A.O.C.’s Silver Linings Playbook

House Democrats, guided by the long arm of Nancy Pelosi, moved to block Ocasio-Cortez’s ascent on Oversight—a job that would have put her front and center on C-SPAN. But the left’s millennial icon is playing a much longer game.

Over the past six years, A.O.C. has matured immensely from the bridge-burning firebrand who stormed Pelosi’s office to a sort of elder statesman among her millennial cohort, and certainly the most pragmatic of her fellow Squad members. Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Congressional Integrity Project

Abby Livingston

December 19, 2024

In the end, the generational upheaval ripping through the Democratic caucus stopped short of ushering Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into leadership. For the past several weeks, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries stood back and allowed junior members to challenge the old guard for senior committee assignments. Alas, A.O.C., who squared off against 74-year-old Gerry Connolly for the ranking member post at Oversight, didn’t have an ally in Nancy Pelosi, who spent the weekend rolling calls—still operating behind the scenes even as she recovered from emergency hip replacement surgery in Germany—to ensure that Ocasio-Cortez lost.