ATLANTA — Democrats deadlocked Saturday afternoon after the first round of voting to select a new national party chairman.
The leading contenders, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Tom Perez of Maryland, President Barack Obama’s former labor secretary, failed to clear the 50 percent-plus threshold among the 427 eligible voting members of the Democratic National Committee who voted on first ballot.
Perez earned 213.5 votes (Democrats abroad each get one half of a vote,) one vote short of the threshold of 214.5 votes needed to win the election. Ellison came in second with 200 votes. But with rest of the field voluntarily withdrawing following the first ballot, the second round of voting was set to decide the close contest between Perez and Ellison.
According to DNC rules, all candidates had the option of being considered on the second ballot. On the subsequent rounds, the lowest vote-getters were to automatically be eliminated, until a winner emerged. With Perez and Ellison the only candidates being considered on ballot No. 2, those rules are no longer relevant.
Both Ellison and Perez were claiming the advantage heading into the vote.
Dark horse candidate Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of Fort Bend, Ind., dropped out of the race minutes before the voting began. In the middle of the first round of voting, controversy erupted when the Ellison campaign claimed via text message to DNC voting members an endorsement from Buttigieg, which it was forced to retract.
“To clarify: I have made NO ENDORSEMENT for DNC Chair,” Buttigieg tweeted.
Democrats gathered Saturday in Atlanta’s downtown convention center to choose a new party leader and full slate of new officers. Energized by opposition to President Trump but unclear how turn that energy into votes, they are hoping that the election of a new DNC chairman will allow them to unify their disparate insurgent and establishment wings and focus on defeating the Republicans in 2018.
Democrats suffered massive losses over the past eight years, including majorities in the House and Senate, several governor’s mansions and nearly 1,000 state legislative seats.
“We can’t be a drive-by party anymore,” Ellison said Friday, speaking to Democrats desire to rebuild at the local as well as national level. “We’ve got to be a stay-in party.”
The chairman’s race has developed into a proxy war between Bernie Sanders insurgents and Obama establishment insiders. Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont is backing Ellison. Perez was endorsed by many in Obama’s orbit, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
Andrew Werthmann, a DNC member from Wisconsin, a key midwest battleground crucial to the Democrats’ rebuilding efforts, said before the voting began that Ellison was best positioned to grow the party’s ranks.
“There’s a lot of excitement around Congressman Ellison from a lot of folks who I would say represent the grassroots of the party and people who are interested in becoming a part of the party,” he said. “Congressman Ellison helps build a bigger party for us and I’m excited about that.”
Bob Mulholland, a DNC member from California who described himself as a “pragmatic progressive,” was supporting Perez. “He’s got national connections,” Mulholland explained. “The number one job of the DNC chair is to raise money … If you raise money you can do a lot more organizing.”
