Deluzio, Peter Aguilar and Jimmy Panetta are among their heavy hitters. They've struggled to find a replacement on the mound for Cedric Richmond, who left the Hill for the Biden administration in 2021, but Aguilar and Deluzio have stepped in to help pitch in recent years. The forecast: Elections analyst Nathaniel Rakich crunched the numbers and says the game is 'likely Republican.' THE BEST OF THE REST New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver indicted following ICE protest, from our Ry Rivard Freedom Caucus chair leads in earmarks, Jack Fitzpatrick and Ken Tran at Bloomberg Government Lawmakers Traded Stocks Heavily as Trump Rolled Out 'Liberation Day' Tariffs, from Katy Stech Ferek, Jack Gillum, James Benedict and Gunjan Banerji at The Wall Street Journal 'Super Cagey': Inside Rep. Mark Green's Mysterious Resignation From Congress, from Reese Gorman at NOTUS CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE TELEHEALTH TAKEOVER — The American Telemedicine Association's lobbying arm is blanketing more than 40 Capitol Hill offices today in a bid to extend expanded pandemic-era access to virtual health care. Popular and broadly bipartisan telehealth flexibilities that started during the pandemic expire at the end of September. 'We are most definitely not standing by during the budget reconciliation process — there's just too much at stake,' ATA Action executive director Kyle Zebley said in a statement. ALSO FLYING IN — Several trade groups are on the Hill this week to discuss the Trump administration's tariffs, including the National Retail Federation and the American Seed Trade Association, POLITICO Influence reports. Meanwhile CEOs with AdvaMed will meet with lawmakers today to try and win support for a new medtech Medicare coverage bill. JOB BOARD Cally Barry is now senior adviser and comms director for Rep. Ralph Norman. She most recently was comms director for Rep. Morgan Luttrell. Marybeth Nassif is joining Jones Walker as a director in the government relations practice group. She previously was a professional staff member for the House Appropriations Committee. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Former Rep. Mike Conaway … CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz … Kim Oates of the House Radio/TV Gallery … J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami … Cesar Gonzalez of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's office … Tad Devine of Devine Mulvey Longabaugh … Lorissa Bounds … Kristen Thomaselli ... Mary Kate Cunningham … CNN's Morgan Rimmer … Sofia Jones of the House Agriculture Committee … Jonathan Martinez of Haleon … Tamar Epps of the National Head Start Association … Amy Barrera of Thune's office … TJ Adams-Falconer TRIVIA TUESDAY'S ANSWER: Paul Hagner correctly answered that Richard Nixon was the first president to visit all 50 states while in office. TODAY'S QUESTION, from Paul: William Henry Harrison had the shortest tenure as president. Who had the second shortest tenure? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@ CORRECTION: Yesterday's newsletter misstated the time of a House Democratic leaders press conference and misspelled Sang Yi's name — our apologies.
Politico
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Kweisi Mfume is pitching an old-school approach to one of House Democrats' highest-profile jobs
Frustrated by Democrats' seniority system, Kweisi Mfume fled the House three decades ago, saying he could do more to advance civil rights from the outside. Now he's back and trying to reap the benefits of seniority at a moment when many in his party are starting to openly question it. The Baltimore native last month surprised many House colleagues by entering the wide-open race to lead Democrats on the high-profile Oversight Committee, seeking to fill the spot vacated by the sudden death of Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly. Into the void jumped a pair of young, ambitious members — Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Robert Garcia of California — as well as a close Connolly ally, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. And then there's Mfume, who at 76 is making no bones about this being the capstone of a long career that included stints leading the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP — jobs he took back in the 1990s. 'I started a long time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth,' Mfume joked in an interview, before describing his old-school approach to legislative relations: 'The first thing you learn is how to count votes, which has never failed me yet,' he said, adding that he would be careful not to alienate colleagues 'by doing something that causes problems for them in their district.' Rather than detail a point-by-point agenda for taking on President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, Mfume said if elected he'd convene the committee's Democrats to decide a course of action. The party, he said, can only move forward with a 'consensus.' That style stands in sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive leadership and a more visible fight with Trump — something the other candidates are clearly heeding: Garcia has tangled with the Justice Department over his criticism of Elon Musk; Crockett has broached the prospect of a Trump impeachment inquiry; and Lynch, as the panel's interim top Democrat, attempted last week to subpoena Musk during a panel hearing. The race also threatens to become a proxy fight for broader questions about age and seniority inside the Democratic Party. House Democrats ousted several aging committee leaders at the end of last Congress as they girded for a fight with the Trump administration — and many in the base were disappointed when Connolly triumphed over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The winner is poised to lead efforts to investigate and thwart the Trump administration if Democrats can retake the House majority next year — and ride herd on a chaotic panel that in recent months has featured intense personal attacks between lawmakers and the display of nude photos. 'It's a street fight every day,' said Rep. Lateefah Simon of California when asked about the panel and what it takes to lead it. 'It's every single day being able to expose the hypocrisy of this administration and to tell the truth.' There was a time when Mfume would have been a natural choice for such a moment. First elected to Baltimore's City Council at the age of 30, he quickly butted heads with legendary Mayor William Donald Schaefer. After longtime Rep. Parren Mitchell retired, Mfume easily won the seat in 1986 and within a few years become a national figure due to his chairmanship of the CBC. Ascending to that role just as Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency, he became an important power broker, forcing key concessions in Clinton's 1993 budget and pushing the White House to restore ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. He also clashed with Clinton at times, including over his decision to pull the nomination of prominent Black legal scholar Lani Guinier to a top Justice Department post. But after Democrats lost their House majority in 1994 — and Mfume lost a quixotic bid to enter the party leadership — he decided two years later to forgo a long climb up the seniority ladder. He instead took the helm at the Baltimore-based NAACP, a job thought to better harness his skills at organizing and oratory. Former Maryland state Sen. Jill Carter said Mfume has long had the 'it factor' and 'charisma' that matters in politics. When Carter ran against Mfume in his 2020 House comeback bid, she got a reminder of how well her rival was known in the district and beyond: 'When some of my people did exit polling, they got the response, 'Oh, we love Jill but, come on, this is Kweisi.'' What's less clear is whether Mfume's reputation in Baltimore, burnished over 45 years in the public eye, makes him the man for the moment as far as his contemporary House colleagues are concerned. He's not known as a partisan brawler, and he said in the interview he doesn't intend to become one. 'There are always going to be fights and disagreements,' he said. 'It's kind of escalated in the last few years to a level that we haven't seen before. I think the main thing is to moderate and to manage the disagreements, because you're not going to cause any of them to go away. How you manage them and how they are perceived by the overall public is what makes a difference.' Mfume is leaning heavily, in fact, on the style and reputation of the man who filled the 7th District seat for the 24 years in between his House stints — the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who served as top Democrat and then chair of Oversight during Trump's first term and is still spoken of in reverent terms inside the caucus. Mfume concedes that Cummings might have been the better communicator — he 'had a little more preacher in him than I do' — but said they share a similar lofty approach to politics. Like Cummings, he suggested prescription drug prices might be a committee priority. What Mfume is unlikely to have is the official support of the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful force in intracaucus politics. With two members in the race — Crockett also belongs — Mfume said he does not expect a formal CBC endorsement after an interview process Wednesday. But he still expected to draw support from the bloc — especially its more senior members. Other factors complicate Mfume's candidacy. One is age: He is a year older than Connolly was when he was elected to lead Oversight Democrats last year. For those who prize seniority, Lynch has actually spent more time on the panel. And his 2004 departure from the NAACP was marred by controversy: The Baltimore Sun reported the executive committee of the group voted not to extend his contract under threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit; the NAACP later paid the woman who complained a $100,000 settlement. Mfume strenuously denied any wrongdoing, but while the episode has not emerged as a major issue in the Oversight race, some Democrats have privately expressed reservations about elevating a leader with personal baggage to potentially lead investigations of Trump. 'There's never been one person to corroborate that one allegation — not one,' Mfume said. About the payment, he said, 'I found out about it, quite frankly, after it happened.' Much of the Democratic Caucus remains undecided ahead of the June 24 secret-ballot vote. Candidates will first go before Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full caucus. 'I think that you have a situation where Mfume and Steve Lynch are getting support from folks who put seniority at top, and maybe the other two candidates would probably lean toward members who are newer, and then you got a whole host of folks that's in the middle. And I think that's where the battle is to see where they fall,' said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.). One younger member said he was swayed by Mfume's experience. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is 48 and had weighed his own bid, said that while other candidates were compelling, the Baltimorean had a 'leg up.' 'Kweisi shows me pictures of him with Nelson Mandela,' he said. 'I was like, I'm not going to run against Nelson Mandela's best friend.'
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Race heats up to replace Connolly on powerful Oversight panel
The race to become the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee is heating up — and getting crowded. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) this week threw her hat into the ring to replace the late-Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who died last month of esophageal cancer, making her the fourth member of the committee — and the second member of the Congressional Black Caucus — to vie for the seat. She joins Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who all announced their bids last week. Not only is the list unusually long for such a race, but it features two veteran septuagenarians and two congressional newcomers who are decades younger — setting the stage for another tense debate over the seniority system Democrats have favored for generations, but has come under increasing scrutiny in an era when the party's popularity is well underwater. 'It's usually two, every now and then three [candidates]. I'd have to go back a while to remember four horses trying to get out of the gate at the same time,' Mfume acknowledged. 'We've got some bright young members, some very distinguished and wise older members, and I think there's got to be a melding of those age groups and those thoughts and those priorities,' he continued. 'Because at the end of the day, we'll all either win together or we'll lose together.' At 76 years old, Mfume is the oldest candidate in the race, but not the most senior on the committee. That distinction goes to Lynch, 70, who has served as the interim ranking member since Connolly stepped back from the role in April. The elder statesmen are citing their long experience as an asset, while also vowing to tap the unique strengths of the newer members of the committee, who tend to have a better finger on the pulse of digital outreach and social media. 'I fully appreciate that the effectiveness of our Committee in presenting the truth to the American people is dependent on our ability to maximize and elevate the diversity of talent within our Democratic membership,' Lynch, a former ironworker and union leader, wrote recently to his fellow Democrats. Mfume, a former head of the NAACP, agreed, saying Democrats can't be effective without a united approach. 'It's important for the new ranking member to gather all the Democrats together on that committee, close the door and figure out what the agenda is going forward as a team,' he said. But the younger challengers see the Oversight vacancy as a rare opportunity to reimagine the Democratic brand and revive the party's image with new faces and fresh ideas. 'For me, it's about, how do we excite the base?' said Crockett, 44. 'And to be perfectly honest — while I can't put a poll in the field fast enough and get some answers — I can tell you that, tangentially, looking at the entire field, I am the type of member that potentially will inject a little bit of that energy that we're missing right now for our base. And I think that we have to take that into consideration.' Democratic leaders are well aware of the generational tensions, and are making clear their intent to stand aside and allow the process to play itself out ahead of a vote of the full caucus, which is scheduled for June 24. 'As we've said before, seniority and length of tenure is always a factor, but it is one of many factors that members consider,' Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters this week. 'Our job is to just make sure that it's done in a fair way.' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a prominent member of the CBC, downplayed the notion that the race — which features two CBC members in Mfume and Crockett — might lead to bad blood within the group. He noted that he had defeated former Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who had once headed the CBC, for the Caucus chair position in 2018, and she remains 'a great friend and colleague.' 'Leadership, of course, remains aggressively neutral,' Jeffries added. 'We don't put our thumb on the scale.' With subpoena power and broad jurisdiction over virtually every facet of the federal government, the Oversight Committee ranks among Capitol Hill's most potent panels, making the ranking member spot a highly coveted position for ambitious lawmakers seeking a new level of national prominence. That's especially the case for the minority Democrats this year, when they're scrambling for an effective strategy to combat the norm-smashing actions of President Trump, who has used the early months of his second administration to dismantle many of the federal institutions the Democrats hold dear. Connolly, 75, in seeking the spot after last November's elections, had run into the same questions about age, image and passing the torch that are being raised now. He dismissed those concerns, citing a track-record of fierce advocacy for democratic traditions and the federal workers Trump has sought to purge. And he easily won the closed-ballot contest despite facing a formidable challenger in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), 35, an icon of the left with a huge national following. Ocasio-Cortez has since left the Oversight Committee, jumping to the powerful Energy and Commerce panel in January, and declined a bid to replace Connolly. Garcia, 47, was among the Oversight members who had waited to learn Ocasio-Cortez's intentions before announcing his own. With her out of the race, he quickly jumped in, touting his experience as the former mayor of Long Beach and his position in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He's also vowing to help the party disseminate its message more effectively with modern-age tools. 'Democrats are the party of working families — but we must meet people where they are,' he wrote in his pitch to colleagues. 'Traditional media isn't enough — to drive real policy wins, we must break through the noise, capture public attention, and energize people to act.' Crockett delivered a similar pitch, stressing the need for Democrats to highlight wins and make information accessible to voters. But she also noted the role is more than just communications. 'At the end of the day, I am a trial lawyer,' she said, noting her years as a public defender and her familiarity in 'dealing with criminals.' At the mention of the word, her mind turned to Trump. 'To be perfectly honest, there's probably only one person that the president does not want to head up Oversight, and I can tell you that it's me,' Crockett said. 'That alone should actually — hopefully — get my colleagues to say that's probably the one that we want, because I am the one that he's afraid of.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
