Ocasio-Cortez Loses Vote to Be Top Democrat on Oversight Panel

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic phenom from New York, on Tuesday lost an internal vote to lead her party on the Oversight Committee in the next Congress, a blow to a younger contingent of progressives eager for fresh faces to take on the hand-to-hand political battles of the Trump era.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 35, lost to Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia, 74, an eight-term Democrat. Her defeat was a counterpoint to the generational change emerging elsewhere in the party, which handed top posts on other panels to younger lawmakers. The secret-ballot vote was 131 to 84, according to members.

Speaking to reporters after the vote to fill the open spot, Mr. Connolly, who recently disclosed he was being treated for cancer of the esophagus, argued that the idea that there was generational change afoot within the Democratic Caucus was a “false narrative” and that he and his colleagues were “looking at capability; we’re not looking at age.”

But on other panels, younger lawmakers on Tuesday beat out veteran leaders, a departure from the norm for Democrats, who for decades have largely abided by an unwritten rule that seniority trumps everything when it comes to meting out power.

Representative Angie Craig, Democrat of Minnesota, was elected by her colleagues to be the ranking member of the Agriculture Committee. Ms. Craig, 52, will replace Representative David Scott of Georgia, 79.

And Representative Jared Huffman of California, 60, on Tuesday won the internal race for the top spot on the Natural Resources Committee. Mr. Huffman will replace Representative Raúl Grijalva, 76, a progressive who was his party’s leader on the committee for a decade.