Dem
47
GOP
53
With great difficulty and much pain, the Democrats managed to dump the aging Joe Biden and replace him with Kamala Harris. Would Biden have done better than Harris? We don't know. We do know that Biden carried all three blue wall states in 2020 and also that 100% of female nominees for president have lost.
Nevertheless, Democrats in Congress are also thinking that maybe it is time for a new generation of chairs and, in the 119th Congress, ranking members. Many of them don't think all the elderly ranking members have what it takes to oppose Donald Trump's plans to abuse his power.
The first test case is the Judiciary Committee. The current ranking member is Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the dean of the New York congressional delegation. He is 77. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), 61, is considering a challenge to Nadler. Before entering politics (being elected to the Maryland Senate in 2006), Raskin was a professor of constitutional law. He was on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 coup attempt. Many of Raskin's colleagues see him as more aggressive, articulate, and shrewd than Nadler when taking on Trump. These colleagues include Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who wants him to challenge Nadler. The House Democratic leadership is nominally neutral and said the caucus "should work its will." That may sound innocent, but previous policy was to protect committee chairs and discourage challengers. The writing is now on the wall. Will Raskin read it? Or more important, will Nadler read it? Going away quietly would be a lot less painful than losing an internal election to a young whippersnapper. (V)