Late on Wednesday afternoon, Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in a surprising move, endorsed Jamie Raskin to become the ranking member on the committee. The endorsement came after Raskin staged a public challenge against Nadler to lead the committee.
That sets Raskin up to become chairman the next time Democrats take the House.
Raskin told reporters on Tuesday evening that he did not stage his challenge out of spite, saying he’s got “great affection and admiration” for Nadler. But Raskin’s decision to challenge Nadler revealed how many younger Democrats see the old guard as not being up to the task of opposing Donald Trump during his second term.
Nadler, a New Yorker, has been the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee since 2017 and a staple in Congress since 1992. By contrast, Raskin, who represents Maryland’s Washington, DC suburbs, has only been around since 2017, when Trump got into power the first time. He saw his national profile increase during Trump’s first presidency, thanks to his stint as an impeachment manager in the first Trump impeachment.
That star power compounded during his time as the lead impeachment manager after January 6 and his time leading the House Oversight Committee as Republicans attempted to impeach President Joe Biden. During that time, he famously referred to the Oversight Commitee as “the Truth Squad,” where he led a coterie of young, telegenic Democrats such as Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost and his number two on the committee, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now, his star has risen once more.
And Raskin is not the only Democrat who’s taking full advantage of the situation as a second Trump term looms closer. Numerous other younger Democrats are also staging challenges.
The 2024 presidential election results revealed that Democrats have a gerontocracy problem. Sure, the party subbed in Kamala Harris toward the end of the campaign — but only after it spent a year telling the press and voters that octagenarian Joe Biden was fully capable of beating Donald Trump.
The great irony of all of this is that it was former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is 84, who led the charge to shove Biden out — despite the fact that for years, many Democrats thought she had been in power for too long and muttered about how she wasn’t any longer up to the job (and this doesn’t even begin to touch the embarrassment of the late Dianne Feinstein staying in her seat amid her deteriorating state.) Pelosi only stepped aside in late 2022 after Democrats lost the House. In doing so, she finally made way for younger leadership in the form of Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar.
A big reason for the gerontocracy on their party’s side is that Democratic politicians tend to value seniority and experience. By contrast, Republicans cap the amount of time a member can be a chair to four years, allowing for new blood. This explains why Republican leadership on the House side is much younger.
Clearly, younger Democrats no longer think this situation is feasible. While Raskin, at 61, is only 16 years younger than Nadler, he was forged in cauldron that was the first Trump presidency. Raskin’s victory creates an opening for the top job on Oversight.
On Tuesday evening, Ocasio-Cortez said she was interested in taking that spot. While this makes sense — AOC is technically the number-two — she would have to jockey for the top job with Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, who has been in the House since 2001, and Gerry Connolly, who has served since 2009.
Under normal circumstances, she would be told to get in line. But Ocasio-Cortez has emerged as one of the most effective questioners on the Oversight Committee. Her questioning of former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen in 2019 was especially effective.
Elsewhere, another older Democrat — Representative Raúl Grijalva — stepped down from his post as the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee earlier this week. Grijalva’s stewardship of the committee was basically nonexistent, considering he was almost entirely absent from work as he underwent cancer treatment. Another battle for an important seat will now commence.
These battles are also little more than glorified popularity contests, however, since the votes happen in internal caucus meetings and involve appealing to other members of the party. Raskin has shown himself to be a dutiful happy warrior, leading the charge against Trump and becoming a favorite of Pelosi’s. Ocasio-Cortez has evolved from her more insurgent youth where she openly campaigned against incumbent Democrats to being one of Biden and later Harris’s most effective surrogates.
But it’s not always guaranteed that being younger and more popular translates to success. Case in point: Jasmine Crockett, who came to media prominence after infamously saying Marjorie Taylor Greene had a “bleach-blonde bad-built butch body.” Not long afterwards, she tried becoming chairwoman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, but lost out to the more experienced Debbie Dingell of Michigan, who has served in the House since 2015 and whose late husband John Dingell held the congressional seat since 1955.
Seniority still matters in the Democratic Party. But, under a second Trump presidency, it may start to matter a little bit less.
