Nadler defers to Raskin in race for top Democratic slot on Judiciary Committee

A senior New York congressman said Wednesday he won’t seek another term as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, likely paving the way for Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) to fill the position.

Raskin announced Monday that he wanted to move from the top Democratic slot on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to become the ranking member on the powerful Judiciary panel. By doing so, he was effectively challenging Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who had been the top Democrat on Judiciary, as both chair and ranking member, for the past seven years.

But Nadler, 77, ended the anticipated generational showdown Wednesday, announcing in a letter to colleagues that he would not seek another term as the top Democrat as he had originally planned, and was instead endorsing Raskin’s bid. He called Raskin, 61, one of several “talented rising stars” in the Democratic caucus who have been given a platform during Nadler’s leadership of Judiciary.

Raskin was elected to Congress in 2016; Nadler entered the House in 1992, after winning a special election.

Raskin to challenge Nadler for top Democratic spot on House Judiciary Committee

“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.

Raskin, who was careful to emphasize his respect for Nadler,. even as he launched his bid to challenge him for the leadership post, offered another laudatory statement Wednesday in the aftermath of his colleague’s endorsement.

“Jerry Nadler is an extraordinary lawyer, patriot and public servant,” Raskin wrote on social media. “His dogged defense of civil rights and civil liberties is a great inspiration to our people. I am honored and humbled to have his support in the battles ahead.”

Nadler’s endorsement isn’t a guarantee that Raskin will win the position, but his withdrawal from the race removes the Marylander’s biggest roadblock. The full Democratic Caucus will make the choice, after the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, a panel of caucus leaders, issues a recommendation.

Although seniority has long been a cherished commodity on Capitol Hill, especially among House Democrats, some caucus leaders quietly believed the erudite and media-savvy Raskin would be a more suitable choice than Nadler for the ranking member slot on Judiciary under the present political circumstances. The top Democrat on the panel will regularly have to do battle with the chair, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a voluble and pugilistic conservative closely aligned with President-elect Donald Trump.

“This is where we will wage our front-line defense of the freedoms and rights of the people, the integrity of the Department of Justice and the FBI, and the security of our most precious birthright possessions: the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the rule of law, and democracy itself,” Raskin wrote in his own letter to colleagues earlier this week.

Raskin became the top Democrat on the Oversight panel in the current Congress, after the longtime committee chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), was defeated in a Democratic primary in 2022 — losing, ironically, to Nadler in a rare member-vs.-member contest necessitated by New York’s diminishing number of congressional seats. Already U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who lost the caucus vote to Raskin to become top Democrat on the Oversight committee, has announced that he will try again to win the job.