The liberal activist group Democracy for America on Tuesday endorsed Rep. Keith Ellison for Democratic National Committee chairman.
The organization is affiliated with former DNC Chairman Howard Dean, who recently dropped his bid for his old job, and its endorsement of the Minnesota congressman could prove significant. In 2005, when Dean ran for and won the post, Democracy for America threw its weight behind Dean, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.
“Keith Ellison earned the overwhelming support of Democracy for America’s grassroots members because he knows that the Democratic Party is strong when it’s built from the bottom up in every single state, in every single community, every single day,” Charles Chamberlain, DFA’s executive director, said in a statement.
The move by DFA come as Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, 55, has reportedly entered the race.
Perez is scheduled to hold a conference call on Wednesday with Democratic chairmen in the states to discuss his bid.
The former elected member of the Montgomery County Council in Maryland is an ally of President Obama’s who could have enough influence to dislodge Ellison as the front-runner. Ellison is viewed as a proxy for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who mounted an insurgent bid for the Democratic presidential nomination this year.
But one Democratic insider and DNC veteran cautioned against viewing Perez as Obama’s candidate in the race. The president never took much of an interest in the DNC, preferring to run his campaigns and outside activism through his own grassroots organization, Organizing for America.
Obama’s sudden interest in the DNC would be new.
“If he really cared he would have installed someone other than Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-Fla.] and he would have had a pick for chair to back sooner,” this Democratic operative said, on condition of anonymity because he did not want to publicly criticize Obama.
The vote for DNC chairman, decided by about 450 voting members of the national party, is scheduled for February or March. Candidate forums are upcoming in January and February in Phoenix, Houston, Baltimore and Detroit.
Perez’s entry into the race was first reported by the New York Times.
