The Race for DNC Chair Heats Up
A breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate
By David Oks
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
IN LATE FEBRUARY 2017, THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE (DNC) will elect a new chairperson. This comes at a pivotal moment for the Democrats: the party is today in the political wilderness, thrown out of both houses of Congress as well as the White House, and is hungry for victories at the state level and to eventually be in a position to stop the Trump agenda. The DNC chair race is essential to deciding the future direction of the party, and more specifically where it will focus as it seeks to regain power in the wake of the disastrous 2016 election.
The chair race also arrives in the midst of a heated debate over the party’s nature. Some on the party’s progressive wing, such as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, want to focus on bread-and-butter economic issues in an attempt to court those who voted for President-elect Donald Trump in economically depressed parts of the country — most importantly in the once-solidly-Democratic Midwest. Many of those arguing for a new economic focus criticize what they see as excessive focus on “identity politics,” cultural issues that detract from Democrats’ economic platform. Others believe that moving away from identity politics would be a refusal to address all-too-real issues of discrimination and inequality, a betrayal of the Democrats’ base.
The leading candidates, listed below, are usually representative of some of the Democrats’ competing factions, which, after years of relative peace under President Barack Obama, have had their competitive instincts inflamed by the lively Democratic nomination process and the party’s losses in November. The aforementioned progressive wing, newly-energized by Sanders’s success in the primaries, is deeply angry at economic and political elites and wants to see a substantive leftward shift in policy, especially on labor and economic issues. The more moderate faction would like to see a reaffirmation of the party’s commitment to the multiracial Obama coalition that yielded victories in 2008 and 2012 and seems to be expanding by the day due to the country’s growing diversity. The conservative faction, oftentimes identified with Secretary of State Jason Kander of Missouri or Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, wants to see a Democratic Party that appeals to the white working class which Trump rode to the White House.
Keith Ellison
Position: Congressman from Minnesota, Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Chief Deputy Whip for the House Democrats.
Faction Affiliation: Ellison is seen as a solid progressive. He endorsed Sanders in the presidential nomination race and was one of his most vociferous supporters.
Endorsements: Ellison can boast of endorsements from Sanders, Warren, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as from organizations like MoveOn and the AFL-CIO.
Vision for the Party: Ellison wants to lead the party in a more progressive vision based largely on Sanders’s ideas. To do this, he wants a party that “empowers labor, empowers students, empowers people at the grassroots.” However, he differs from Sanders in his focus on both social and economic issues, rather than simply on wages and jobs. “We don’t need to decide between social justice and economic justice,” he has said. He also wants to take the party’s focus off the presidency (one common criticism of Democrats is that their incessant focus on the Oval Office has distracted them from senatorial, gubernatorial, and congressional races).
Assets: Ellison leads the race in endorsements, and has significant support from the energized liberal wing. Many who blame former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s loss to President Trump on her “elite” connections may find comfort in Ellison’s liberal bona fides. Ellison also comes from a state that nearly went for Trump, Minnesota, and is the first Muslim-American Congressman in history.
Liabilities: Ellison has a history of controversial statements, which could be used by Republican operatives to cast the Democrats as too extreme for mainstream voters. He is also not particularly seen as a unifier. His views on Israel and Palestine are somewhat outside of the mainstream for the Democrats.
Thomas Perez
Position: Former Secretary of Labor of the United States.
Faction Affiliation: Perez is a moderate closely aligned with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He was a Vice Presidential candidate in 2016 before the job went to Tim Kaine.
Endorsements: Perez has been endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden, Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, as well as Governors John Hickenlooper and John Bel Edwards of Colorado and Louisiana, respectively.
Vision for the Party: Perez wants the Democrats to go back to “the basics”: improving organization and infrastructure and improving the party’s campaign apparatus. This means more support for down-ballot candidates. He has also called for a director of cyber security at the DNC to prevent future hacking incidents like the one that helped bring down Clinton’s candidacy.
Assets: Perez is widely seen as having the backing of the White House and is certainly closest, among the candidates, to Obama, who is popular among all factions within the party. He is seen as the main alternative to Ellison for those who are put off by Ellison’s more controversial leanings.
Liabilities: Perez is running as the Clinton-Obama candidate soon after a devastating loss for Clinton and for Obama’s legacy. His Clinton affiliation is also a minus after an election which many blame on voters associating the Democrats with the failures of Washington, D.C.
Jaime Harrison
Position: Chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party.
Faction Affiliation: Harrison isn’t seen as particularly affiliated with any wing.
Endorsements: Harrison has been endorsed by Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the №3 Democrat in the House of Representatives, as well as Representative John Larson of Connecticut and several Congressmen affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus.
Vision for the Party: Harrison has warned against complacency, which he sees as the cause of Clinton’s loss, as well as a revival of Howard Dean’s successful fifty-state strategy, wherein even Republican-leaning states (like Harrison’s crimson-red South Carolina) receive attention.
Assets: Harrison has the support of many members of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, which is largely Democratic. His support of the fifty-state strategy might also garner supporters.
Liabilities: Democrats have floundered badly in South Carolina, and Harrison has not reversed this. His ties to lobbyists (in particular the unpopular Clinton associate John Podesta) may also dissuade more progressive supporters.
Ray Buckley
Position: Chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
Faction Affiliation: None.
Endorsements: Buckley has been endorsed by New Hampshire’s two Democratic senators, as well as two congresspeople from New Hampshire.
Vision for the Party: Buckley’s vision for the party is based on what he calls “radical” reform. He wants to bring back the “two chairs” system of the 1990s, wherein one party chairperson focuses on nuts-and-bolts issues while the other serves as the party’s public face.
Assets: Buckley is credited for Democrats’ success in New Hampshire, which, once a Republican stronghold, has two Democratic senators and has gone for the Democratic candidate in every year of Buckley’s tenure, despite a very close call in 2016.
Liabilities: Buckley has been dogged by fundraising controversies, which could be a serious impediment in his race. He’s also not seen as much of a change candidate when many Democrats are itching for change, and he lacks support from any major faction.
Sally Boynton Brown
Position: Executive Director of the Idaho Democratic Party.
Faction Affiliation: None.
Endorsements: None.
Vision for the Party: Brown wants to avoid the factional debate she paints Ellison and Perez as representing. “The last thing that our party and especially our country really needs is for us to be having an ideological conversation between Bernie folks and Obama-Hillary folks about whether we’re going to be liberal or whether we’re going to be moderate,” she has said.
Assets: Brown has the support of Idaho’s four DNC members.
Liabilities: There’s no one who thinks that the future of the Democratic Party lies in Boise. She also has no record of accomplishment to point to in Idaho, and no factional affiliation.
Pete Buttigieg
Position: Mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Faction Affiliation: Buttigieg is conservative and is seen as a Democrat in the mold of Tim Ryan or Kander.
Endorsements: He’s been endorsed by Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, as well as several mayors and Indiana politicians.
Vision for the Party: Buttigieg wants to move beyond the election: “We’ve got to transcend the narrative that this is some kind of proxy fight.” He also wants a party focused on the needs of average Americans: “I think there needs to be a voice for communities like mine. And I don’t just mean communities in the Midwest, but communities where the decisions made in Washington actually affect people.” A Buttigieg-led party might also seek more support from the Midwest.
Assets: Buttigieg has been called the “perfect Democratic candidate” by Frank Bruni of the New York Times. He has an impressive profile: he’s from the Midwest, gay, a military veteran, a Harvard graduate, a Rhodes Scholar, and religious. He’s also extremely popular in a Rust Belt town in a county that nearly went for Trump, and was relatively isolated from the damaging Democratic primaries.
Liabilities: His relative conservatism might turn away some potential supporters, and his lack of name recognition might hurt him.
Jehmu Greene
Position: Fox News contributor.
Faction Affiliation: Greene is seen as a progressive.
Endorsements: None.
Vision for the Party: Greene wants to have a party which utilizes the strength of female voters. A first-generation American, she is also active in immigration politics, and may want to see a party more active on that front.
Assets: Greene seems to be pitching herself as the candidate for women, who are an essential Democratic constituency, and it’s not impossible for her to ride some unforeseen wave to victory if the frontrunners drop out.
Liabilities: Greene has exceptionally little name recognition and no institutional support. She is also not first in line if Ellison and Perez falter; she would have to wait for candidates like Buckley and Buttigieg leave the race until she’s taken seriously.
