Progressives fuming after AOC loses bid for key committee spot

"I tried my best," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. "Sorry I couldn’t pull it through everyone -- we live to fight another day."

Instead of AOC, Rep. Gerry Connoly, a Democrat from Virginia, will be the top Democrat on the influential House Oversight Committee.

AOC is only 35 years old but was challenging a man forty years older than her who has the backing of the Democratic Party's old guard, like Nancy Pelosi.

Reports came out that Pelosi was working behind the scenes to make sure that Ocasio-Cortez wouldn't win the position, and her efforts appear to have paid off.

Rep. Becca Calint, a Democrat from Vermont, expressed her disappointment at the party not being ready for "generational change."

"I’m disappointed," she said. "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's Joy Reid said that the Democratic Party is "hanging onto their gerontocracy and consultant class at the expense of their most loyal voters."

Connoly thought he deserved to win the vote though, claiming that his "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."