Former labor secretary Perez elected to lead the DNC
Ellison, the progressive favorite, tabbed as deputy
ATLANTA—Democratic leaders picked a political veteran with ties to the party’s establishment as a new face of the resistance to Donald Trump at a party meeting Saturday in Atlanta.
Perez becomes the first Latino chairman of the party, just as the Trump administration begins to implement the Republican president’s promise to build a wall on the nation’s southern border with Mexico, and to step up the deportation the millions of illegal immigrants already here.
Perez won on a second ballot with 235 votes. The winning threshold was 218 votes out of 435 cast.
Supporters of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Perez’s closest rival and a favorite of the party’s progressive wing, erupted with chants of “not big money, party for the people!” But they appeared to be mollified when Perez immediately endorsed his chief rival as deputy chairman.
Perez will lead a cashstrapped Democratic National Committee trying to recover from the 2016 election that left the party firmly in the minority. But Democrats are buoyed by a wave of liberal outcry against the president, a rush of energy that leaders are trying to harness as they try to unify a fractured base.
Arguing that Democrats are suffering from both a crisis of confidence and relevance after a string of electoral defeats, Perez said a united Democratic front is President Donald Trump’s “worst nightmare.”
“We need a chair who can not only take the fight to Donald Trump,” he said in making his case to more than 400 DNC members, “but make sure that we talk about our positive message of inclusion and opportunity and talk to that big tent of the Democratic Party.”
He faces an early test with the April 18 special election to replace Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., — the DNC has pledged to pour resources into electing a Democrat in the new housing and urban development secretary’s conservative district — and the 2018 elections that could give the party a chance to capitalize on Trump opposition.
The DNC chairman not only raises cash but also serves as the top recruiter, organizer and spokesman for a party with no clear leader after Hillary Clinton’s defeat.