Immediately after his election over the weekend as head of the Democratic National Committee, former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez selected Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison as the party’s deputy chairman. Both are to the left of mainstream American voters, and they threaten to keep Democrats out of power for the foreseeable future.
Both men tried to project unity and strength after the vote despite a bitter campaign that saw party luminaries line up differently. President Obama, Vice President Biden, former Secretary of State Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder and other “mainstream” Democrats supported Perez, fearing that an Ellison victory would push the party too far to the left and tarnish its image with his history of anti-Semitism.
{mosads}Ellison, in contrast, won support from Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass); Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; and many other union leaders.
The mild difference between the two was obscured by Ellison’s extremism. If he had not run for the post, commentary would focus on how Democrats had selected the most left-wing chair in history at the very moment their party desperately needed to reconnect with voters who once voted for President Obama, but last year voted for President Trump.
Trump expressed his “congratulations” on Twitter after Perez’s win, saying he “could not be happier for him, or for the Republican Party!” Perez tweeted back: “Don’t get too happy. @KeithEllison and I, and Democrats united across the country, will be your worst nightmare.”
But the truth is that it is Democrats who are living the nightmare. They are out of power not only in Washington, but also at every level across the country. Over the course of the Obama administration, Democrats lost over 1,000 legislative and congressional seats. They went from 55 to 48 seats in the Senate, and in the House they plunged from 256 to 194 seats. Democrats control both the governorship and legislature in only five states. Their bench of candidates for future state and federal campaigns, including the presidency, is incredibly shallow.
Working class voters abandoned Democrats in droves last November, responding to Trump’s promises to bring jobs back from overseas and renegotiate trade deals. Instead of responding to those issues, Democrats appear set to instead double down on the kind of identity politics that have generally failed them over the last seven years.
Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan lamented the party’s plight late last year. “We’re not even a national party at this point,” Ryan said. “We have some support on the coasts, but we’ve lost the support of Middle America, and we’ve got to make some changes. So I’m pulling the fire alarm here, because the house is on fire.”
Despite that vague awareness of where they went wrong, Democrats selected two contenders who have no experience at winning voters outside of their own party members. Perez won election just once to a seat on Maryland’s Montgomery County Council; Ellison occupies a congressional seat that Republicans have not won since 1960.
These two political novices – neither of whom has real political experience outside of interacting with their own party’s members – are now tasked with finding a way for Democrats to crawl back from historic lows.
In the aftermath of the Democratic convention, the media sought to play up how unified party members felt about the results of their election. But if the party loses even more seats in 2018 – a scenario that looks increasingly likely – that “unity” isn’t going to last very long. Democrats may want to start looking for leaders who have more experience at winning elections, and adapting to voters, for when that time comes.
John Gilmore is the executive director of Minnesota Media Monitor, a non-partisan group that promotes transparency and accountability in state media, and the host of “Gilmore & Guests” on Twin Cities News Talk, KTLK AM 1130.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.