DNC race tight as Democrats seek gains against Trump
Just days before Democratic activists pick a new party chair, the contest to head the Democratic National Committee (DNC) remains fluid, as national leaders grapple with how to turn an outpouring of liberal protest against President Donald Trump into political gains.
A tight race between front-runners Tom Perez, a former labor secretary, and Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim Minnesota congressman, marks the first heavily contested battle to run the organization in recent history. The contest comes with Democrats facing a power deficit in Washington and around the country after years of losses in Congress, governor's mansions and statehouses, while also having no unifying national leader since former President Barack Obama left the White House.
Perez, who was encouraged by Obama administration officials to run for the post, has emerged as the apparent front-runner, with independent Democratic strategists tracking him at about 205 votes. But it's not yet clear whether Perez or Ellison — or one of six other long-shot candidates — is positioned to capture the required majority of the 447-member national party committee. Party leaders will vote on the final day of its three-day meeting that begins Thursday in Atlanta, with as many rounds as required for a candidate to secure a majority.
In a forum hosted late Wednesday by CNN, the candidates avoided taking shots at one another, instead blasting Trump, offering general promises to rebuild party infrastructure and pledging to reconnect with voters who have abandoned Democratic candidates.
The race could easily tip to either Perez or Ellison; a third possibility is that the committee ends up in deadlocked with the two current leaders short of a majority. That could open up the door for candidates like Harrison, Buttigieg or Boynton Brown to rally more support in later rounds of voting. There's also the chance that any of the three trailing hopefuls could drop out and endorse Perez or Ellison. Some Ellison backers question whether Perez, who has spent a career in government but not electoral politics, is the right man to harness the anti-Trump energy and use it to rebuild the party. Other Democrats, meanwhile, worry whether Ellison, an unapologetically combative liberal, is the right messenger for a Democratic Party that has lost standing across wide swaths of the country.
A tight race between front-runners Tom Perez, a former labor secretary, and Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim Minnesota congressman, marks the first heavily contested battle to run the organization in recent history. The contest comes with Democrats facing a power deficit in Washington and around the country after years of losses in Congress, governor's mansions and statehouses, while also having no unifying national leader since former President Barack Obama left the White House.
Perez, who was encouraged by Obama administration officials to run for the post, has emerged as the apparent front-runner, with independent Democratic strategists tracking him at about 205 votes. But it's not yet clear whether Perez or Ellison — or one of six other long-shot candidates — is positioned to capture the required majority of the 447-member national party committee. Party leaders will vote on the final day of its three-day meeting that begins Thursday in Atlanta, with as many rounds as required for a candidate to secure a majority.
In a forum hosted late Wednesday by CNN, the candidates avoided taking shots at one another, instead blasting Trump, offering general promises to rebuild party infrastructure and pledging to reconnect with voters who have abandoned Democratic candidates.
The race could easily tip to either Perez or Ellison; a third possibility is that the committee ends up in deadlocked with the two current leaders short of a majority. That could open up the door for candidates like Harrison, Buttigieg or Boynton Brown to rally more support in later rounds of voting. There's also the chance that any of the three trailing hopefuls could drop out and endorse Perez or Ellison. Some Ellison backers question whether Perez, who has spent a career in government but not electoral politics, is the right man to harness the anti-Trump energy and use it to rebuild the party. Other Democrats, meanwhile, worry whether Ellison, an unapologetically combative liberal, is the right messenger for a Democratic Party that has lost standing across wide swaths of the country.