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Democrats have spent the last several weeks regrouping after Republicans won the presidency and majorities in the House and Senate. For Democrats in the House of Representatives, the search for a way out of the political wilderness involves congressional committees as staging grounds for a new generation of leaders and messengers. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has more.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin is not interested in wallowing in electoral losses. He says Democrats need to pivot for what he calls the fight of their lives.
JAMIE RASKIN: Losing an election is a shock to the system when you're in politics.
GRISALES: That's Raskin inside the Capitol complex explaining his bid to lead his party's opposition to the GOP on the powerful House Judiciary Committee. The panel's longtime top Democrat, New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, said he would step aside this week, paving the way for a new voice on a committee that can capture a lot of public attention. Republicans will have the power to move President-elect Donald Trump's agenda next year, but committees are where Democrats can slow things down and send a message.
RASKIN: So we have to figure out strategically and tactically what went wrong and what we need to be doing differently. And, you know, we need to figure out the people we want in different roles as we go through that process.
GRISALES: Raskin gained attention the last time Trump was president. He prosecuted the impeachment case against Trump for the January 6 attack on the Capitol and was front and center on the select panel investigating Trump's role in the riot. This Congress, Raskin became Democrats' top-ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. Now, a move to judiciary could be the start of a domino effect, elevating some of the party's rising stars.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: We're now starting to regroup and really prepare for the fight ahead.
GRISALES: That's New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the party's No. 2 member on Oversight, who just launched a bid for the top job. She's up against another senior member - eight-term Virginia Representative Gerry Connolly. But Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, argues all the shifts are part of a new recalibration after losing government control in Washington.
OCASIO-CORTEZ: There was a period of mourning and grieving the result. I think we have to take time to really assess in a data-backed way what is working and what isn't working.
GRISALES: There's similar plays for new Democratic leaders of the House Natural Resources and Agriculture committees. Outside the Capitol, retiring Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips says the potential shakeups illustrate a party reckoning with new questions about its aging leaders. Phillips, who launched a failed primary bid against President Biden tied to those concerns, says he's now hopeful Democrats are ready to usher in a new set of heirs apparent.
DEAN PHILLIPS: I think it's a linchpin moment for members of our caucus to actually walk the talk about prioritizing talent over tenure and getting out of the shadows of this nonsensical tradition.
GRISALES: Phillips argues that kind of thinking, holding on to aging leaders, has burdened the party and in turn resulted in an exodus of Democrats from Congress in recent years and helped fuel the party's recent electoral losses.
PHILLIPS: You can't affect change. You can't affect policy. You can't protect the people we hope to protect if we lose.
GRISALES: Back inside the Capitol, Raskin is not thinking about losing anymore. He's thinking about a comeback for Democrats.
RASKIN: I want us to be a lean and nimble and aggressive fighting party as we move forward.
GRISALES: House Democrats will decide in the coming days if committee shakeups are enough to remake the future of a party hoping to get back in power.
Claudia Grisales, NPR News, the Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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