Congress
Inside Connolly and Ocasio-Cortez’s race to lock down votes for top Oversight Democratic job
With days to go until House Democrats decide who gets top committee spot, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Gerry Connolly of Virginia are racing to lock down votes to lead their party on the Oversight and Accountability panel.
Many Democrats saw Ocasio-Cortez as having the upper hand heading into next week, but both Connolly and Ocasio-Cortez’s camps are confident of their chances, with Connolly’s supporters saying they will have the support of a majority of the caucus and the Steering Committee. Ocasio-Cortez also has a team working to whip votes in her favor, said a person granted anonymity to discuss her operation.
The powerful Steering and Policy Committee will convene on Monday to debate and vote on recommendations to the full caucus for the committee leadership positions. Then, the full caucus will vote Tuesday morning on the committee contenders. The caucus generally follows the steering panel’s recommendations.
Connolly’s supporters believe they have roughly 130 yes or lean yes votes, according to a House Democrat granted anonymity to discuss the Virginia lawmaker’s whip count. There are 215 members of the Democratic Caucus next Congress. The House Democrat added that they were “confident” that Connolly had “locked up” both a majority of the Steering Committee and the full caucus.
“Gerry has the support of a majority of the Democratic Caucus. We are confident he will be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, and I think he will be very good at that job,” said a senior Democratic aide close to Connolly’s whipping process.
Ocasio-Cortez and her allies, meanwhile, have been having conversations with a broad cross-section of the caucus as she tries to rally support for her bid. She and Connolly made closed-door presentations to the Democratic Caucus’ power centers — the tri-caucus of affinity groups and the ideological caucuses — and they’ve also quietly approached their fellow lawmakers on the House floor as they laid out their vision for the panel. The recent backing of key Democratic constituencies and belief that they have the backing of most current Oversight Committee members has bolstered the confidence of Ocasio-Cortez’s allies. Democrats see the high-profile panel as a foil to President-elect Donald Trump and his allies.
The race in many ways is a test of how far Democrats will go as they face a pent-up urge to make sweeping generational changes within the caucus, a yearslong push that threatened to boil over post-election. Democrats don’t have term limits for their panel heads, leading to grumbling among younger Democrats whose paths upward have been stifled.
Top Democratic leaders are all publicly professing neutrality in the ranking member contests and say they’ll let the caucus work its will. But former leaders aren’t bound by the same concerns.
Connolly has a powerful backer in his corner: Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been privately stumping for Connolly, a longtime ally, and making calls on his behalf, according to three people familiar with the situation. She’s also been boosting her fellow Californians Rep. Jared Huffman for the Natural Resources Committee and Rep. Jim Costa for the Agriculture Committee. Punchbowl News earlier reported the Pelosi outreach.
Democrats mounted challenges to committee leaders who had faced questions about their attendance and ability to serve as ranking members amid health struggles. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) stepped out of the Judiciary race, and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) also ended his committee bid. Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) has stayed in the race to be the top Agriculture Committee Democrat despite strong challengers.
But Connolly supporters reject any comparison between their race against Ocasio-Cortez and the other Democrat-on-Democrat battles and specifically point to Pelosi’s support for him. The former speaker has been unflinching in her work over the past year to pressure Democrats she feels are no longer up to the job, including President Joe Biden and reportedly Nadler, to give up their positions.
Connolly said he was diagnosed with cancer in a statement after the election. In private conversations as he sought the top Oversight spot, the House Democrat said, Connolly has pledged to his colleagues that he will be transparent about the status of his diagnosis, including if it were to unexpectedly worsen.
Connolly ran for the top Oversight job last Congress, ultimately losing to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who’s jumping to be the top Judiciary panel Democrat. A second House Democrat, granted anonymity to disclose private discussions, said that Raskin has told colleagues he is staying neutral in the race to succeed him at least until the Judiciary race is settled.
Some ideological lines were drawn too, with Ocasio-Cortez winning the Progressive Caucus endorsement and Connolly winning the endorsement of the centrist New Democrat Coalition’s leadership. Ocasio-Cortez won the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ endorsement as well, though at least one of its members — Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), the chair of its political arm — is whipping for Connolly, according to the first House Democrat granted anonymity. New York Rep. Gregory Meeks (D) is also whipping for Connolly.
NEW YORK — With just five days to go until the primary election in New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a stark warning to members of Congress who believe “incumbency is a substitute for action”: Watch out.
“People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party,” Mamdani said to the crowd at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn as he boosted his endorsed congressional candidates. “This slate here today is our answer. The Democratic Party must change.”
The democratic socialist framed Tuesday’s election as much more than what that means for New York, though. In recounting how people also ask him about the 2028 presidential election, he put it bluntly: “It starts now. It starts on Tuesday.”
“For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said. “That old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly, it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire. It will fall short of 270 electoral votes, because the party of the past will not be what leads us into the future.”
Mamdani, joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, urged his supporters to show up for his endorsed candidates “the way you showed up for me.” They include former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who’s challenging two-term Rep. Dan Goldman; state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who’s vying for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat; and community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who’s trying to unseat five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Mamdani’s endorsed slate of legislative candidates were at the rally, too.
The rally featured standard stump speeches from the candidates, highlighting the need to support working class New Yorkers and immigrants. Speakers called out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group that has loomed over many of these primaries — despite no evident spending from its independent expenditure arm. Sanders also emphasized his call to ban super PACs, which have reshaped primaries across the city.
Taking place just hours after the massive ticker-tape parade celebrating the Knicks’ historic championship, there were also Knicks references galore.
“I hate to break it to you, but OG Anunoby is not here to save the day,” said Mamdani, who was wearing a Knicks jersey under his suit. “The only hands we can count on are ours.”
Sanders, who is wildly popular in New York, previously endorsed Valdez and Lander. Both Valdez and Avila Chevalier are members of the Democratic Socialists of America and are backed by the city chapter in their bids. Sanders had not officially endorsed Avila Chevalier prior to the rally.
“Why are progressives and socialist candidates winning elections all across this country?” Sanders asked. “The answer in my view is not complicated. The working class of America understands that our current economic system is rigged, that it is designed to benefit the wealthy and the powerful.”
Polling has shown Lander with a lead over Goldman, and a tight race for Velázquez’s seat. Public polling is scarce in the Espaillat race, but recent internal surveys suggest Avila Chevalier is posing a real challenge to the incumbent. Mamdani endorsed her just weeks ago, much later than Lander and Valdez, but his engagement in the race has significantly elevated its profile.
“Six months ago, they told us this race was over before it started,” Avila Chevalier said at the rally. “They told us Adriano was untouchable, that he was an institution, that you don’t run against someone like him and win. That this district was his, and that we should wait our turn. And they said it with such confidence, like the outcome had already been written. Look around. Look at what we’ve built.”
Mamdani’s decision to get involved in congressional races is stress-testing how the new mayor navigates relations with powerful, well-respected party figures — many of whom he’s on the opposite side of.
Mamdani’s endorsement is expected to be a significant asset for his picks; he had dominant performances across these districts in last year’s mayoral primary. And that shine doesn’t seem to have dulled. Recent polling has shown that Mamdani has high approval ratings.
Goldman did not support Mamdani during last year’s mayoral primary or the general election, as Lander has often pointed out. Espaillat backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, but supported Mamdani in the general election. Valdez’s opponents, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and city Council Member Julie Won, both supported Mamdani in the primary.
The mayor has been active on the trail for his congressional candidates of choice in the closing stretch of the campaign. And he touted them all in an advertisement that ran during the first game of the Knicks’ finals run.
Still, Lander has tried to keep some distance. When asked at a recent press conference why he would appear in that ad with Avila Chevalier, who attended a pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in 2023 — the same rally Lander said he left the DSA over — he said it was an “opportunity to show New Yorkers that politics can be a team sport.” He also clarified that he has not endorsed candidates in any other congressional primaries.
Avila Chevalier told reporters that she went to that rally to “stand against” Israel engaging in “a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life.” She added that she has “condemned Hamas” and does “not believe that celebrating the loss of anybody’s life is OK.”
Kings Theatre isn’t located in any of the districts these congressional hopefuls are trying to represent — though it neighbors the seats that Lander and Valdez have their eyes on.
It’s especially far from Espaillat’s district, which includes parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
While handing out campaign literature to people walking out of the subway in Hamilton Heights, Blue Light News asked Espaillat if he had thoughts about Avila Chevalier appearing at the rally.
“I’m rallying right here in my district with my constituents — not in Brooklyn,” he replied.
Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.
Retirement groups are calling on Congress to investigate Meta over a wave of social media scams targeting older Americans.
In a letter sent Thursday to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the groups alleged Meta has been slow to take down fraudulent ads, leaving seniors vulnerable to financial loss. The letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, was signed by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Postal Workers Union Retirees and the American Federation of Teachers, among others.
“Fraudulent Medicare ads have proliferated on Meta platforms and too many seniors are getting scammed while Meta profits,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “We are calling on Congress to investigate how these scams are allowed to spread, what Meta knew about them, and why stronger protections are not in place. Seniors should not be left vulnerable while scammers and tech companies cash in.”
The letter’s demands follow a report published last month by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit advocacy group, which alleged that Meta has profited by leaving up fraudulent ads, many of which target Medicare recipients.
“Scammers are determined criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics to defraud people and evade detection,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “We aggressively fight scams on and off our platforms because they’re not good for us or the people and businesses that rely on our services and for years we’ve been one of law enforcement’s strongest partners in the fight against this type of online crime — identifying criminals, disrupting their crimes and helping bring them to justice.”
Stone pointed to several examples of Meta’s efforts to combat scams on its platform, including a recent collaboration with U.S. and Thai law enforcement to disrupt online scams.
It’s not the first time Meta has faced scrutiny over the scams: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission to open an investigation into the company in November after Reuters reported that Meta in internal documents projected 10 percent of its 2024 revenue would come from fraudulent ads. And in February, a group of bipartisan lawmakers pressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over its plans to prevent and combat fraud on its platforms.
Reps. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) also introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this year to combat predatory scam ads.
Congress is expected to send a landmark, bipartisan housing affordability bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by the end of next week as the Senate and House schedule action on the legislation in the coming days.
The Senate has teed up the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act for final passage on Monday, after completing all its necessary procedural votes this week.
The legislation will then move on to the House where GOP leadership plans to open debate on Wednesday, with a vote expected as early as the same day, according to six people familiar with the vote granted anonymity to discuss plans.
House leadership plans to suspend the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote, to speed up the bill’s path to Trump’s desk. Final passage could be pushed to Thursday depending on timing, the people said.
The housing bill aims to tackle housing affordability and boost homeownership and supply ahead of a midterm election dominated by cost-of-living concerns.
The four lawmakers leading the negotiations over the legislation — Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.), ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — came to an agreement Tuesday afternoon after months of back and forth on the bill’s contents.
The housing affordability legislation, which the White House supports, contains a provision limiting the role of large institutional investors in the single-family housing market, which was a key condition for Trump to sign the bill.
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