Ga. Democrats Disagree About Who Should Lead DNC

The victor, former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez immediately named Ellison deputy chair of the DNC.

Perez won after reaching the threshold of 218 votes out of the 435 members of the DNC.

His interviewer, George Stephanopoulos, responded incredulously, saying “I know you don’t believe that”, but Ellison held firm.

Both Perez (pictured above, center) and Ellison entered the race promising a major refit of their party after its candidate Hillary Clinton was defeated by Republican Donald Trump’s in last November’s U.S. presidential election.

Thomas Perez, former labor secretary under President Barack Obama and a former secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, emerged as a top contender for the DNC post after he announced his candidacy on December 15. Debbie Wasserman Schultz last summer, Perez is charged with regrouping the party, rebuilding state parties and positioning it to take back congressional seats in the 2018 midterm elections and the White House in 2020.

Hillary Clinton, the party’s nominee in the 2016 presidential election, said she is excited for a “strong, unified party”, while Bernie Sanders, who lost to Clinton in the Democratic primary, said he looked forward to working with him. His views on the deal continued even after the party’s shift to the left forced Clinton and other Democrats to denounce former former President Obama’s signature trade deal. “Someday they’re going to study this era of American history“, Perez said. I picked some of the best and the worst from the DNC chair race.

Perez, Ellison and other Democrats agree on the need to rebuild the party at the state and local levels.

The close contest was testament to a fractured Democratic party that is reeling from its sore defeat to Republican Party’s Donald Trump in the presidential race. And, as was clear from the speeches in Atlanta on Saturday, they realized they must unite against a common foe: President Trump.

It was the first DNC race since 1988 that went into the vote without the victor already clear.

Perez was just one vote short on the first ballot, but secured victory in the second round. South Carolina Democratic Chair Jaime Harrison and Buttigieg had been a candidates for the position but both dropped out prior to the first vote.

Immediately after the announcement, Tom Perez, a front-runner in the DNC chair race, issued a statement calling Buttigieg “immensely talented” and “the future of our party”. There was also grumbling from the Ellison camp when Acting Chair Donna Brazile announced the electronic voting system set up for the election would not be used out of fears of external interference.

Perez, a veteran during the Obama administration, was considered a favorite among the DNC members.

Republican party officials insist that their party communications were not breached.