According to a report from CNN, Hispanic leaders close to the Clinton campaign are discussing pushing for HUD Secretary Julián Castro to succeed Debbie Wasserman Schultz as Democratic Party chair.
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The Florida congresswoman was in meetings on the eve of the party’s convention with party operatives, who had pressed her to either step down, or to at least to issue a statement addressing leaked emails that appear to show the party was fighting in favor of Clinton’s nomination over Vermont Sen.
On Sunday morning, Sanders called on the chairwoman of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to resign.
In a statement, Wasserman Schultz says she still plans to fulfill her duties formally opening and closing the convention in Philadelphia.
Morelli also added that she wished something similar had happened in the wake of the Nevada state Democratic convention, where Sanders supporters alleged that state party Chairwoman Roberta Lange was biased toward Clinton.
In a statement, Wasserman Schultz said she would “step down as Party Chair at the end of this convention”. I couldn’t be more excited that Democrats are nominating our first woman presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, a friend I have always believed in and know will be a great President. Since the leak, the comittee has come under intense criticism over the contents of those e-mails, which have suggested an organizational bias against the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders during this year’s primary season.
Sanders publicly called for Schultz to resign in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, before the news officially broke. In several of the emails, it’s made clear that the party was less supportive of Sanders during his run opposing Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Last week, Wikileaks released thousands of emails from within the Democratic National Committee. “I don’t think she is qualified to be the chair of the DNC”, Sanders told CNN. But to do that, she must overcome lingering bitterness among supporters of defeated rival Bernie Sanders and a political mess and last-minute leadership shake-up of the party’s own making.
‘We arrived here in Philadelphia with the most inclusive and progressive platform the party has ever proposed and a unified recommendation from the Rules Committee on our path forward as Democrats. She should step down, he said, “not only because of the prejudice I think [the DNC] showed during the campaign but also because I think we need new leadership that will open up that party” to working people, young people and “have the kind of vitality we need”. She said Wasserman Schultz has been a “miserable failure” who needed to be gone.
In the emails, staffers considered ways to hurt Sanders at the polls.
By her mid-40s, Wasserman Schultz had survived breast cancer and was raising three kids – all the while serving in the House and raising millions for the Democratic Party.
Clinton’s campaign meanwhile was pushing the notion that Russian Federation was behind the email leaks, in an effort to help Trump win.
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Worth noting is whom Wasserman Schultz replaced at the DNC five years ago: Tim Kaine, who is now Clinton’s running mate.
