ATLANTA — Democrats selected former Labor Secretary Tom Perez over Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison as their new chairman on Saturday, concluding a hotly contested race to lead a battered party as it tries to channel the anti-Donald Trump energy of its base into an electoral rebound.

Perez defeated Ellison in a 235-200 vote among the Democratic National Committee’s 435 members who cast ballots Saturday.

It took two rounds of voting to select a winner after Perez found himself just one vote shy in the first ballot. The five other candidates, who had amassed 13.5 total votes, all exited the race before the second round began.

In a victory speech, Perez vowed that Democrats would wage an all-out battle to deny Trump a second term.

“We are at a ‘where were you?’ moment in American history: Where were you in 2017 when we had the worst President in US history?” he said.

Immediately after winning, Perez made a quick move to bring Ellison’s supporters into the fold — appointing Ellison as the deputy chair of the DNC, to cheers and unanimous approval from the crowd.

“It’s my honor to serve this party under the chairmanship of Tom Perez,” he said.

The results brought a chaotic close to a race that stretched on for three months. In the waning days, former Vice President Joe Biden and several aides to former President Barack Obama — including Valerie Jarrett and David Simas — made calls to undecided members in an effort to sway them toward Perez.

In Ellison’s camp, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and supportive members of Congress applied pressure on DNC members with phone calls.

The behind-the-scenes calls underscored why the race was broadly seen as a proxy battle between the Sanders-aligned progressive wing of the party, which supported Ellison, and those more closely connected with Hillary Clinton and Obama, who largely backed Perez.

By selecting Perez — and again spurning Sanders supporters — Democrats risk the backlash that could come with leaving the left wing of the party disappointed a second time in the past year.

In a statement congratulating Perez, Sanders said “it is imperative that Tom understands that the same-old, same-old is not working and that we must open the doors of the party to working people and young people in a way that has never been done before.

“Now, more than ever, the Democratic Party must make it clear that it is prepared to stand up to the 1% and lead this country forward in the fight for social, racial, economic and environmental justice,” he said.

Perez, a Maryland Democrat who worked in Obama’s Justice Department before serving as labor secretary and making Clinton’s short list for the vice presidential nomination, made overtures to Ellison’s backers in his nomination speech before the votes were cast.

“Good leaders are great listeners. You will always have my ear, and I will always have your back,” Perez told the crowd, promising to “plan strategy together, lift each other up together.”

“You will not be underutilized,” he said. “You are of import in everything we do. The most important question you will hear from me is, ‘What do you think?'”

“A united Democratic Party is not only our best hope, it’s Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” Perez added.

Democrats had long anticipated the election could require several ballots to settle the contest and might drag on for much of the day Saturday.

But the pool of votes that the candidates aside from Ellison and Perez would amass shrank significantly when New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley dropped out a week ago to support Ellison and then South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison exited to back Perez.

On Saturday, Pete Buttigieg, the 35-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, dropped out minutes before the vote without endorsing another candidate.

The move allowed Buttigieg, who is seen as a rising star within the Democratic ranks, to reap the benefits of the bigger stage of the DNC race without suffering the embarrassment of a low vote total or angering either camp by making a last-second endorsement.

“We saw the potential of doing well on multiple ballots, but we can do the math,” he said in what was supposed to be his nomination speech. “It is time for this process to move toward a solution that we can all get on board with.”

Buttigieg’s exit left Idaho Democratic Party executive director Sally Boynton Brown as the third-place contender, drawing 12 votes in the first round before dropping out.

Television analyst Jehmu Greene, Air Force veteran Sam Ronan and attorney Peter Peckarsky also ran. Greene received half a vote in the first round of balloting before dropping out. Ronan and Peckarsky received none before doing the same. And one voter backed Buttigieg in the first round despite his having already dropped out of the race. </s> ATLANTA — Democrats elected former Labor Secretary Tom Perez as their new national chairman on Saturday over a liberal Minnesota congressman after a divisive campaign that reflected the depths of the party’s electoral failures as well as the energy from resistance to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Perez, the first Latino to hold the post, edged Rep. Keith Ellison on the second round of voting by Democratic National Committee members gathered in Atlanta.

A nod to his margin of 35 votes out of 435 cast, to say nothing of the lingering friction between old-guard Democratic brokers and outspoken liberal upstarts, Perez tapped Ellison to serve as deputy chair.

“We are all in this together,” Perez said, calling on Democrats to fight “the worst president in the history of the United States.” He added, “I am confident when we lead with our values and we lead with our actions, we succeed.”

Perez had led on the first ballot among six candidates, but fell just short of the required majority.

Earlier Saturday, Perez told DNC members the party was facing a “crisis of confidence” and a “crisis of relevance.”

“We need a chair who cannot only take the fight to Donald Trump but make sure that we talk about our positive message of inclusion and opportunity and talk to that big tent of the Democratic Party,” Perez said.

Both top candidates had promised aggressive rebuilding efforts for state and local Democratic parties.

The chair campaign was uncharted territory as Democrats face a power deficit not seen in nine decades. Republicans control the White House, Congress and about two-thirds of U.S. statehouses. The GOP is one Senate confirmation fight away from a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

With Democrats in agreement in their opposition to Trump, the race turned on who was able to convince enough DNC members to believe his promises of rebuilding party infrastructure that withered under President Barack Obama despite his personal electoral success.

Ellison told voting members he had signatures from 750,000 rank-and-file Democrats who support his chairmanship bid. He promised to “convert them from demonstration energy to electoral energy.” He pledged to prioritize small donations to finance the party, while working to “organize this whole country.”

Perez said he would “rebuild strong parties” and “organize, organize, organize” so Democratic nominees could win “from the school to the Senate in all the states.”

Perez got into the race at Obama’s urging, but he pushed back on the notion that represented the same “establishment” label that dogged Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Ellison had endorsements from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who challenged Clinton for the Democratic nomination, and also from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

For their parts, Ellison and Perez had praised each other and promised unity regardless of the outcome.

The winner succeeds outgoing Chairwoman Donna Brazile, who led the party as interim chief in the fallout from disclosure that internal party communications were stolen by hackers and leaked during the 2016 presidential campaign.

U.S. intelligence officials have blamed Russian agents and said Moscow’s intention was to help Trump win.

Brazile said Saturday the party has worked with cybersecurity experts to address vulnerabilities. She chided Trump for his mockery of DNC cybersecurity and his doubts that Russians are at fault.

“No, Donald Trump, you can’t go to Staples and buy anti-Russian hacking software,” she said, urging Congress to investigate whether Russians hacked the Republican National Committee.

No RNC emails were leaked during the 2016 campaign. Republican officials insist their party communications were not breached.

Brazile suggests that proves Russians wanted to help Trump. </s> And to think, that was the easy part. Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez was elected as chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, edging out Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison in the first competitive election for the job in decades. The 55-year-old Perez, the first Latino chair of the party, will now inherit the most thankless job in politics—rebuilding a party that is at its lowest point since the 1920s.

The race was often miscast as a proxy fight between supporters of Bernie Sanders and supporters of Hillary Clinton, a framing that was unfair to both Ellison and Perez, dynamic and progressive political operatives running for a job often reserved for staid political figures. In the end, Perez's win was not a rejection of Ellison's vision of the party; in key ways, his campaign was an affirmation of it.

Party chair is a position typically of interest only to political junkies. But with organizers still amped up from the presidential election, the race had the feel and structure of a competitive primary, with a half-dozen candidate forums across the country and an intensive push from rank-and-file voters that recalled previous courting of superdelegates. "I've been lobbied consistently by phone, by email, by Facebook, by Twitter for the last month," said Melvin Poindexter, a DNC member from Massachusetts who was supporting Ellison.

Ellison, for his part, tried to tamp down the barrage of phone calls on his behalf, which one state party chair unfavorably described as "anarchy." But aggressive lobbying proved critical. Kerman Maddox, a DNC member from California, explained that he'd chosen Perez in part because "Tom called me more than any of the other Democratic candidates"—a sentiment echoed by other voting members.

After the results were announced, a dozen Ellison supporters—including the congressman's brother, Eric—chanted "party for the people, not big money" from the back of the Atlanta ballroom, with a few cries of "bullshit!" thrown in. While the formal final vote, sealed on the second ballot, was 235 to 200, in a show of unity, Perez was subsequently elected by acclamation. In his first move as chair, he announced that Ellison had agreed to serve as his deputy chair.

"If you're wearing a 'Keith' t-shirt—or any t-shirt—I am asking you to give everything you've got to support chairman Perez," Ellison told the room. Afterward, they switched campaign pins in a show of solidarity.

In the run up to the vote, some Ellison backers argued that there was no real case for a Perez chairmanship—that he was running as a check on Sanders' influence and little more. But DNC members I spoke with seemed to understand Perez's pitch quite clearly: he was a turnaround artist who had retooled complex bureaucracies toward progressive ends, first at the Maryland Department of Labor, then at the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, and finally as President Barack Obama's Labor Secretary. If progressives had forgotten what they liked about Perez, they needed to look no farther than the conservative Breitbart News, which once heralded Perez "the most radical cabinet secretary since Henry Wallace," the New Dealer who eventually bolted the Democrats to mount a third party challenge in 1948.

The fights that Perez has waged over the course of his career track closely with those Ellison cut his teeth on in Minneapolis—housing discrimination, voter suppression, and living wages. Neo-liberal stooges still have a place in the Democratic party. But the DNC chair isn't one of them.

Beyond their shared political priorities, Perez even offered a similar diagnosis as Ellison. The party had become top-heavy, focusing too much on the presidential race, and had neglected to compete on a county-by-county level. He advocated something resembling a restoration of former chair Howard Dean's 50-state strategy, and proposed to spend more time knocking on doors in off-year elections. There was no talk of compromising with President Donald Trump; Perez dubbed him "the worst president in the history of the United States."

Ellison sought to win the same way he always has, through a mastery of coalition politics. His backers included American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Rep. John Lewis, and Sanders—many of whom found themselves on opposing sides during the president primary. The threat by OJ Simpson counsel and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz< to leave the party if Ellison won did not appear to have a substantial effect on voters. (Maybe they were waiting to hear from F. Lee Bailey.) He ran not as Sanders 2.0, but as a restoration of an even older form of Democratic progressivism, one evoked by the spruce-green colors on his t-shirts and tote bags—the campaign colors of his political idol, the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone.

Just a few hours before the election, there was an indication Ellison might come up short when the committee members voted on a resolution that would reinstate the party's ban on corporate donations. The ban, which was first implemented by president-elect Barack Obama in 2008, had been dropped last year by the previous party chair, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Ellison had supported the reinstatement of the ban and envisioned a party's fundraising model in the mold of Sanders' small-dollar campaign. Perez never committed to reinstating the contribution ban.

The resolution brought on the most contentious 10 minutes of a weekend that, up until then, had been a love-fest. Bob Mulholland of California, the leading critic of the ban, chided critics as naive. He cited corporate opposition to ousted North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory as proof that corporations aren't all evil. Supporters of the ban, some of the new party leaders whom had been recently elected to their posts with the backing of Sanders's supporters, implicitly tied the resolution to the senator's one-time candidacy, warning that the party risked alienating voters who cared about money in politics. Jessica Sell Chambers, a Sanders backer and the newly minted national committeewoman from Wyoming, offered a succinct appraisal: "I belong to the party of the people and the last time I checked corporations aren't people."

Inside the Westin, where Democrats began assembling on Thursday, the notion that the chair candidates were engaged in a rancorous, existential fight seemed far-fetched. Perez, who was hoarse from two days of lobbying as he made a last-minute push Friday night, had taken to calling the event "Unity Saturday." Even the most die-hard Ellison supporters were optimistic that the party would be in good hands win or lose. Each of the leading candidates devoted portions of their stump speech to a call for unity no matter who won.

"I really just want to like put at least four of them together," said Dolly Strazar from Hawaii, a Sanders supporter who ended up backing Perez. Another voting member, Aleita Huguenin of California, predicted that the fight would quickly simmer down. "I've been through too many of them," she said. "People are a little disappointed, they have two dinners, and will be back together."

In reality, the contentious fight over the future of the party never really described the DNC race—but there is such a battle playing out across the country. Already, Sanders supporters, both organically and with the support of the Senator's non-profit Our Revolution, have begun targeting the party's apparatus at state, county, and local levels. They are poised to take over the California Democratic party in May, after winning a majority of delegates to the state convention in January. The Sanders wing is ascendant in Nebraska and Wyoming, and setting its sights on Florida and Michigan. Beyond party positions, re-energized Sanders supporters are talking openly about primary challenges to Democratic officeholders who support Donald Trump's policies.

Less than a year after only 39 of 447 DNC members endorsed Sanders' presidential campaign, his chosen candidate came about 15 votes short of taking over the whole thing. The numbers reflect Sanders' forces growing strength in the party, a gradual upheaval that may only be sped along by Perez's victory. DNC members from Wyoming—where the Vermont senator notched a huge caucus victory but due to party rules emerged with few delegates—who are not on board are feeling the heat. When Bruce Palmer, the party's vice chair, told me he was supporting Tom Perez, he conceded that it may be to his own detriment. After all, he's got an election next month. </s> ATLANTA – Democrats chose President Obama’s former Labor secretary, Tom Perez, as the person to lead them out of a political wilderness of heavy losses at every level of government over the past eight years and amid tensions between moderates and progressives about how to rebuild the party after Hillary Clinton's unexpected loss to Donald Trump.

Perez’s election as the next Democratic National Committee chair is a reflection of the party’s leftward drift – all of the contestants packaged themselves as progressives eager to tangle with Trump on voting and civil rights and economic policies favoring the wealthy.

Perez won narrowly in a second round of balloting after coming one vote short of a majority in an initial round. A group of supporters for his opponent, Keith Ellison, co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, reacted angrily and stormed out of the room chanting “no big money. Party for the people.”

Within moments, Perez announced he would make Ellison a deputy chair as the room erupted in applause.

Ellison urged everyone to support Perez. “If we waste even a moment going at it over who supported whom we are not going to be standing up for those people,” referring to struggling Americans, he said.

A former Department of Justice civil rights lawyer, Perez emphasized fighting against former Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona on immigration issues, stopping voter ID laws and taking on Wall Street in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis.

Yet he was also the more establishment-aligned alternative in what had essentially become a two-way race in its final stretch. Former Vice President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Eric Holder endorsed Perez. Ellison was the favorite of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressive leaders, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Ellison's confrontational style raised some concerns about his ability to connect with white working-class voters in the Rust Belt states that flipped to Trump in 2016. Pennsylvania, for example, hadn’t voted for a Republican president since 1988.

The greatest challenges facing the next leader is uniting Democrats and rebuilding a party infrastructure in need of a major overhaul. Democrats not only lost the White House but also both chambers of Congress in the past couple elections. At the state level, they now control the legislature in just 13 states, compared to 32 controlled by Republicans amid widespread complaints the DNC focused it resources on presidential races at the expense of local party building.

"We are suffering from a crisis of confidence, a crisis of relevance. We need a chair who can not only take the fight to Donald Trump," Perez said in a final appeal to DNC members. "We also need a chair who can lead turnaround and change the culture of the Democratic Party and the DNC," said Perez, emphasizing the importance of "working to elect from the school board to the Senate."

The aftermath of the vote — and whether Ellison supporters embrace Perez — is an initial test of party unity needed to take on Trump and the Republican-led Congress. Party officials and keynote speakers made no attempt to conceal tensions between some Perez and Ellison supporters.

“There’s no secret that there’s division, even in this camp,” said Rev. Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., who addressed the crowd ahead of the vote. “We came here in different ships and boats but we’re all in the same boat now,” King said. “If we don’t come together as brothers and sisters, we’re going to perish as fools."

Perez consolidated support in the final moments of the race when South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg, a dark horse who drew significant attention, helped avoid a drawn out series of balloting by withdrawing his nomination.

Just as the Republican Tea Party pulled the GOP further to the right, there is a progressive tug to the left after a heated primary battle between Clinton and Sanders, who frequently drew connections between her and Wall Street interests.

“Bernie did not get a fair shake” from the DNC leadership, said Brian Ellison, a Detroit pastor and one of Keith Ellison’s brothers, and “people are very upset about that to this day.”

Even so, in his speech, Keith Ellison made an appeal for unity. "We’ve gotta walk out of here with unity not just between the candidates” but between party members, he said. "Trump is right outside that door — and not just Trump but Trumpism.”

"You are the ones who can bring comfort to people fearing a ban or a wall or losing their Social Security," Ellison added. "The American people need us in this moment," he said.

If the vote is fair and “transparent there will be unity,” assured Ellison's brother, who huddled with other supporters in the back of conference room.

Many wearing green Ellison shirts expressed similar sentiments. Still some, including Ohio state senator Nina Turner, warned that “if Congressman Ellison is not elected there’s lots of people who are prepared to walk.” The divide between progressive and more moderate members was also on display in a debate over an amendment about DNC rules governing accepting corporate money that was voted down, with some members chanting “money out of politics.”

The question going forward is whether the party divide is significant to rival the Tea Party. In the first couple of election cycles, Tea Party Republicans who won their primary went on to lose seats to Democrats in the general election.

More immediately, the major challenge for the new chair is fundraising. The Republican National Committee raised $19.8 million in January, setting a record. While the Democratic Party’s traditional grassroots machine, labor unions, are fighting for survival, Republicans have built a powerhouse of outside groups like the Koch Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity that is bolstering local GOP officials from county commissioner to governor.

“We’ve got a tremendous wind at our back. Not only do we hold large majorities but the enthusiasm I’m seeing among the grassroots among state and county committee people and this new insurgence of Trump supporters is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” said Val DiGiorgio, chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.

Democrats are expecting the new DNC chair to help reinvigorate local parties who’ve complained that national outside groups, like Obama’s Organizing for Action, have drained talent and resources resulting in a disproportionate share of resources going to presidential candidates.

The DNC needs “an overall culture change to get out of the Washington-centered model they have” said Michigan chair Brandon Dillon. “The basic capacity for state parties to do what state parties should be doing has really eroded over the past decade,” said Ohio chair David Pepper.

The forum also spotlighted a number of potential rising stars in the Democratic Party. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who's expected to lead many of the legal battles against the new administration, delivered the keynote address.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, who narrowly lost his 2016 Senate race, also gave speeches. Kander has started a new national voting rights organization.

“There’s something happening in this country right now,” Kander said. “This is a level of activism most of us have not seen in our lifetimes,” he said. “We may be living in the nightmare that is the Trump presidency, but we are awake, we are on our feet and we are marching forward,” he said.

Buttigieg may have been the break-out star after withdrawing his nomination. In his speech, he called for healing even with Trump voters. “The world is not divided into good people and bad people. Every one of us can and will do good things and bad things every day,” Buttigieg said.

“Leaders matter because of what they bring out in the rest of us,” Buttigieg said. "Right now we have leaders who bring out the worst in us. They call on the darkest things within us,” he said, calling on Democrats to become “happy warriors.” </s> On the eve of the vote for the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, the crowded field is thinning out.

South Carolina Democratic Chair Jamie Harrison dropped out of the race Thursday and endorsed former Labor Secretary Tom Perez. The move comes days after another candidate, New Hampshire Democratic Chair Ray Buckley, exited the race and threw his support to Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota.

The two withdrawals surely add to Perez and Ellison's vote totals, and solidify the two as the front-runners to be the next head of the Democratic Party. Both claim substantial support among the 447 DNC members who will vote for the position on Saturday morning in Atlanta, though neither is predicting a first-ballot majority.

There are still seven candidates, though South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the long shot with the best chance. He's made some waves during the race's final days, getting endorsements from former DNC chairs like Howard Dean and Ed Rendell.

Even with all the last-minute jockeying, the race has a cordial and complimentary vibe, with candidates all but falling over themselves to agree with each other at its many public forums and debates.

"We're all friends up here," Ellison said during a recent candidate forum. "We like each other. We respect each other."

"This is a conversation among siblings as to who should lead the party," Perez recently told Politico.

But if the contest seems breezy, its backdrop does not. Democrats are still reeling from a presidential loss that hardly any party officials saw coming. The party has shed hundreds of statehouse seats over the previous decade, and it is in the minority in both the House and Senate.

On top of that, the DNC has effectively been in a holding pattern since mid-2016, when WikiLeaks published internal emails that led to the ouster of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The emails were likely stolen and provided to WikiLeaks by Russian hackers, according to the CIA and other federal intelligence agencies.

Most of the candidates are vowing to borrow a page from former DNC Chair Howard Dean and spend time and money organizing the party across the country — not just in coastal states where Democrats have solidified their support in recent years.

Many agree the party needs to improve its messaging, especially when it comes to economic issues. "When Donald Trump says, 'I'm going to bring those coal jobs back,' we know that's a lie, but people understand that he feels their pain," Perez said at a recent forum. "And our response was, vote for us because he's crazy. I'll stipulate to that, but that's not a message."

While the candidates are taking pains to appear united — Perez and Ellison were recently photographed having dinner together — many are viewing the DNC race as a proxy for last year's divided presidential primary season.

Much of the party's establishment wing is backing Perez. While former President Barack Obama has stayed out of the race, Perez has been endorsed by close Obama allies like former Vice President Joe Biden and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Ellison, on the other hand, touted an early endorsement by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and he has attracted support from the more liberal, grassroots activists in the Democratic Party.

This has been the main narrative of the unusually drawn-out race, but it's not quite that simple. For one thing, Ellison has also been endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, an establishment figure.

The eventual winner will have a lot on his or her plate. In addition to fundraising and reorganizing the DNC, the chair will likely function as one of the party's top surrogates in the media. Howard Dean views something else as the winner's most important job: "coordinating the tremendous rush of young people who are interested in the process, and really weren't much before."

Democrats in all levels of office are processing how to respond to the surge of motivated – and often angry – liberals who have taken to the streets and filled Republican congressional town halls. Engaging those folks in the political process — and steering them to the polls in future elections — will likely be the key to success for Saturday's winner. </s> On the eve of the vote for the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, the crowded field is thinning out.

South Carolina Democratic Chair Jaime Harrison dropped out of the race Thursday and endorsed former Labor Secretary Tom Perez. The move comes days after another candidate, New Hampshire Democratic Chair Ray Buckley, exited the race and threw his support to Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota.

The two withdrawals surely add to Perez and Ellison's vote totals, and solidify the two as the front-runners to be the next head of the Democratic Party. Both claim substantial support among the 447 DNC members who will vote for the position on Saturday morning in Atlanta, though neither is predicting a first-ballot majority.

There are still seven candidates, though South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the long shot with the best chance. He's made some waves during the race's final days, getting endorsements from former DNC chairs like Howard Dean and Ed Rendell.

Even with all the last-minute jockeying, the race has a cordial and complimentary vibe, with candidates all but falling over themselves to agree with each other at its many public forums and debates.

"We're all friends up here," Ellison said during a recent candidate forum. "We like each other. We respect each other."

"This is a conversation among siblings as to who should lead the party," Perez recently told Politico.

But if the contest seems breezy, its backdrop does not. Democrats are still reeling from a presidential loss that hardly any party officials saw coming. The party has shed hundreds of statehouse seats over the previous decade, and it is in the minority in both the House and Senate.

On top of that, the DNC has effectively been in a holding pattern since mid-2016, when WikiLeaks published internal emails that led to the ouster of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The emails were likely stolen and provided to WikiLeaks by Russian hackers, according to the CIA and other federal intelligence agencies.

Most of the candidates are vowing to borrow a page from former DNC Chair Howard Dean and spend time and money organizing the party across the country — not just in coastal states where Democrats have solidified their support in recent years.

Many agree the party needs to improve its messaging, especially when it comes to economic issues. "When Donald Trump says, 'I'm going to bring those coal jobs back,' we know that's a lie, but people understand that he feels their pain," Perez said at a recent forum. "And our response was, vote for us because he's crazy. I'll stipulate to that, but that's not a message."

While the candidates are taking pains to appear united — Perez and Ellison were recently photographed having dinner together — many are viewing the DNC race as a proxy for last year's divided presidential primary season.

Much of the party's establishment wing is backing Perez. While former President Barack Obama has stayed out of the race, Perez has been endorsed by close Obama allies like former Vice President Joe Biden and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Ellison, on the other hand, touted an early endorsement by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and he has attracted support from the more liberal, grassroots activists in the Democratic Party.

This has been the main narrative of the unusually drawn-out race, but it's not quite that simple. For one thing, Ellison has also been endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, an establishment figure.

The eventual winner will have a lot on his or her plate. In addition to fundraising and reorganizing the DNC, the chair will likely function as one of the party's top surrogates in the media. Howard Dean views something else as the winner's most important job: "coordinating the tremendous rush of young people who are interested in the process, and really weren't much before."

Democrats in all levels of office are processing how to respond to the surge of motivated – and often angry – liberals who have taken to the streets and filled Republican congressional town halls. Engaging those folks in the political process — and steering them to the polls in future elections — will likely be the key to success for Saturday's winner. </s> Days after the nation elected Donald Trump president, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison launched a campaign to run the Democratic National Committee.

Ellison was one of the first to announce his campaign to chair the party and quickly picked up powerful endorsements, including from U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer. Since the November campaign launch — he had been quietly preparing for quite a while — the race has grown.

Eight candidates are vying to lead the Democrats. Among them: Tom Perez, a former secretary of labor under President Barack Obama. Perez has garnered support from key Obama backers and is considered a strong rival to Ellison’s bid.

The other candidates include Jehmu Greene of Texas, who has served president of Rock the Vote; Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind.; Jamie Harrison, chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party; Sally Boynton Brown of Idaho, president of the Association of State Democratic Party Executive Directors; Peter Peckarsky, an attorney from Wisconsin; and Samuel Ronan, a U.S. Air Force veteran from Ohio.

At the Democratic National Convention Winter Meeting, about 450 Democrats — activists and party officers from across the nation — will decide whose message best suits the parties needs. All the candidates for Democratic National Committee chair have claimed they can lift the party — with organizing, fundraising and strategy.

The Saturday vote at the DNC meeting comes at a crucial time for Democrats. Republicans have seized majority control of the U.S. Congress, the presidency and many state Capitols — half of the states have complete Republican control, while only five states boost Democratic dominance.

In his campaign for chair, Ellison has said Democrats need to do a better job of speaking to and representing working people. The path back to power, he said on the Daily Show this month, is to “be fierce fighters on behalf of working people, every single day.”
• He is a Detroit native who attended the city’s Wayne State University. He went on to earn a law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1990 and stayed in Minnesota to practice law.
• He was elected to the Minnesota House in 2002 and served for two terms. He quickly rose as an outspoken advocate for progressive issues that connected with his liberal, racially diverse Minneapolis district.
• Ellison is experienced in battling for Democratic support. Although he has easily been re-elected to Congress, in 2006 he was among a host of candidates vying for the party’s endorsement for the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo. Even after winning the endorsement, Ellison faced a crowded primary for the seat. He won the primary and then the November 2006 general election with 56 percent of the vote.
• When elected to the U.S. House, he was its first Muslim-American member. That has garnered him welcome and unwelcome attention, as critics have explored his past allegiance with the Nation of Islam and its anti-Semitic beliefs. That history, and more recent actions, have caused him to fight back against claims he is anti-Semitic or anti-Israel in his campaign for DNC chair.
• In Congress, he has not been considered one of the most effective members in terms of bills passed into law. But he has given voice to the most liberal interests, has been a frequent guest on national television programs and has been picked as a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
• Although he has a safe Democratic seat in Congress, he has been a significant campaign fundraiser. “Basically, we put it into promoting turnout in the district and helping other candidates who have progressive values win,” Ellison has said. Much of his cash has been spent on staff, consultants and donations to party groups.
• During his campaign, he has emphasized his work to promote turnout in the 5th Congressional District. Although turnout has increased since he has been in office in the district in presidential years, it has not gone up in non-presidential, off-year elections. The 5th District was last in the number of people voting compared to other Minnesota districts in 2006 and 2010 and was seventh in raw number of voters in 2014.
• When Ellison first announced he would run for DNC chair, he demurred when asked if he would give up his seat in Congress if he won; he later said he would. That has set off a series of announcements from state lawmakers from Minneapolis saying they would run for his seat if he vacated it.
• White House bars CNN, New York Times, others from media gaggle
• Trump’s chief of staff asked FBI to dispute Russia reports, official says
• GOP senator says she’s open to demanding Trump’s tax returns as part of Russia probe
• Joe Soucheray: An enemy of the people, under cover on the golf course </s> Newly elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez wasted no time in opening verbal fire at Pres. Donald Trump on Saturday.

After Trump tweeted that he “couldn’t be happier” that Perez had been elected chairman of the DNC, the former Secretary of Labor told the chief executive via Twitter not to get too comfortable, according to TheHill.com.

“Call me Tom. And don’t get too happy. @keithellison and I, and Democrats united across the country, will be your worst nightmare,” wrote Perez.

Perez was elected on Saturday after a contentious race against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) for committee chair. After his victory, Perez suspended the committee rules and named Ellison as his co-chair, hoping to send a message of unity to a party struggling to find its identity in the wake of a bruising campaign year. </s> Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is supporting Democrat Jon Ossoff's congressional campaign in Georgia. His opponent Republican Karen Handel hopes Donald Trump will campaign for her.
Voting takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, to elect a new Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Candidates include Sally Boynton Brown, Keith Ellison, Jehmu Greene and former United States Secretary of Labor Tom Perez.