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{"id":27161,"date":"2026-09-16T19:04:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/bonamici-exploring-bid-for-scotts-education-leadership\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T19:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:04:55","slug":"bonamici-exploring-bid-for-scotts-education-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/bonamici-exploring-bid-for-scotts-education-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonamici \u2018exploring\u2019 bid for Scott\u2019s education leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The top Democrat on the House education committee is potentially facing a second challenge to his leadership amid broader frustrations over the caucus\u2019 longstanding deference to seniority.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/congress\/member\/35385ff4-9612-4293-8044-21e42eab91b4\" target=\"_blank\">Bobby Scott<\/a> already set out to defend his record on the House Education and Workforce Committee last week after Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/congress\/member\/d0556075-6ea7-4045-bfdf-5f237564c5aa\" target=\"_blank\">Jahana Hayes<\/a> (D-Conn.) launched a formal bid for his spot on the panel. Now, one of the Virginia Democrat\u2019s allies, Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/182891\" data-person-id=\"182891\">Suzanne Bonamici <\/a>(D-Ore.), says she is \u201cnot ruling anything out\u201d about making her own run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want the best leadership for the committee. I\u2019ve been on the committee for a long time and [am] just exploring all the options,\u201d Bonamici, who has served on the panel since 2013, said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s a really important committee. I care about it a lot. It\u2019s important for our future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The race for Scott\u2019s position \u2014 and potentially the committee gavel, if Democrats flip the chamber in the midterms \u2014 is the latest example of the angst within the caucus about leadership opportunities. It also reflects the interest Democrats have in ramping up oversight of the Trump administration and its efforts to dismantle the Education Department, scrutiny that <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/09\/jahana-hayes-considers-bid-to-unseat-bobby-scott-as-top-house-education-democrat-01059544\" target=\"_blank\">sparked Hayes\u2019 run<\/a> against Scott, who is 26 years older.<\/p>\n<p>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday that he has spoken with both Scott and Hayes but declined to say more.<\/p>\n<p>Scott, who is 79 and has served as the House education committee\u2019s top Democrat since 2015, often delegates the more attention-grabbing aspects of ranking member to others, particularly former teachers serving on the panel.<\/p>\n<p>When House Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/02\/07\/house-democrats-denied-entry-education-department-00203123\" target=\"_blank\">marched to Education Department headquarters<\/a> demanding to meet with agency leaders early last year, Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/198829\" data-person-id=\"198829\">Mark Takano<\/a> (D-Calif.) took the lead. And Bonamici led a resolution to impeach Education Secretary Linda McMahon earlier this year with the support of other committee members and House lawmakers \u2014 a resolution where Scott <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/119th-congress\/house-resolution\/1391\/cosponsors\" target=\"_blank\">isn\u2019t a co-sponsor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRanking member Scott has his role as the ranking member, but I think it&#8217;s up to Congresswoman Bonamici, myself and others to build support,\u201d Takano said in an interview earlier this summer, when asked if Scott should support the effort to impeach McMahon.<\/p>\n<p>Scott doesn\u2019t seem worried and repeatedly said he would let his work speak for itself. He also used a Dear Colleague letter to dissuade any concerns about his leadership style and demeanor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile I have no qualms about sharing the spotlight with my colleagues, I want to be clear that my colleagues should not confuse my humility with an inability to deliver results,\u201d Scott<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/f\/?id=000001a0-ab7a-d805-aff0-ef7b24f40000\" target=\"_blank\">wrote in a letter to colleagues<\/a> declaring his candidacy to continue leading Democrats on the committee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The top Democrat on the House education committee is potentially facing a second challenge to his leadership amid broader frustrations over the caucus\u2019 longstanding deference to seniority. Rep. Bobby Scott already set out to defend his record on the House Education and Workforce Committee last week after Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) launched a formal bid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}