WASHINGTON — Longtime Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Wednesday he was dropping his bid to remain the top Democrat on the powerful Judiciary Committee for the next two years and endorsed Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who announced just two days ago he would challenge Nadler for the coveted job.
In a letter to Democratic colleagues, Nadler, 77, threw his support behind Raskin, 61, for the role, which will be critical in providing congressional oversight of the FBI and Justice Department under the incoming Trump administration. Nadler’s decision to bow out clears the path for Raskin, who is facing no other challengers.
“As our country faces the return of Donald Trump, and the renewed threats to our democracy and our way of life that he represents, I am very confident that Jamie would ably lead the Judiciary Committee as we confront this growing danger,” Nadler wrote in the letter. “Therefore, I have decided not to run for Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee in the 119th Congress.”
Nadler has held the top job on the Judiciary panel since 2019 and has served in Congress since 1992. He has had some health scares in recent years but was easily re-elected in November.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., had challenged Nadler for the Judiciary post.
“Although I will not be Ranking Member, I will still be an active member of the Committee, and I am eager to work alongside its new leadership in the battle to protect our most vulnerable communities and our most precious democratic ideals,” Nadler said.
The New York Times was first to report Nadler had dropped out of the race.
Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, was elected to Congress in 2016 and has served as the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee for the past two years. His move to Judiciary opens up the race to lead Oversight; Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., has already announced a bid for that job, while other Oversight members, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are testing the waters. Connolly is 74, while Ocasio-Cortez is 35.
“To me, it’s not generational. It’s about experience and record and capability, that’s how I got to present it,” Connolly told reporters, adding that he led an Oversight subcommittee. “And she’s a new talent and has a lot of promise, but I’m the only one in the race … who, in fact, has a subcommittee. I’ve invested in the committee. I think that’s really important.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who has been talking to fellow lawmakers about a potential bid, said Wednesday she didn’t have anything to announce: “I have been receiving a lot of input from my colleagues, and we’ll be making a decision.”
She added that she has “tremendous respect and admiration for Gerry Connolly. … I love Gerry.”
Raskin has been a rising star in the party. Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tapped Raskin as Democrats’ lead prosecutor in the Trump impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 attack, then appointed him a member of the special committee tasked with investigating the Capitol assault.
In 2022, he wrote a book, “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy,” where he reflected on his 25-year-old son’s suicide on Dec. 31, 2020, and the Capitol riot six days later.
“In the 119th Congress, the Judiciary Committee will be the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism and MAGA’s campaign to dismantle our Constitutional system and the rule of law as we know it,” Raskin, a two-time cancer survivor, wrote to colleagues this week announcing his bid.
“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, never surrender,” he said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
