California Rep. Robert Garcia has been elected as the new top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, defeating Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch in a 150-63 caucus vote. Garcia, a first-term congressman, will lead the committee with a focus on consistent leadership and oversight of various investigations.
As the new head of the committee, Garcia, 47, has won a first-ballot majority after securing the backing of the caucus’ powerful Steering and Policy Committee on Monday evening. He told reporters following the vote, ‘We’ll get immediately to work.’ His first priority was to meet with the Oversight Committee staff to ‘let them know that we’re ready for consistent leadership.’
Garcia, who is currently a member of Democratic Caucus leadership and served as a co-chair of Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, has quickly risen through the ranks. The race for the top Oversight position tested House Democrats’ desire to set aside its usual preference for seniority in favor of promoting younger voices. Garcia had pitched himself to his colleagues as a consensus candidate with managerial experience, having served as the mayor of Long Beach before entering Congress.
In a previous interview with POLITICO, Garcia called it ‘premature’ to impeach President Donald Trump without buy-in from other Democrats, a contrast with other young progressives who have sought to kick-start the process. He emphasized that the committee under his leadership would do more than probe the Trump administration.
Democrats have been maneuvering for the top Oversight job since April, when Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly announced he would step aside from the job amid a battle with cancer. He died in May at 75. For weeks, the race pitted two senior Democrats — Lynch, 70, and Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume, 76 — against two insurgent young progressives — Garcia and Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, 44.
Crockett and Mfume dropped out of the race Tuesday after falling short in the Steering test vote. ‘If you are going to be in leadership, you need to know that you have a team that is ready and willing to work with you,’ Crockett told reporters. ‘It was clear by the numbers that my style of leadership is not exactly what [Democrats] were looking for, and so I didn’t think that it was fair for me to push forward and try to rebuke that.’
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s decision not to run a second time for the Oversight post and to instead stay on the Energy and Commerce Committee helped open up the field. Connolly’s race last year against the 35-year-old Ocasio-Cortez was similarly seen as a generational challenge within the caucus. However, senior Democrats — including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi — lined up behind Connolly, quashing efforts for a changing of the party’s old guard.
This time, the party’s elders were split in the race. Pelosi never endorsed Garcia, but she had met with her fellow Californian as the contest ramped up and was widely seen in the caucus as a Garcia ally. Behind the scenes, she whipped votes for Garcia, according to a person granted anonymity to describe her private efforts. ‘I’m a Californian,’ she said as the voting was underway Tuesday. ‘I’m partial to mayors.’
Some of the most powerful blocs in the party opted to remain on the sidelines. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus endorsed Garcia, who was the sole Latino candidate in the race and will be one of two Latino committee leaders along with Rep. Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.). However, groups like the Congressional Black Caucus, New Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus did not make endorsements.
Although Garcia downplayed the generational undertones of the race, other Democrats privately see the decisive votes in both the leadership-aligned Steering panel Monday and the caucus vote Tuesday as a potential turning of the tides in the party’s longtime adherence to the seniority system in choosing caucus leaders. Democrats opted to challenge several committee leaders last year and believe more challenges could come in the future.
Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.