New York Senator and soon-to-be Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer also supports Ellison and spoke to him Thursday, a source close to Schumer told ABC News. Bernie Sanders is pushing for Rep. Keith Ellison from Minnesota to take over as party chairman.
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Sanders named Ellison to the Democrats’ platform drafting committee this summer after the senator lost the party nomination to Hillary Clinton, who went on to lose the presidency to Donald Trump. The party’s maligned former chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who resigned earlier this year amid leaks of hacked emails, had both roles. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who briefly ran for president in 2016, said he is “taking a hard look” at the DNC chair position.
Ellison is being backed by a big name among the Democratic left: Bernie Sanders, whose relationship with the DNC during the primaries was far from ideal, thinks Ellison will redirect the DNC’s attention away from fundraising and towards working-class families. One is the former Vermont governor and onetime doomed populist presidential candidate Howard Dean, of the Dean Scream.
Rep. Ellison is someone that rank and file Democrats can excitedly support.
Of course, at this point, Ellison is poised to be the most likely selection after he received an endorsement from Sanders, support from Chuck Schumer, and kind words from Elizabeth Warren.
The next DNC chair will be elected by party officials. Perhaps Sanders supporters specifically and progressives generally deserve a much more prominent or even leading voice at the DNC and in other party councils. According to various reports, Chuck Schumer-an establishment-friendly, Wall Street-backed Democrat who might have been Senate majority leader under Hillary Clinton but who is now instead in charge of organizing the small blue firewall left on Capitol Hill-backs Ellison’s candidacy. “I am in for chairman again”, Dean tweeted. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Wikileaks released a series of emails that showed Al Gore’s former campaign manager allegedly provided the Clinton campaign with questions in advance of primary debates and town halls with Sanders. Keith Ellison knows the importance of rejecting the policies of the political establishment and wealthy campaign contributors.
One of Dean’s arguments is that the chairmanship is a full-time job, and Ellison wouldn’t be able to do it while also serving in Congress.
The Democratic Party is long overdue for a change in leadership. The Democratic National Committee may end up being ground zero for the fight, with no clear successor in line to replace interim chairwoman Donna Brazile.
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“You are part of the problem”, he continued, witnesses told the Huffington Post. “You and your friends let this happen, which is going to cut 40 years off my life expectancy”, he added before walking out.
