Tom Perez wins DNC Chair election, appoints his opponent Keith Ellison as Deputy Chair
The tightly contested but consistently respectful race for Chair of the Democratic National Committee officially came to an end today in fittingly unifying fashion. Tom Perez, the former Secretary of Labor under the Obama administration, was elected as DNC Chair. Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota finished a fairly close second in the race. And in his first act as Chair, Perez immediately made a motion to appoint Ellison as his Deputy Chair.
“I would like to begin by making a motion,” Tom Perez said to the crowd after being announced as the winner of the race. “It’s a motion that I have discussed with a good friend, and his name is Keith Ellison. And the motion I would like to make to the body is a motion suspending the rules, if I may, to appoint Keith Ellison Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee.” The motion was followed by sustained applause and then approved by a unanimous voice vote. The two men then hugged before Ellison spoke to the crowd.
This gives the Democratic Party leadership a unified front at a time when it faces historic challenges fending off extremist Republican presidency of Donald Trump, and should give it momentum headed into the small number of 2017 off-year elections as well as the far larger number of 2018 midterm elections. The Democrats will need to pick up a few seats in the Senate, and a number of seats in the House, in order to obtain majorities which will allow it to shut the Trump legislative agenda down.
For clarity, the “DNC Deputy Chair” role now occupied by Keith Ellison is different from “DNC Vice Chair.” As we speak, the election for the open DNC Vice Chair slot is still playing out among various candidates.
I endorsed Tom Perez in the DNC Chair race, and I think he’s the right person with the right skillset to lead the Democrats to victory. DNC Chair is a political operative position, not an ideological one, and requires pragmatism. That said, Keith Ellison is also a good man and a good Democrat, and his voice also needs to be heard. So I’m pleased to see that Perez and Ellison will now be working together.
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