Tom Perez, former Labor Secretary, new DNC chief
Rep. Keith Ellison picked as his deputy in effort to unite party.
ATLANTA— The Democratic Party put its faith in its old guard Saturday to guide it out of the political wilderness, choosing as its new leader an Obama-era Cabinet secretary over the charismatic congressman backed by the progressive wing of the party.
Tom Perez, a former secretary of Labor with strong ties to labor unions, persuaded the assembly of party delegates that he can best help harness a grassroots outpouring of antiTrump protest and anger into a Democratic resurgence at the ballot box.
“We are suffering from a crisis of confidence, a crisis of relevance,” Perez told delegates before they chose him in a down-to-the-wire contest with Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who the Bernie Sanders wing of the party had rallied around.
“We need a chair who can not only take the fight to Donald Trump. … We also need a chair who can lead a turnaround and change the culture of the Democratic Party,” Perez said.
Trump tweeted his congratulations to Perez, adding: “I could not be happier for him, or for the Republican Party!”
The ascendance of an establishment liberal is certain to renew tension between Democratic Party stalwarts and the progressive movement aligned with Sanders and Sen. ElizabethWarren of Massachusetts, who both backed Ellison.
Some Ellison supporters erupted in protest as the final vote was announced.
Perez quickly sought to unite the party by naming Ellison his deputy chair, a move unanimously approved by the 435 assembled delegates.
They had earlier supported Perez 235-200 in a second roundof voting after several other candidates dropped out.
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., had appeared a potential challenger, but he dropped out before the first round of voting.
Ellison urged supporters not to “waste even a moment going at it about who supported who. …We don’t have the luxury of going out of this room divided.”
Perez, who takes over from Donna Brazile and is the first Latino to lead the Democratic National Committee, will become the new face of the beleaguered party on cable news networks and at campaign rallies after a year that saw not only heavy losses at the ballot box but Russian hacking apparently aimed at DNC computers.
But tending the talk show circuit will be overshadowed by a much tougher and less glamorous job: repairing a party tattered by bickering factions, muddled messaging and neglect after eight years of the Barack Obama administration.
Following the GOP wave in the 2016 election, the Democratic Party is weaker than it has been in decades.
Republicans now hold not only the White House and both houses of Congress, but they control 69 of the country’s 99 state legislative chambers and 33 governorships — including 25 where they control both the governor’s office and the state legislature.
Perez was the favored choice of the Obama White House and the party establishment. He is a steady hand whose reorganization plans are ambitious but are not threatening to longtime party operatives.
“I know that Tom Perez will unite us under that banner of opportunity,” Obama said in a statement, “and lay the groundwork for a new generation of Democratic leadership for this big, bold, inclusive, dynamic America we love so much.”
Obama White House alums worked their connections in the states to garner delegate votes for him. Perez campaigned with a message similar to what Hillary Clinton used in her primary race against Sanders: he argued he was not just a progressive, but one whohas gotten things done.
His victory was nonetheless a disappointment to the energetic movement Sanders inspired, which will be crucial to any successful effort at rebuilding the party and winning elections.
Progressive activists had seen the leadership race as an opportunity to take control of a party apparatus that has been hostile to their political vision.