The high-stakes race to become the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee appears to be up for grabs.

There’s no clear front-runner just before House Democrats vote Tuesday to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the panel's ranking member who died last month after a battle with cancer.

The field is a crowded one: Four members of the committee are gunning for Connolly’s post. The candidates embody a microcosm of the broader caucus in diversity in age, gender, ethnicity and regional representation that makes the race both a referendum on the Democrats’ long-held seniority system and a measure of how the party wants to broadcast its image heading into next year’s midterm elections.

It’s a dynamic the candidates are quick to acknowledge.

"The Caucus will decide what it is they want to prioritize,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), 44, a second-term Democrat competing for the seat. “There's someone in this race for everyone.”

Crockett represents a younger generation of........

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