Democratic panel recommends Craig for top seat on Agriculture Committee

A key Democratic panel voted Monday to recommend Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) to be the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee in the next Congress, lending a big boost to the most junior lawmaker in the contest heading into a deciding vote of the full caucus on Tuesday.

Craig, a six-year veteran of Capitol Hill, is squaring off against two other members of the Agriculture Committee: Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), the current ranking member, and Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), the panel’s second-ranking Democrat.

In favoring Craig, members of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee — an influential panel that helps to guide the party’s committee assignments — signaled that seniority is not the deciding factor when it comes to filling top posts.

The steering panel’s recommendation is not decisive. The full House Democratic Caucus will vote Tuesday to choose between the three candidates. But the steering panel is essentially handpicked by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and the panel’s endorsements hold outsized sway in the process of choosing committee heads to work with party leaders.

Scott has been the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee since 2021, but he has suffered from health troubles that have affected his mobility. Some lawmakers have expressed concerns that he simply doesn’t have the stamina to lead the panel, especially heading into the second Trump administration and as conservatives vow to slash programs under the committee’s jurisdiction.

Scott, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), had also frustrated some CBC members last week when he declined to participate in an interview session the group conducted with lawmakers vying for top committee posts in the next Congress.

Regional factors might also have played into the steering committee’s vote. The Democrats’ power structure is dominated by lawmakers from the coasts — both at the leadership and committee level — and Craig is the only one of the three candidates to represent the Heartland, where Democrats were drubbed in this year’s presidential contest.

The debate over seniority has been a contentious one within the Democratic caucus for years, as younger lawmakers, seeking to rise more quickly into the ranks of power, have clashed with more veteran lawmakers who have touted the importance of having experienced hands in the top committee seats. The issue has been even more pronounced in a year when President Biden was nudged off of the ballot by Democrats concerned about his stamina and mental acuity.

Still, almost all of the House committees will be led next year by the most senior members of the panels, suggesting the seniority system — which has guided the Democrats’ committee picks for decades — is alive and well in the lower chamber.

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