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See moment Ocasio-Cortez realized victory
01:28 - Source: NY1
CNN  — 

The big story on Tuesday night was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – the 28-year-old political neophyte who pulled off the upset of the 2018 election in New York’s 14th district. And rightly so! Ocasio-Cortez’s victory will reverberate around the Democratic political world for months – and maybe even years – to come.

But don’t overlook another massive story out of the district: Rep. Joe Crowley’s loss at the hands of Ocasio-Cortez effectively eliminates an entire generation of politicians that were seen as the future leaders of the party in Washington.

With the three top Democratic leaders in the House all in their late 70s, the gap between that trio and the 30-somethings still getting their sea legs in Congress is vast and stark. It’s the 50-somethings who should fill that gap. But they are all gone.

For those wonder, yes, of course, there are 50-somethings still in the Democratic caucus. But future congressional leaders don’t just pop up. Younger members with leadership potential are identified early. They’ve been raising money for their parties and building their political teams for years. They’ve been accumulating chits from their colleagues. But due to a series of political missteps, an entire class of potential Democratic leaders has been virtually erased.

Crowley, who served as the Democratic Caucus Chairman, was the last of this lost generation remaining. He was openly angling to vault higher up into the leadership following the 2018 elections – whether or not Democrats retook the House majority this fall. And at 56, Crowley appeared to be the odds-on favorite to replace Pelosi when and if she decided to leave her top spot. (Pelosi, at 78, insists she plan to stick around in 2019 and beyond.)

Crowley’s defeat comes on the heels of a series of implosions and career decisions that have robbed Democrats of an entire generation of leaders. Consider:

  • Steve Israel of New York, the one-time head of Democrats’ campaign arm, retired in 2016 rather than wait around for a chance at the top leadership jobs that seemed unlikely to develop anytime soon.
  • Xavier Becerra of California, who was the 4th ranking Democrat in the House, resigned from Congress in late 2016 to serve as the Golden State’s attorney general.
  • Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, like Israel a former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair, decided not to wait around – running for and winning an open Senate seat in 2016.
  • Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida had a disastrous tenure as the chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and took such a hit among liberal activists that there was some concern she might lose a primary fight for her safely Democratic seat. (She didn’t.)

Each of these circumstances was somewhat unique. And yet, in each of the cases, the decisions made by the quartet above was driven in no small part by the total stasis within the upper ranks of House Democratic leadership.

And at the center of that stasis is Pelosi, who has been rumored to be leaving Congress – or leadership at least – for much of the past decade. Each time, she walked back from that cliff – insisting that she, and only she, could raise the money and wrangle the caucus to give the party a chance to win back control of the House.

Opposition has grown to Pelosi as the years have passed – more than five dozen House members voted for Rep. Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, in his quixotic challenge to Pelosi after the 2016 election – but it’s never been a real question as to whether she can hold on or not. What became clear between 2010 and 2016 is that while Pelosi might not be everyone’s first choice, there was no one else who could come close to beating her. (And that includes the list of politicians above.)

Pelosi has insisted she plans to stick around in 2019. And the most likely outcome is that she wins – either as speaker or as minority leader again. How? Because her competitors are either too old (Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn) or too young (Seth Moulton).

The potential leaders who should be coming into their own are all gone. Crowley’s loss closes the book on them – and, in so doing, creates the very real possibility of a massive power vacuum for the post-Pelosi party.