Democratic leaders are coalescing behind a progressive to become the next chairman of the DNC. Minnesota’s Keith Ellison added another key endorsement from the Democratic Party to become the next DNC chair thanks to outgoing Senate minority leader Harry Reid.
“My friend Keith Ellison is a terrific leader and a strong progressive who knows how to get things done,” Reid said in a statement. “Now is the time for new thinking and a fresh start at the DNC. Now is the time for Keith.”
Reid’s endorsement is a signal to establishment officials who supported Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president that the party must improve their outreach to Rust Belt states that Trump flipped in his favor on Election Day.
After former DNC chairman Howard Dean announced on Thursday that he wants his old job back, Bernie Sanders was the first to publically call for Ellison to lead the DNC and represent the future of the party. Sanders said in a statement that he believes Ellison is the best choice to ensure the Democrats take back Congress in 2018 and the White House in 2020.
“We need a Democratic National Committee led by a progressive who understands the dire need to listen to working families, not the political establishment or the billionaire class. That is why I support Keith Ellison to be the next Chair of the Democratic National Committee,” Sanders said.
The incoming Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer endorsed Ellison to be the next DNC chair on Friday. Matt House, a spokesman for Schumer, told the New York Times that the party needs to learn from their mistakes and work with grassroots organizations by focusing on how to excite the party’s base.
“Without a Democratic White House, Schumer’s view is the DNC is where grassroots organizing in sync with legislative battles should be organized,” he said.
Elizabeth Warren also praised Ellison this week on MSNBC when asked if she’d support him as the new DNC chairman.
“I really, really like Keith,” Warren said. “And I think he’s terrific, and I think he would make a terrific DNC chair.”
After Trump defeated Clinton, a petition was posted at MoveOn.org, the website of a nationwide grassroots group that endorsed Sanders for president, declared Ellison should be the next leader of the DNC and accumulated 28,161 signatures.
“It is abundantly clear that the Democratic Party is in need of new leadership. Deborah Wasserman-Schultz, the former chair, was forced to resign after emails showed her interfering in the primary between Sen. Sanders and Sec. Clinton. The interim chair, Donna Brazile, has recently been found to have done the exact same thing: she leaked questions to Sec. Clinton’s campaign to aid her in her debates against Bernie Sanders.
“Frankly put, the Democratic National Committee’s last two leaders have been mired in controversy and ineptitude, and after giving away full control of the House, the Senate, and the White House to Republicans, it’s time to appoint a truly strong and progressive leader to take the reins.”
The DNC chair is usually appointed by the sitting president. Since the Democrats lost the White House, the party will choose their new DNC chair next year when the state leaders and superdelegates begin the voting process. Will party officials select Ellison, a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who would be the first Muslim DNC chair? Or will the party prefer someone like Dean, the former Vermont governor who cast his superdelegate vote for Clinton? The Democrats have the opportunity to signify what direction the party will take in preparation for future elections and we’ll know soon enough if they learned from their mistakes that cost them the White House.
[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]