Ocasio-Cortez joins climate activists’ protest near Nancy Pelosi’s office

An incoming lawmaker protesting her own party’s leader is an unprecedented step in congressional decorum. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hasn’t said whether she would support Pelosi (D-Calif.) for speaker once Democrats formally take the House majority in early January.

Ocasio-Cortez has previously advocated for “new leadership” in the House. After her June Democratic primary win against Rep. Joe Crowley, Ocasio-Cortez suggested Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., replace Pelosi as Democratic leader. Lee is currently running for the Democratic caucus chair, which Crowley will vacate when he leaves Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t the only incoming Democratic lawmaker to participate in Tuesday’s environmental protests. Rep.-elect Rashida Tlaib of Michigan joined Ocasio-Cortez at the Spirit of Justice Park near the Capitol to protest with Sunrise, but she did not participate in the march to Pelosi’s office.

Sunrise wants Pelosi to create a climate change panel in the House, to be called the Select Committee for a Green New Deal. They argue that Pelosi’s actions on climate change during her 2007-2011 speakership weren’t sufficiently funded and that the panel she created, the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, couldn’t craft legislation.

The House under Pelosi passed several climate-related measures including a cap-and-trade bill, but none made it through the Senate.