Ex-Labor Secretary Tom Perez elected DNC chairman

Former US Labor Secretary Tom Perez edged Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison by 35 votes Saturday to become the head of the Democratic National Committee.

He promptly called President Trump “the worst president in the history of the United States.”

After a months-long battle many Dems compared to a presidential primary, Perez outlasted Ellison in the second round of voting in Atlanta, securing 235 votes to Ellison’s 200. Perez had fallen one vote shy of the victory threshold in the first round of voting. 

The results were another blow to Mayor de Blasio, who was in Atlanta to back Ellison.

Perez announced he would make Ellison “deputy chairman” of the DNC and embraced him from the podium after the vote.

Ellison wiped away tears, thanked his supporters, and said, “We don’t have the luxury of going out of this room divided.”

When Perez took the stage, he slammed President Trump and called for Democrats to remain engaged.

“They’re going to ask the question . . . where were you in 2017 when we had the worst president in the history of the US?” he said.

“We need every house call, we need to listen to people, we need to get back to basics, and we need to move forward,” he added. 

The former Cabinet member earned the endorsements of several Obama administration alums, including former Vice President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Eric Holder. 

Ellison’s most high-profile backer was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, but he also picked up support from Sen. Charles Schumer and Mayor de Blasio.

Democrats compared the race to a proxy war that refought the bruising 2016 primary between the left-wing Sanders and the party establishment led by Hillary Clinton.

Ellison enjoyed the support of the party’s upstart liberals, who saw his candidacy as a way to snatch a victory from November’s presidential defeat. Perez, who was on Clinton’s short list for vice president, was backed most strongly by Democratic stalwarts in the Obama and Clinton camps.

But Ellison, who is a Muslim, was damaged by criticism from pro-Israel organizations and slams from major Democratic donors who blasted his past associations with the Nation of Islam.

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Who Is Tom Perez ??

Tom Perez was elected Saturday as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) after a competitive race against Rep. Keith Ellison, becoming the first Latino to lead the party.

Perez, 55, left the Obama administration last month after serving as labor secretary since July 2013. In that job, he helped push for new overtime rules to ensure workers get overtime pay, extended overtime protections for home care workers and extended minimum wage protections.
He also helped establish worker safety rules, and under his leadership the department provided paid sick leave and ensured employment protections for federal contractor employees, according to his biography on the department’s website.

He was elected Saturday in Atlanta, receiving 235 votes and surpassing the 218-vote threshold to win. Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat and the first Muslim elected to Congress, received 200 votes. Perez appointed Ellison as deputy chairman immediately after the results were announced.

“We are united as a party,” Perez said after his election, with Ellison standing by his side. “We have so much work ahead of us because across America, people are fearful. People are fearful for our future. Democrats united are the hope for our future.”

Perez is a native of Buffalo, New York, and received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, a law degree from Harvard Law School and a master’s of public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

His parents were immigrants from the Dominican Republic. His dad died when Perez was only 12 years old, according to his biography on his campaign website, and he later put himself through college by working on the back of a garbage truck.

He started his career as a civil rights attorney at the Department of Justice and later served as special counselor to Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts. Under Attorney General Janet Reno, Perez served as deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, and toward the end of the Clinton administration, he was the head of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Before President Obama nominated Perez to his Cabinet, succeeding Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, he returned to the Justice Department in 2009 to serve as assistant attorney general for civil rights.

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