All Hail Tom Perez

Saturday was a big day for Democrats, but it was especially a big day for one Democrat in specific- Tom Perez. The former Labor Secretary fell just short of winning the DNC Chairmanship on ballot one, and won it on ballot two. He takes over a party that was torn apart by last year’s primaries, Wikileaks, and Donald Trump. His job is to take it back to where it was under his old boss, President Obama.

Tom Perez handled things about as well as humanly possible. When he won, he immediately accepted his former rival, Congressman Keith Ellison as his “Deputy Chairman,” a mostly made up title that will give Ellison a larger platform from which to put forward his vision for the party as a national leader. I think this was a smart move. While Ellison did support Bernie Sanders in last year’s primaries, and I didn’t, Ellison has shown himself to be an impressive national leader, who while ambitious, also seems to have a plan for how he is going to get his agenda done. The Democratic Party can use more people with actual plans, and not just ideals, and Ellison seems to fit that bill. I don’t agree with everything he says and wants, but the guy feels like a winner to me.

Beyond just handling Ellison well, Perez did a remarkably good job in avoiding getting into the general spat between the regular liberal Democratic Party and the progressive wing of the party throughout this race. He didn’t get himself stuck fighting against activist groups and people who didn’t support him, and he didn’t mix it up with the likes of the #DemExit Crowd and others who called for progressives to leave the party if they didn’t get their way. Perez kept the door open to work with them in the future.

Tom Perez also pulled both of those feats off while not alienating the base of the party that supported Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and even in some cases Bernie Sanders (90% of his voters united with the party in the Fall, after making their voices heard). Tom Perez doesn’t have to ditch President Obama’s legacy and agenda while he opens the tent to millions more across the country. Perez pulled the “win-win.”

I have no illusions that his job will be easy moving forward. There are still some fringe Alt-Lefters out there who want to tear the party apart to get their way, even primarying incumbent Democrats on tough terrain. We’re not likely to win back the Senate, or even the House, in 2018. There is no Barack Obama type of talent clearly ready for 2020. Our activists are impatient and scared by the thing in the White House. Tom Perez is going to have a tough time as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Fortunately though, I feel like we picked a man who is up to the fight.