WASHINGTON — Longtime Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Wednesday he is turning down an offer to remain the top Democrat on the powerful Judiciary Committee for the next two years, and D-Md. announced that he would challenge Nadler just two days ago for the desired job.
In a letter to his Democratic colleagues, Nadler, 77, threw his support behind Raskin, 61, for a role that will be critical in ensuring congressional oversight of the FBI and Justice Department under the incoming Trump administration. Nadler’s decision to bow out clears the way for Ruskin, who faces no other challengers.
“As our country faces new threats to our democracy and the way of life it represents with the return of Donald Trump, I am very confident that Jamie will ably lead the Judiciary Committee as we face this growing threat,” Nadler wrote. letter. “Therefore, I have decided not to run for Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee in the 119th Congress.”
Nadler has held the highest post on the Judiciary panel since 2019 and has served in Congress since 1992. There have been some health scares in recent years, but he was easily re-elected in November.
“Although I will no longer be a Ranking Member, I will continue to be an active member of the Committee and look forward to working with its new leadership in the fight to protect our most vulnerable communities and our most cherished democratic ideals,” Nadler said.
It was the New York Times reports first Nadler had left the race.
Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, was elected to Congress in 2016 and served as the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee for the past two years. His move to the Court opens the race to lead Overseer; Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., has already announced a bid for the job, while other House members, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are testing the waters.
Raskin has been rising star in the party. Then-California Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped Raskin as the Democratic attorney general in Trump’s impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 attack, then appointed him to a special committee to investigate the Capitol attack.
In 2022, she wrote a book, Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy, about the suicide of her 25-year-old son on December 31, 2020, and the Capitol riots six days later.
“In the 119th Congress, the Judiciary Committee will be the headquarters of congressional opposition to authoritarianism and MAGA’s campaign to destroy our Constitutional system and the rule of law as we know it,” Raskin, a two-time cancer survivor, wrote to colleagues. week announces its offer.
“I hope to be at the center of this fight and – as someone who has battled cancer and chemotherapy – I can tell you that I will never, ever give up,” she said.