House Democrats’ decision Tuesday to go with 74-year-old Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the party’s leading voice on the House Oversight Committee was met with disappointment and anger among many progressives.
The 131-84 secret ballot in favor of Connolly was partly the work of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who reportedly was whipping votes on behalf of the Virginia Democrat. The optics of that move—an 84-year-old going to bat for someone just ten years younger and who also happens to have esophageal cancer—spurred comments condemning the “gerontocracy.”
“At this point almost nothing the Democratic Party does makes any damned sense,” MSNBC anchor Joy Reid wrote in a social media post Tuesday afternoon. “They are hanging onto their gerontocracy and consultant class at the expense of their most loyal voters. And let’s just be clear, they’ll be fine while our communities pay the price.”
