(Headline USA) Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland announced Monday that he will run to become the top Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee next year, directly challenging fellow Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler as the party prepares to fight a second Trump administration and an emboldened Republican majority.
“House Democrats must stand in the breach to defend the principles and institutions of constitutional democracy,” Raskin wrote in a letter to colleagues. “That is our historic assignment now. We dare not fail.”
Raskin said in the letter — obtained by The Associated Press — that he decided to run for the post after spending the week consulting with House Democrats and “engaging in serious introspection” about where the party is following their stunning electoral defeat last month that handed Republicans control of Congress and the White House.
While currently the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Raskin said that come next year, the Judiciary Committee under his leadership would become “the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism” as well as other efforts by President Donald Trump and his allies to thwart the Constitution.
Being the face of the resistance against Trump is not new territory for Raskin who spent the last two years on Oversight as the most vocal defender of President Joe Biden and his family as they faced a sprawling Republican investigation — encouraged by Trump — into their various business affairs.
Raskin, who is a former constitutional law professor, also helped draft articles of impeachment against the incoming president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising.
More recently, Raskin led his own attempt of a so-called insurrection. Earlier this year, he remarked that “it’s going to be up to us on Jan. 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified.” He then claimed that lawmakers who refuse to certify Trump’s Electoral College win would need “bodyguards” afterwards.
But by throwing his hat in the ring, Raskin is inviting what a bitter intra-party fight with Nadler, who is currently serving his 17th term in Congress and who has held the top spot on Judiciary since 2019. Democrats have over the years rarely broken from the seniority system for committee assignments, no matter how long someone has held a position, making the outcome of the race uncertain.
Both men did not respond to requests for comment but Raskin closed his letter by praising Nadler, saying that he made this decision “with respect and boundless admiration” for him.
“If I’m lucky enough to be chosen for this responsibility in the 119th Congress, I will turn to Jerry first and throughout for his always wise counsel and political judgment,” Raskin added.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
