Progressive Congresswoman Suffers Crushing Defeat In House Leadership Election

A protracted battle for the soul of the Democratic Party continued on Tuesday as U.S. House caucus members defeated a progressive seeking to lurch the party ever leftward.

Run-of-the-mill Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) fended off a challenge by Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) who sought to unseat her as Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, a sign that caucus members aren’t keen about doubling down on a strategy that will leave their party powerless beginning in 2025. Vice President Kamala Harris’s resounding defeat, coupled with the loss of U.S. Senate control and failure to retake the House, have sparked recriminations within the party about which direction will lead them out of their Washington, D.C. doldrums. The Western Journal reported that Crockett lost her bid with 59 votes to Dingell’s 152.

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While Dingell benefited from a bevy of lawmakers endorsing her reelection, sources told the Washington Examiner that Crocket was the only one to speak on her own behalf. “Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Gabe Vasquez (D-NM), and Gwen Moore (D-WI), as well as Rep.-elect Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI), gave nominating speeches for Dingell, while Crockett was the only one who spoke on her behalf, a source in the room confirmed,” the outlet reported. Crockett, just elected to her second term, made the only attempt at unseating a member of House Democrats’ leadership. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and his other deputies were elected by acclimation.

“The lopsided result reflected what many House Democrats said was a rushed and last-minute campaign by Crockett to take down the entrenched Dingell,” Axios reported. “Crockett pitched herself as a master of new media who could help modernize the party following its 2024 election loss.” But it was Dingell, a member since 2015 and widow of the longtime Democratic congressman John Dingell, who prevailed for a full term as the committee chair after winning her post earlier this year.

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Crockett is a regular commentator on MSNBC where she has excoriated party leadership for failing to draw firmer contrasts with Republicans. Rather than match her on the airwaves, Dingell spent months locking down support for her internal reelection, the outlet added, a sign that dislodging establishment Democrats is harder than it may appear to newcomers. Progressive allies of Crockett pointed to the election of Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) as the committee’s co-chair for evidence that inroads are being made. “There is no question that the caucus understands that we need … not just different messaging but how we’re doing that messaging,” the anonymous lawmaker said.

The Texas progressive’s pitch about being a “master of new media” could perhaps be cynically boiled down to her shouting match with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) earlier this year. During a committee hearing, the two traded barbs that quickly turned personal, with the Republican making a quip about Crockett’s “fake eyelashes” and Crockett firing back that Greene had a “bleached blonde, bad-built, butch body.”

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