After initially resisting entreaties to run for the post, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Takoma Park) announced Monday that he will seek to become the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee – expected to be the focus of numerous high-profile battles between House Democrats and the incoming Trump administration.
Raskin’s move puts him on a collision course with the current top Democrat on the committee, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, who has indicated he will fight to hold onto the post.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter Monday, Raskin said he was running because “the stakes have gone way up since the election.” If Raskin wins, he will have to give up his current post as ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Referring to Republican control of the White House as well as both houses of Congress, Raskin declared: “This time the MAGA movement has not only a trifecta but a complicit Supreme Court waiting in the wings and a dominant media propaganda system parroting all the lies. House Democrats must stand in the breach to defend the principles and institutions of constitutional democracy. This is our historic assignment now. We dare not fail.”
There is little ideological difference between Raskin, 61, and Nadler, 77 – both of whom are long-time Donald Trump critics who served as managers during the Trump impeachment trials in 2020 and 2021. But a number of Raskin’s colleagues appear to believe the sharp-tongued former constitutional law professor is better suited to take on the incoming Trump administration on many of the issues likely to arise before the Judiciary panel during the next Congress.
The Judiciary Committee has authority over executive branch agencies ranging from the Justice Department to the FBI at a time when the Democrats hope to take on the president-elect on his vows to utilize the two law enforcement agencies for retribution against his political enemies. The committee is also likely to be a major forum for attempts by the House Democratic minority to take on what members regard as threats to the rule of law and the possible overreach of presidential powers that they believe will arise during Trump’s second term.
Raskin’s “Dear Colleague” letter offered an olive branch to Nadler, saying, “I take this step with respect and boundless admiration for my friend Jerry Nadler and his remarkable half-century of service in public office in New York and Congress.” Nadler was elected to Congress in 1992, nearly a quarter of a century before Raskin arrived in 2016.
The House Democratic Caucus is expected to vote later this month on whether to install Raskin or keep Nadler as the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary panel, although the recommendation of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee – a group made up of House Democratic leadership representatives – is likely to be influential.
The House is expected to be closely divided along partisan lines in the coming 119th Congress: With the outcome of at least one race yet to be determined, the margin by which the Republicans control the chamber may be the slimmest in nearly a century.
“With the GOP’s razor-thin margin of 220-215, we must advance the legislation, amendments and arguments that will prove irresistible to the American majority and will enable us to block a further descent into MAGA chaos,” Raskin declared in the letter announcing his candidacy.
