After assuming office nearly six years ago, the 35-year-old New Yorker recently mounted a bid to become the top Democrat on the influential House Oversight Committee. As a young progressive, Ocasio-Cortez’s move challenged Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), 74, an establishment candidate backed by old-guard Democrats.

Connolly won the coveted committee position during a caucus vote Tuesday, defeating Ocasio-Cortez’s effort to become the Democratic Party’s youngest House committee chairperson. Her loss provoked ire from progressives, who said they were upset that party chiefs, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), refused to back “generational change.”

“I’m disappointed,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT), an Ocasio-Cortez ally and the vice chairwoman for new members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Axios. “I know Gerry will do a great job. But there’s no substitute for having someone in that position that literally has millions of Americans following her” on social media.

“I think that the seniority issue in this building gets in the way,” Balint added. “Our people back home, they don’t care about seniority.”

MSNBC host Joy Reid reacted to Ocasio-Cortez’s loss by saying the Democratic Party is “hanging onto their gerontocracy and consultant class at the expense of their most loyal voters.”

AOC’s defeat was reportedly caused in part by old-guard members of her party angered by her past efforts to upset Democratic incumbents by boosting their primary challengers.

By and large, establishment Democrats, including the New Democratic Coalition and Pelosi, backed Connolly.

In contrast, Ocasio-Cortez garnered allies from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The majority of the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, many of them relatively young members with progressive views, also backed Ocasio-Cortez, per a Politico report.

But when the entire Democratic caucus voted on the committee role during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, Connolly, who was recently diagnosed with cancer, bested the New Yorker 131-84.

“Tried my best,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a post to Bluesky. “Sorry I couldn’t pull it through everyone — we live to fight another day.”

Connolly, a 16-year House veteran, told reporters following the vote that he believed “my colleagues were measuring their votes by who’s got experience, who’s seasoned, who can be trusted, who’s capable, and who’s got a record of productivity.”

“I think that prevailed,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez’s committee defeat comes as she has garnered a high-profile status as a rising star in the Democratic Party. Known for her open communication style and spontaneous Instagram live streams, which differ from the majority of the establishment Democratic caucus, she has built a large following on social media and enjoys broad support in her district, even among residents who voted for Trump.

It is her modern style of communication and cross-ticket appeal that has many progressives fuming that she was blocked from the important committee assignment. They argued Tuesday that Democrats’ “refusal” to embrace change will only lead to more losses for the party in the wake of bruising defeats in the Senate and White House last month.

“Democrats refuse to learn their lesson,” progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen warned. “Refuse to take generational change seriously. Refuse to spotlight the party’s most effective communicators.”

Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, agreed, saying, “Valuing seniority over political and messaging chops is exactly how Democrats got into this mess in the first place.”

Although Ocasio-Cortez lost the battle to be the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, many Democrats still see a bright future for her leading the party.

“The view of her is evolving,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) told Axios. “She seems to have changed her approach to legislating, and I think she’s figured out how to rock the boat without tipping it over.

“We’re going to need more players like that going forward,” he added.