MANDEL NGAN,BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez fell one vote short of becoming chair of the Democratic National Committee on the first ballot on Saturday.
Top Democrats gathered in Atlanta will now have a second round of voting.
Perez earned 213.5 votes and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison won 200 votes. Candidates needed 214.5 votes to win. Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton Brown scooped up 12 votes, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg got 1 vote despite dropping out before the vote and Jehmu Greene won 0.5 votes.
All candidates but Perez and Ellison have dropped out of the race.
“We need a chair who can not only take the fight to Donald Trump, make sure we talk about our positive message,” Perez told the crowd before the vote. “We also need a chair who can lead turnaround and change the culture of the Democratic Party and DNC.”
The next chair will be key in trying to unify and rally a party still reeling from its presidential election defeat and crippled by down-ballot losses across the country over the last decade.
“We’re in this mess because we lost not one election but a thousand elections,” Ellison said. “We gotta go to the grassroots, ya’ll. Unity is essential. We gotta walk out of here with unity.”
Many in the party’s progressive wing had rallied around Ellison, expressing their frustration with the status quo of the party. They felt strongly that Ellison better identified with the grassroots movement growing across the country in opposition to Trump.
After emails leaked last summer revealed former chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz had purportedly influenced the presidential primary, many activists who sided with Sen. Bernie Sanders were left feeling betrayed and disillusioned by the party establishment. Those leaks last summer forced Wasserman Schultz to step down.
Perez is backed by many from former President Obama’s political orbit, including former Vice President Joe Biden, while Ellison garners support from liberals like Sanders. But the lines are not hard and fast. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is also backing Ellison, while Perez has the support of some labor groups.
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