A key Democratic panel voted Monday to recommend Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) to be the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee in the next Congress, lending a big boost to the most junior lawmaker in the contest heading into a deciding vote of the full caucus on Tuesday.

Craig, a six-year veteran of Capitol Hill, is squaring off against two other members of the Agriculture Committee: Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), the current ranking member, and Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), the panel’s second-ranking Democrat.

In favoring Craig, members of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee — an influential panel that helps to guide the party’s committee assignments — signaled that seniority is not........

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