Moments after former labor secretary Tom Perez narrowly defeated Representative Keith Ellison in a battle to lead the Democratic party, the rivals appeared together at a press conference in downtown Atlanta. Pinned to his suit jacket, Ellison wore a blue “Team Tom” button. Perez wore a green “Keith for DNC” button.
The message was clear: the Democratic party would leave the city a united front. But the show of unity papered over anger that had erupted when Donna Brazile, interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, announced that Perez would be her successor.
“Party for the people, not big money!” a group of Ellison supporters chanted from the back of the hotel ballroom. When the jeering subsided and Perez was able to speak, he moved immediately to name Ellison as deputy chairman.
The room erupted in cheers. But the episode did not dispel a sense among Ellison supporters that Democrats had missed an opportunity to change course after years of election losses, especially at the state and local level.
“It looks bleak right now,” said Jean Ross, co-president of National Nurses United. Several members of the union came to Atlanta to cheer on Ellison, wearing their red scrubs.
“We thought we had a real chance to turn this party around. But apparently the old guard is willing to continue a losing streak.”
The balloting went on for two rounds. Perez, who was considered as Hillary Clinton’s running mate, came up one vote short on the first ballot. He secured a clear lead on the second, with 235 of 435 votes. The party’s ascendant activist base showed its strength with 200 votes for Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress and an experienced grassroots activist.
But after Bernie Sanders’ bruising primary loss to Clinton last spring, progressives were frustrated on Saturday that they had failed to wrest power from what in their view are Washington insiders, party elites and donors.
Jim Dean, chair of Democracy for America, called the election “incredibly disappointing” and “another missed opportunity for a Democratic party desperately trying to regain relevance”.
The Working Families party national director, Dan Cantor, said Ellison was “uniquely qualified to transform that anger and fear into political power and organization” and predicted the result “may sting for progressives, particularly young people”.
Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org, said pointedly: “If [Perez] can lead the Democratic party to stand unequivocally on the side of economic justice and equality, then the millions of MoveOn members across the country will stand with it.”
Stephanie Taylor and Adam Green, co-founders of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, urged Perez to “work quickly to build bridges to grassroots progressive groups that have their finger on the pulse of the modern-day resistance”.
At the press conference, Ellison appealed to his supporters. “If they trust me, they need to come on and trust Tom Perez as well,” he said, adding: “The very fate of our nation, I believe, is in the balance.”
Sanders endorsed Ellison and the Vermont senator’s legions of followers rallied behind the bid. A month later, Perez joined the race and earned support from allies of Clinton and Obama.
The frontrunners campaigned on nearly identical platforms and advanced similar explanations of what had gone wrong in 2016.
Ellison was attacked for past comments critical of Israel, the American Jewish Congress warning in a letter to DNC members that choosing him might “threaten the relationship between America and our ally Israel”. Ellison called the attacks smears and apologized for past remarks.
Supporters of Perez cited his liberal record as proof that he would be a strong ally of the party’s progressive wing. During his 2013 confirmation battle, Breitbart warned that Perez would be the “most radical cabinet secretary since Henry Wallace”.
But activists said Perez was unable to dispel the impression that he was a stalking horse for the party’s establishment.
“It is not a left-v-center debate,” said Waleed Shahid, a co-founder of #AllofUs, the progressive group that launched WeWillReplaceYou.org to challenge incumbent Democrats who do not sufficiently oppose Donald Trump’s agenda.
“It is a top-v-bottom debate,” he continued. “It’s about where you have been. Tom Perez spent a lot of time at the top of the party and Keith Ellison, he has been in the trenches fighting with us.”
Shahid said grassroots leaders would welcome the opportunity to work with Perez and the DNC, but said the onus is on party leadership to earn the support of the “foot soldiers”.
During the press conference, Perez said giving young people and progressive leaders a “seat at the table” was a top priority.
There was another critic of the election result: President Trump.
“The race for DNC chairman was, of course, totally ‘rigged’,” he said on Twitter on Sunday. “Bernie’s guy, like Bernie himself, never had a chance. Clinton demanded Perez!”
In an interview on Sunday with CNN’s State of the Union, Sanders disagreed, saying the system was not “rigged” and that Ellison “took on in essence Democratic insiders and came close to winning”.
Perez, also appearing on CNN, dismissed the suggestion that the vote had reinforced a divide between party factions.
“Congressman Ellison and I got a good kick out of that – Donald Trump up again in the morning tweeting about us,” Perez said. “Our unity as a party is our greatest strength and it’s his worst nightmare.”
- This article was updated on 26 February 2017, to correctly identify the organisation which wrote to DNC members about previous criticisms of Israel by Keith Ellison.
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