Representative Jamie Raskin of Takoma Park, Maryland secured the position of caucus leadership representative in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, November 29. Defeating challenger Terri Sewell of Alabama in a 65-57 vote, Raskin will now represent a significant demographic population in Congress: that of the less experienced and younger generation of representatives.
Raskin’s successful bid for this position was made possible by the support of House Democrats who have served five or fewer terms in the House. Only these junior members were eligible to vote between Raskin, who was first elected in 2016, and Sewell, who is to start her fifth term this coming January.
Prior to his election to Congress in 2016, Raskin spent a decade as a member of the Maryland Senate, which has maintained a solid Democratic majority throughout all of American history, minus one term from 1898-1899. Raskin currently serves as a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is a member of the House’s Oversight and Government Reform and Judiciary committees. Raskin himself represents District 8 of Maryland, a region in which more than half of Montgomery County voters reside.
Raskin has recently been inserting himself into the public realm as well, expressing his support of Representative Nancy Pelosi’s bid for Speaker of the House. He even claims that the debate over whether Pelosi should return to her previously-held post was motivation for the initiation of his own campaign.
“I’ve been an early and strong supporter of Pelosi,” Raskin told Bethesda Magazine prior to the announcement of his own successful election. “But then, I also hear from lots of people who say that it is time for a new generation of leadership. We have an extraordinary youthful cohort in Congress right now, which needs to be heard and it needs to be seen by the American people,” he added. “And so I want to be an instrument for the empowerment of the junior members of Congress.”
Although Raskin’s new position is not so significant in the broader spectrum of the offices the House Democratic majority will occupy come January, this could be the next of many stepping stones for Raskin in his future political career. Congress is in essence a hierarchy of political leadership, in which one generally ascends by way of experience and time. One of Maryland’s current senators, Chris Van Hollen, held several House leadership posts prior to his election to the Senate in 2016; perhaps Raskin is modeling his own political career path after his District 8 predecessor.
In the next two years that he will serve as a House representative and the Democratic caucus leadership representative, Raskin has announced plans to not only increase the voice and influence of the junior Congress members, but to also ensure that issues brought up in the 2018 campaign are put on the Democratic agenda in the new Congress.
Article by MoCo Student Staff Writer Elena Moore of Damascus High School